Randy Walker had less than a day to revel in his team’s first Big Ten victory in more than a year.
“I felt real good until about one o’clock (on Sunday),” Walker said. “Then I put in the Iowa film, and we’ve got our work cut out for us.”
The Wildcats (3-7, 1-5 Big Ten) take on the No. 6 Hawkeyes (9-1, 6-0) in Iowa City Saturday after defeating Indiana 41-37 over the weekend. Walker said his team will need to show the impressive level of response it demonstrated against the Hoosiers — and take it up a notch — to beat Iowa.
“Responding,” one of Walker’s buzzwords, has been a point of concern for NU this season.
The Cats let close contests against Ohio State and Minnesota slip away early this season and were barely competitive in games against Penn State and Purdue the following two weeks.
Walker said a couple of big plays at pivotal moments could have changed the outcomes of those games.
“I’ve been very disappointed sometimes this season with the way we responded,” Walker said. “We started going south, and that ride stayed south. And we all know those games and how it felt and how it looked. This week, in spite of (many mistakes), we responded.”
Reacting positively and making big plays should be the norm, senior cornerback Raheem Covington said.
“That’s our job,” he said. “That hasn’t always been the case this season. But the D-line played well, linebackers were flying around. … Guys just stepped up. We knew if we got the ball back to the offense, we were going to win the game.”
Walker was particularly impressed with the special teams play Saturday, although he said it was “overshadowed by the obvious” — the Cats’ subpar kicking game.
Placekicker David Wasielewski missed his seventh consecutive field goal Saturday before being pulled in the second half for punter Brian Huffman. Walker said he is unsure who will handle the kicking responsibilities against Iowa.
“I really don’t have an answer,” Walker said after a long pause. “Obviously, (sitting Wasielewski) isn’t what we want. But we’ve had some big misses for a lot of games now.”
The non-kicking aspects of the special teams’ performance were key to the win, Walker said after watching the game tape.
In particular, Walker was impressed with wide receiver Ashton Aikens’ quick response to Indiana’s fake punt at the beginning of the third quarter. Aikens’ tackle prevented the first down, and NU capitalized on the field position by scoring a touchdown two plays later.
“Ashton Aikens is a big-time player on special teams,” Walker said. “He made some catches Saturday, but that stop on that fake punt — that’s out the gate if he doesn’t make that play. He looked like a defensive player instead of a wide receiver. He filled that hole up and made a big-time stop.”
Aikens, who had surgery on a broken finger early in the season, has been a staple on special teams all season. He is still getting back into the receiving rotation as his injury heals. He had two catches for 14 yards on Saturday.
The Cats combined for 151 return yards. Down 6-0 in the first quarter, Jeff Backes used an impressive spin move and returned the Indiana kickoff 73 yards to the Indiana 18. NU scored its first touchdown of the game two plays later.
“We watched the tape on Sunday, and Roger Jordan and Louis Ayeni blocked somebody (on the return) for something like 55 yards and 14 seconds,” Backes said. “When you have people (blocking) like that, it makes it easy on the returner.”
