Of all the big plays senior quarterback Brett Basanez made Saturday, of all the times he made Walker smile, one particular third-quarter play still stands out in Walker’s mind. In fact, the way he tells it, little pleased the NU coach more than seeing his star quarterback cut through the line, sprint down the open field, eye the end zone – then trip and fall flat on his face at the 4-yard line.

“I love that play so much,” Walker said with a laugh. “For those of you who know Brett and his confidence level, that (play is) gonna serve me well. Let me just say that. That play will serve me well for a long, long time.”

Walker said the play, which Basanez quickly laughed off and followed with a four-yard touchdown strike to senior wide receiver Mark Philmore, wasn’t an accident at all.

“I think he just wanted to throw a touchdown pass. You don’t get any credit when you’re a quarterback and (you) run for a touchdown – He’s a stat hound, you know, and so he obviously (thought), ‘I’m going to come up a little short up here so we can launch the next one and I’ll get a touchdown pass.'”

Testing

“Or.”

That’s the word that separates junior Cory Dious and sophomore Deante Battle at the right cornerback spot on Northwestern’s depth chart.

That word means that when junior cornerback Marquice Cole takes the field Saturday at Purdue, it’s anyone’s guess who’ll line up on his opposite side.

“It’ll probably be a Thursday decision,” Walker said. “And it might change (again).”

Walker said Dious got most of the work in Wednesday practice, but the battle continues to be day-to-day.

Dious said the battle helps the two cornerbacks as they continue to develop and try to fill the hole left by senior Jeff Backes, who left the program in July due to a lingering shoulder injury.

“Competing is going to make you get better,” Dious said.

During the week Walker said all the defensive backs slowly are improving but they aren’t where they need to be . The Cats are No. 115 nationally in pass defense and gave up four John Stocco touchdown passes in Saturday’s 51-48 win against No. 14 Wisconsin.

Notes

Freshman Tyrell Sutton, the nation’s No. 2 rusher, was held out of most goal-line situations Wednesday. “You get beat up,” Walker said. “I mean, they beat the hell out of him. Nothing bad, but this is what happens when you run the ball 30 times.” – Freshman defensive line Corey Wootton will miss his second straight game and Walker said he will see somebody about the neck strain he reaggravated against Penn State – Junior defensive tackle Trevor Schultz will be back in the starting lineup Saturday. Freshman John Gill made his second-career start last week in place of the banged-up Schultz, who came off the bench to make two tackles against Wisconsin.

Reach Patrick Dorsey at [email protected].