Damien Anderson’s face will find its way onto most every piece of Northwestern paraphernalia next season, from the football media guide right down to the promotional mousepad. In pregame tailgates, his rushing stats will be toasted more than the team itself.

And above all, his name will sit at the top of almost everyone’s preseason Heisman trophy list.

But somewhere amid Anderson’s Heisman hype, NU’s record-holder in single-season total yardage has largely been forgotten.

While the media and message boards have been calculating Anderson’s odds as a trophy winner, Wildcats quarterback Zak Kustok has quietly been upping his own game and working to keep NU’s no-huddle spread offense a pass ahead of the competition.

“As long as the coaches and my teammates know that I’m working as hard as I can, it doesn’t matter,” Kustok said.

The attention makes little difference to third-year NU coach Randy Walker, either.

“That’s what the press and the media and the fans do, and that’s great,” Walker said. “Shoot, I’m all excited about the opportunity to have an All-American type player here. (But) Zak Kustok is as big in what we’ve been able to turn around here as anybody.”

The Cats have no intention of straying from the no-huddle spread offense that made them the most prolific scoring team in the Big Ten last year.

Instead, Kustok has spent his spring leading a squad of returning starters in perfecting a style of play that is rapidly catching on throughout the conference. In the past couple of seasons, the spread has been called the most significant new arrival to the college scene in 30 years. With the exception of Penn State and Ohio State, newcomers to NU’s schedule this season, all of the Cats’ Big Ten opponents will have sampled Walker’s offense.

While staying at the forefront of the trend, Kustok and his teammates must adjust last year’s flashy new offense just enough to keep it successful despite losing its novelty.

“As long as we get better, teams aren’t going to be able to catch up to us,” Kustok said. “If we stay at the same level we were last year, I’m sure they’re going to be able to. But we continued to improve over the spring.”

The entire offensive line is returning, with Lance Clelland and Jeff Roehl back at guard, Leon Brockmeier and Mike Souza at tackle and Austin King at center. And although wide receiver Teddy Johnson will be missed, Sam Simmons leads a core of talented receivers.

Kustok cites a stronger passing game, and Walker added that his team has worked on firing the longball.

But the most significant improvement may be the tempo. NU will be bypassing the huddle and shuttling to the next play even faster than last season – in which the typical break between plays was about 10-15 seconds – leaving opposing defenses less time to prepare.

The opposition may now have a stack of tapes on NU’s offense in the video library, but the Cats are hoping to catch them off guard and out of breath once the game actually starts.

“Definitely, teams last year got a little shot at the no-huddle from us, and I think they know what to expect a little more,” backup quarterback Tony Stauss said. “But the good part about this offense is it keeps teams on their toes all the time – we’ve always got an answer for whatever they give us.”

Stauss is doing his part to improve the offense by applying a little heat to Kustok. The redshirt freshman has impressed Walker in the first two spring scrimmages, completing 15 of 20 passes for 242 yards and four touchdowns – throwing to both the first- and second-team receivers.

But while Kustok preaches the importance of a little healthy competition, he insists he isn’t feeling any pressure.

You can’t blame the freshman for trying, though.

“I told Tony from the beginning that if he doesn’t come in here with the goal and the objective to beat out Zak Kustok, then he’s wasting his time,” Walker said. “Quite frankly, that will only happen if Zak lets it. And I don’t think Zak’s going to let it.”

Kustok has to hang on to his job if he’s to take advantage of the depleted quarterback scene in the Big Ten. Purdue’s Drew Brees has graduated. Indiana’s Antwaan Randle El will try his hand at wide receiver and Michigan’s Drew Henson has turned in his shoulder pads for a baseball glove and a chance to play with the Yankees.

While everyone is scoping out Anderson’s competition, Kustok is poised to become the best in the conference in his own right.

A year ago, Kustok was projecting himself as one of the best signal callers in the Big Ten. And at the time, he was receiving a fair amount of attention – although it was more frequently in the form of a snicker than a compliment.

He was seemingly the cocky kid, the prognosticator offering improbable visions not only for his own immediate future, but for the future of the Cats, calling them a bowl-bound team and a Big Ten champion.

“When I said that last summer, I truly believed everything that I said,” Kustok said. “Everyone kind of laughed at me. This year I’m not going to need to come out and say we’re going to make it to a bowl game and win the Big Ten.”