pat fitzgerald

Things Discussed:

  • HTTV: the only 2023 Michigan preview magazine advocating wheel routes to Edwards and Loveland! Digital Edition, Kindle Edition, Print Interest List.
  • Pat Fitzgerald & Northwestern: Seth recounts getting hazed at his fraternity, which ended those practices in 1999.
  • Who for Northwestern? Brian says they should go retread. Seth thinks they can do better: There are worse lives than being rich in Evanston, Illinois.
  • NIL: Why they can't make all of the donations tax-deductible: Some of the schools were sloppier than HAIL! but the fundamental principle is if you're running a charity, the purpose has to be CHARITABLE.
  • Seven collectives coming together: Is it a union? Call it what you want; industries always have organizations within them to create leverage to benefit them. The big pie is the TV money, but the collectives right now are just trying to bring some kind of quality and standardization to their products.

[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]

Mitchell and Joseph are two of the few remaining pieces from last year's defense [AJ Mast/AP]

Previously: Northwestern Offense 

Given that Northwestern's offense has always been a weak spot under Pat Fitzgerald, it's the typically stingy defenses that have transported the Wildcats to being respectable. Last season was no different, as Northwestern posted a defense that ranked 3rd in SP+ and allowed just 15.9 points per game, helping to get the Wildcats to their second B1G championship game in three seasons. The offseason saw heavy turnover on that side of the ball, not the least of which came at the top, where the brain behind the great Fitzgerald defenses, Mike Hankwitz, called it quits and retired at the age of 73. The transition to a new DC has been bumpy, and the losses of top tacklers Blake Gallagher and Paddy Finisher, in addition to first round draft pick corner Greg Newsome II, have taken their toll. The result is a defense that has struggled mightily against higher-end competition, giving up 38 to Michigan State and 56 to Nebraska. So, today's FFFF will be looking at where the (many) weak points are, and how Josh Gattis should draw up a game plan to rip open the purple and black and coast to an easy victory tomorrow. 

The Film: For this one, we're using the Michigan State game. As noted in our last piece, NU has really only played two good(ish) teams, Nebraska and MSU. Of those two teams, the Spartans' offense more closely resembles Michigan's, given how heavily Nebraska builds its offense around Adrian Martinez's legs, something you absolutely cannot say about Michigan and Cade McNamara's legs. Thus, we're rolling with the MSU-NW game from week one. It is quite a bit ago, but the personnel is largely still the same and in totality, it should be useful footage. For reference, Michigan State won the game 38-17 after jumping out to a 21-0 lead early on (not unlike the way Nebraska blitzed the 'Cats out of the gate). 

Personnel: We have fixed the problem with making the image big, so it should work now if you click it

[NOTE: your attempts at cyberbullying have worked and you have beaten Seth into submission. McNamara is no longer cyan'd]

Northwestern's defensive line sees a good amount of rotation. Adetomiwa Adebawore starts at one end position opposite Samdup Miller, but Jeffery Pooler Jr. also has plenty of snaps under his belt. Sean McLaughlin is the fourth option and he gets on the field too. The problem is, none of these players are good. It's a similar story on the interior. Joe Spivak and Jeremy Meiser are the starters on Seth's diagram, though Trevor Kent has moved ahead of Meiser on the depth chart that Northwestern posts. Those three get the lion's share of the work inside. Between these seven linemen, four will see the field on nearly every play, with the 'Cats running a strictly base 4-3, rarely deviating from having four down linemen on the field. 

The LB level contains the last remaining remnant of 2020's Irish Law Firm, Chris Bergin, who we took mercy on by making him the only LB not to be cyan'd. His compatriots, Peter McIntyre and Bryce Gallagher, were not as lucky. Those three had gotten the bulk of the snaps at the position throughout the season up to this point, but some recent depth chart changes have shaken things up. Khalid Jones is now listed as the starter at MLB on the depth chart, ahead of Gallagher. But since Jones only has 78 snaps through 6 games, we kept him on the bench of this diagram. Don't be surprised if Jones indeed is the new starter on Saturday, though. 

The secondary contains AJ Hampton and Cameron Mitchell as the starting corners who play nearly every play. Rod Heard is the nickel, getting plenty of work each week, but he is not quite the every-down fixture of Mitchell and Hampton. Coco Azema and Brandon Joseph start at safety, with the latter entering this campaign with gargantuan expectations (to be discussed later). Those two starters have each logged a lot of time, though Azema plays a tad less than Joseph, sometimes being lifted for the nickel, or #3 safety Bryce Jackson

[AFTER THE JUMP: Has this defense ever seen a zone read?]

Ryan Hilinski gets some discussion in this piece [Joshua Hoffman, Daily Northwestern]

Welcome back to FFFF. After a one week hiatus for the bye week, this column is rested and ready, much like (hopefully) Michigan's football team. This week's opposition is the Northwestern Wildcats, who sit this season at 3-3, having beaten the bad teams on their schedule, while not being terribly competitive against the better ones. For years Pat Fitzgerald has exceeded expectations at Northwestern in spite of a dreadful offense, one that seems to be about as bad as usual this year from a bird's eye view. Is that the case when we look at it up close? Let's take a look: 

The Film: For this piece focused on the offense, we're using Northwestern's game against Nebraska from Oct. 2. Northwestern has played (in my opinion) only two good(ish) teams in Nebraska and Michigan State. Of those two, Nebraska's defense is a better schematic fit when making comparisons to Michigan. If you remember the FFFF on Nebraska's defense from a couple weeks ago, the Huskers run a 3-4 where the OLB's are essentially DE's, much like Michigan. And considering that the quality of the two defenses are in the neighborhood of each other, Nebraska provides about as good of a replica of Michigan's defense as we can get for this exercise. One thing to know about this game, though, is that it was a massacre: the Huskers won 56-7 and had pulled the starters on offense by the mid-third quarter. Important to keep that in mind. 

Personnel: Seth's chart.

Northwestern's QB carousel has landed on Ryan Hilinski, a transfer from South Carolina, after first cycling through Hunter Johnson and Andrew Marty. Hilinski has played better than Johnson, something that seemed obvious to me in the summer, yet it took Fitzgerald until the team was 1-2 to land on the right guy. The devastating injury to RB Cam Porter in the offseason has left Evan Hull atop the RB depth chart, followed closely by short yardage back Andrew Clair, as well as Fr Anthony Tyus III (a Portage, MI, native). Those three have combined for nearly 90% of the non-QB carries this season. 

At receiver, Northwestern's most favorite target is Stephon Robinson Jr., a Kansas transfer and a smaller slot type. On the outside, the most dangerous target is the similarly sized Malik Washington, a credible deep threat. Bryce Kirtz, who size-wise is larger than the other two mentioned receivers, is also a factor on the outside, with 19 catches through 6 games. The receiving options drop off a cliff quickly after those three. Hull and Clair have combined for 15 catches, mostly through screens and checkdowns over the middle. The 'Cats don't get a ton of production from the TE position, but Charlie Mangieri has eight catches for 50 yards, while Trey Pugh has seven catches of his own. 

On the offensive line, Northwestern builds the line around LT Peter Skoronski, a 6'4" sophomore who entered the season with enormous expectations (we will discuss that in depth later). Ethan Wiederkher starts opposite Skoronski on the right side, while Josh Priebe and Charlie Schmidt start at the guard spots, left and right, respectively. In terms of experience, the right side of NU's line is much more veteran than the left side, though the left side is more talented. At center, RS Sr Sam Gerak is the old man of the line and tries to hold the whole thing together. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: So how bad is Northwestern's offense this year?]