At long last, Randy Walker was cornered. The after-effects of last Saturday’s backyard beating had worn off. He wasn’t coming into a news conference moments after giving a pick-me-up to his downtrodden football team. It was Monday, Purdue was nearing, and now was the time to admit that his defense has a fundamental problem.
Sure, the players wouldn’t like it. Good. That’s called motivation. The only time the defenders have proven themselves this year was when their backs were against the wall and adrenaline took them from play to play. Against Ohio State, they contained an offense that was designed to beat teams with weak defensive lines and poor tackling — teams exactly like NU.
After Ohio State, Walker tried to maintain the momentum by refusing to accept moral victories. No dice. The NU ‘D’ had two catastrophic performances. So the time was right for another dose of motivation, a stronger formula aimed directly at their guts.
So what does Walker say to get the attention?
“If they aren’t going to call holding in this league, we will give up that much again.”
What’s this? Mr. Fire and Brimstone blaming a 49-0 out-everything on the stripes?
“Our kids will probably be shocked because I’m usually on their butts and am an accountability-and-no-excuse guy,” he added.
He’s right, NU’s players will be shocked. But for all the wrong reasons. They needed a swift kick in the rear to make sure last week’s performance was an isolated lapse. Instead, they got a message saying it’s OK to make excuses. And Walker is not the only coach doing so.
Joe Paterno’s childish outburst after Penn State’s loss to Michigan cleared the way for other Big Ten coaches to complain about officiating. On his radio show Monday, Illinois coach Ron Turner defended Walker, then spent a few minutes whining about the calls in Fighting Illini games.
Picture this: Two coaches with a combined record of 4-11 scapegoating the officials. Yeesh. What ever happened to accountability?
Walker didn’t need to berate his defense. Lord knows they take enough shots on Saturday afternoons. But acknowledging the problem is most often the first step to solving it.
Thing is, it’s not like Walker is averse to telling things like they are, especially after blowout losses. In the last game of the 1999 season, Walker’s first year as coach, NU was crunched 29-7 by Turner’s Illinois squad.
After the game, a fuming Walker had this to say: “I refuse to accept anything that resembles this again.”
Simple, short and direct. Get the point across and move on.
That’s all Walker had to do on Monday, but he chose to deflect the blame and found the easiest target.
This defense is not good enough or experienced enough to be correct all its problems in one week. But players can get angry, and anger can go a long way on Saturdays.
This week, defensive end Ray Bogenrief and defensive tackle Matt Anderson told me they didn’t pay attention to the newspaper headlines or the quasi-friendly ribbing on SportsCenter after Penn State. But when asked to explain the defense’s problem, neither man had an answer.
NU players can’t explain why. It drives them crazy. So Walker goes ahead and provides a explanation for the part of the problem.
Missed holding calls don’t account for 40.1 points a game and 333.8 rushing yards a game. You can’t blame the refs when you score 42 points and lose. They weren’t the ones missing nearly every open-field tackle on Larry Johnson, an average Big Ten running back.
Officials make mistakes, and NU has certainly been burned on several occasions, namely Mark Philmore’s touchdown grab that was ruled incomplete in a very winnable game against Ohio State.
Walker kept mum after that game, which was the right move. He needed to speak up Monday, but his message didn’t ignite any fires under a defense in dire need of a spark.
