Randy Walker pauses and says his defensive end’s performance has been solid this season.
At 6-foot-4 and 275 pounds, Salem Simon — “Zeus” to his teammates — is the senior member on an otherwise wet-behind-the-ears defensive line that has struggled to stay healthy this season.
A compliment for anyone on this line is difficult to muster — but Simon has earned one.
Walker knows Simon has struggled with injuries throughout his college career, but the left end is an invaluable leader to Northwestern’s inexperienced defense.
“I think he’s learning every week,” Walker says. “And even though he’s a senior, I still feel his best football is ahead of him.”
Doctors have rebuilt both of his knees — one while he was a true freshman and the other during spring workouts after his sophomore season. Making matters worse was NU’s play during those years — the team only won 11 games in his first three seasons.
Simon’s second surgery and recovery kept him sidelined for the first two games of 2000.
“Like a lot of people who have gone through some pretty serious injuries in the past, he’s a guy who is still learning how to play,” Walker says. “Those things have a long-term effect. Not in your psychological approach to the game, but in how well you play. I think he’s still seeing his growth and improvement as a football player.”
Simon doesn’t talk about the details of the injuries — some things are just too painful.
“I try not to think about it,” he says.
But the reminders are everywhere.
This season, Wildcats starting defensive tackles Pete Chapman and Pete Konopka went down early with nagging injuries. And backup defensive end Matt Anderson may be out for the season after hurting his knee against Penn State.
SiMonday, who moved from tackle to end before the season, understands the nature of playing on the front line and knows he can’t keep his head in the sand.
“It’s usually like that at the D-line,” Simon says. “It’s a brutal position.”
And none of this is new. Bad backs and twisted knees have kept the Cats soft in the middle every year since Simon first came to Evanston in 1997.
But Simon admits that the team has never been this thin before.
On Saturday, the Cats will face Purdue with a redshirt freshman and a true freshman playing defensive tackle against a veteran offensive line.
Linebacker Kevin Bentley, who will line up behind the youngsters, knows how important Simon’s leadership is to the Cats’ line.
“He’s definitely a leader,” Bentley says. “Especially because he has to get that group going. But he’s a leader to all of us.”
Simon says the loss of starters almost creates a domino effect on the team.
“We like to rotate guys in, so everybody’s going as hard as they can,” he says. “But when guys start going hard is when you start losing guys. It’s the nature of the position. They don’t intend to get hurt — it just happens.”
The injury factor kept Simon beating his drums instead of ballcarriers while he was growing up in Cleveland. His mother kept him away from football until he was in eighth grade.
“This just gave me another passion, another hobby,” Simon says.
But once he started playing, things fell into place quickly. His Benedictine High School team went 12-1 and won the state championship his senior year.
Simon is one of a handful of NU players who walked down the aisle in cap and gown at graduation last June. He’s currently taking an advertising class to finish up his degree.
The added free time as a fifth-year senior allows Simon to visit the team’s trainers to check up on his nicks and bruises.
“I get to watch more film on opponents — scout them out a little better than you usually would,” he adds.
And NU’s opponents are worth studying.
Simon and the defense have been the scapegoat for many of the team’s woes this season. NU gave up 38 points and 213 rushing yards to Penn State, one of the worst offenses in college football.
Still, Simon has been through ups and downs throughout his career at NU — this year’s struggles are nothing he hasn’t seen before.
“I thought (NU) would be a great place to go to keep winning,” he says. “It didn’t happen that way when I got here, but I look forward to leaving a winner.”
