The most publicized video clip of Northwestern’s season thus far is not a highlight of the team’s opening day victory at Kansas or a shot from home losses to Air Force and Miami (Ohio). Instead, it was a post-play celebration of defensive line coach Jay Peterson against the Falcons.
Peterson ran onto the field after the Wildcats recovered a fumble in the third quarter. NU says he was on the field for a celebratory hug with linebacker John Pickens when video clips show Peterson’s elbow make contact with Air Force quarterback Chance Harridge’s neck.
Harridge reacted by punching the coach in the side and was ejected from the game.
The Falcons’ athletic department contacted NU later that night, and Air Force sent tapes of the incident to NU and the Big Ten conference because they thought the coach intentionally made contact with the player.
NU athletic director Mark Murphy and the Big Ten concluded that Peterson didn’t mean to make contact, and Peterson faced no disciplinary action.
“I lost a lot of respect for the people involved with this,” NU coach Randy Walker said after practice last week.
“I’m very disappointed with how the Air Force Academy and some of the national media handled it. Nothing is more wrong than to question a man’s character.”
Walker said when he watched the film “there was no doubt” that the contact was accidental, and against Duke it appeared the assistant coach had learned his lesson.
Peterson started running toward NU safety Brian Heinz to celebrate a Cats’ third-down stop on Saturday, but he put his hands up and stopped himself before reaching the players.
Walker said the incident bothered his longtime assistant, who didn’t talk to the media about the controversy.
“There’s no man of higher caliber or with greater character than Jay,” Walker said. “He was really devastated by all of this.”
Walker doesn’t think the play had an affect on his team’s performance, but after the incident the Wildcats’ play took a turn for the worse.
At the time, NU had a 21-7 lead over Air Force heading into the fourth-quarter, and the team was looking for its second straight win after a 28-20 victory over Kansas in the pouring rain the previous week.
Following the incident, NU self-destructed in the 22-21 loss to the Falcons and suffered a 44-14 drubbing by Miami (Ohio) the following week.
NU quarterback Brett Basanez threw three interceptions in the last five minutes to propel Air Force’s late rally, and the Cats admitted that they came out flat against Miami at home.
“The fourth quarter was pretty bad in the Air Force game,” Basanez said after Saturday’s victory.
“And against Miami we didn’t play NU football.”
NU football was controlling the ball with the running game and good defense for the first seven quarters this season. The Cats outscored (49 to 27) and outgained (873 yards to 684) the opposition in the first seven quarters of the season and had a plus-four turnover margin.
During that span, the defense, which gave up 41.1 points per game last year, allowed only two touchdowns.
“I believed all along we could be a pretty good defense,” Walker said after the Duke game. “There was a blip in the road last week, but three of the first four weeks we played awfully well.”
During the last quarter of the Air Force game and in the loss to Miami, the Cats were outscored (14 to 59), outgained (360 yards to 595) and had a negative-three turnover margin.
NU had only 41 yards on the ground while Miami quarterback Ben Roethlisberger dissected the Cats defense as he threw for 353 yards and three touchdowns.
“Against Miami our pass rush was not good,” defensive tackle Colby Clark said. “But nobody played well.”
