We are in the home stretch of our series of Spring Football previews here at MTB for the week as tomorrow brings the first of the 3 weekends of games across the Big Ten. Starting things off today are the Northwestern Wildcats.
The 2011 season was one that a lot of Wildcat fans saw as a chance to contend for a Big Ten Championship and at the very least for the Legends Division title, but that didn’t pan out thanks to a longer than expected absence from star QB Dan Persa. As a result of his health issues Northwestern finished next to last in the Legends Division and a losing record overall.
Realistically the teams issues had very little to do with the offense and more to do with a defense that couldn’t stop anybody and couldn’t get any pressure on the opposing teams. The Wildcat defense gave up 20 or more points to their opponents 8 times last year in 12 games.
2012 brings about a young, but improving roster of players that could see Northwestern surprise people that aren’t looking at them as a challenge with all the players that are gone. Spring practice has been huge for the coaching staff of Pat Fitzgerald to see exactly where players are and where they need to point them to be come fall camp.
The albatross hanging over this programs neck is the number of bowl game wins: ZERO. The players know that it’s there and are using it as motivation, but know there are steps to take to get to that goal in the first place and it all begins this spring. So, what storylines and players are to be watched on this team?
2011 Record: 6-7 (3-5) – 5th in Legends Division
Postseason: Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas – L27-33 vs. Texas A&M
Head Coach: Pat Fitzgerald (40-36, 6 years at Northwestern/Overall)
Returning Starters: 13 (5 offense, 6 defense, 2 special teams)
Spring Game Info: April 14th @ noon CT (BTN.com & BTN2Go)
Spring Outlook: One thing that will be different this year is that the Northwestern Spring game won’t be a traditional Spring game, more of a controlled scrimmage according to Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald.
Last year it all started and ended with the health of Dan Persa. With his rehab taking a bit longer than at first thought it allowed the Wildcats to try and find a quality quarterback for the future. After a few games it became apparent that Kain Colter could be that guy and come this Spring he’s now QB1 on the team, but it won’t be handed to him either as he’ll still compete with Zack Oliver and Trevor Siemian, both freshman (Siemian a redshirt).
Unfortunately for the Wildcats he was also their best running back last season, rushing for 654 yards and 9TD’s. Colter was also the 3rd best wide receiver on the team with 43 receptions for 466 yards and 3TD’s. Overall Colter accounted for 1,793 yards of total offense and 18TD’s. So they will need to find a way to replace nearly off of the 1,000 plus yards of rushing and receiving yards.
Helping out that situation should be a very talented, but young group of wide receivers. The Wildcats got some great news in the offseason as former 5 star recruit Kyle Prater transferred in from USC to be closer to home. It’s still not determined if he’ll be available this fall as he’s awaiting a waiver from the NCAA, but this spring experience can only be helpful no matter what happens there. He will headline a group that includes Christian Jones and Tony Jones. The Jones’ are a group of wide receivers that both head coach Pat Fitzgerald and Kain Colter mentioned by name in the teleconference this week as standing out, so if their good enough to come out of their mouths as players to watch, I’ll be watching indeed.
On the other hand the running back position should be a wide open competition with Colter focusing completely on being a QB. Sure, he’ll rush some, but expecting him to be the leading rusher isn’t a recipe for success for this team in any way. Watching this position group may be more important than the WR group, but the names aren’t nearly as known.
Defensively there are a lot of improvements needed and it all starts up front for this team. They finished last year dead last in team sacks with only 17 as a team (just one more than the B1G individual leader). It’s a very young group and they lost Queinten Smith to injury this spring, so their down to just one returning starter. Spring practice and the controlled scrimmage should really help to separate the groups of players moving forward or staying the same.
They also are only returning two of their top six leading tacklers from a season ago. Thankfully one of them is leading tackler and 2nd leading interceptor, Safety Ibraheim Campbell, who had 100 tackles and 2INT’s on the year. He’ll be joined by a new partner in the backfield as graduated is their best overall player on defense last year, Brian Peters (92 tackles, 5INT’s).
On the defensive side of the ball watching the cornerbacks will be of huge importance as gone are the two starters from last season, Jordan Mabin and Jeravin Matthews. One of the specific players to watch out for is Nick VanHoose. He’s a small (6’0″, 185lbs.) corner, but is one of the fastest players on this team. His technique and communication progress will be a key to him possibly earning a starting spot come the fall camp at Wisconsin-Parkside.
It will also be important for the returning linebacking corp to show they are more aggressive and more physical as their improvement can only help the players in front and behind them in 2012.
While it won’t be a full fledged scrimmage on Saturday the controlled practice will be just as equally telling as to who’s progressing and how, so it should still be worth firing up your laptop and checking it out.
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