By Steve SilverThe Daily Northwestern
Although Saturday’s season finale against Illinois has been dubbed senior day, this weekend’s game will provide more of a glimpse into Northwestern’s future.
NU, one of the youngest teams in the Big Ten, will start 11 players that are sophomores or younger this weekend – a bright spot amid a season overshadowed by lost opportunities.
“You would like to say it’s great recruiting, but I think it is just players who are very special and talented,” coach Pat Fitzgerald said.
With injuries to several key seniors, including linebacker Nick Roach, safety Bryan Heinz, cornerback Marquice Cole and “superback” Erryn Cobb, younger players have had opportunities to gain valuable playing time as the Cats begin to look toward the future.
Freshman cornerback Sherrick McManis is one of those players. McManis, who has started the last three games in place of Cole, has recorded 22 total tackles and one interception. He also is second on the team in all-purpose yards with 566.
“There are a lot of good freshmen in this league,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s unbelievable. I think there are a lot of talented kids today. We are all playing a lot more kids early.”
McManis is joined defensively by two redshirt freshmen who have made their presence felt in their first full years of starting on the defensive line.
Defensive end Corey Wootton has totaled 47 tackles, 4.5 sacks and two interceptions.
Defensive tackle Adam Hahn has racked up 25 total tackles and 3.5 tackles for losses.
Young players like McManis, Wootton and Hahn who make immediate impacts are not new at NU.
As a freshman in 2005, running back Tyrell Sutton rushed for 1,474 yards and 16 touchdowns.
Sutton and the rest of the Wildcats’ underclassmen are models of a trend that Fitzgerald said he noticed developing in recruiting nationwide, as more high school athletes specialize in year-round football-specific training.
“When we go down to Texas, and a kid has been in spring practice every year that he has been in high school and (in) an off-season program that models a college program, how much better is a young man going to be in comparison with a kid here in Chicago who plays three sports and has played three sports his whole life?” Fitzgerald asked. “That is the whole dilemma in recruiting … You are really taking a calculated risk just analyzing their potential.”
The Cats will graduate 13 seniors this year, six of whom will start on Saturday. The future appears ripe for victory with the majority of the starting lineup returning next season and a non-conference schedule against the likes of Duke, Northeastern, Eastern Michigan and Nevada.
SPECIAL RETURN?
Following the Cats 54-10 thrashing last week, Fitzgerald openly criticized the performance of the special teams – a unit he coaches himself.
Although both kicker Joel Howells and punter Slade Larscheid will play their final game in an NU uniform Saturday, Fitzgerald has directed an added focus at practice to improving special teams.
“All I can do is come back here and get competition going to get guys to perform,” Fitzgerald said about the possibility of changing the special teams lineup. “We are going to try to put guys in pressure situations to know exactly what our opponents will try to do.”
Fitzgerald said he was pleased with the performance of Howells, who averages 60.6 yards per kickoff, booting 14 of 39 kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks.
But Howells has made just 6 of 10 field goals, including a crucial miss in a 41-38 loss to Michigan State and two missed kicks in the Cats 31-21 loss at Nevada.
Howells’ kicking counterpart, Larscheid, has not had as much success at punting.
Larscheid ranked 79th nationally with an average of 37.8 yards per punt. He also has had two punts blocked, one of which was returned for a touchdown last week against Ohio State.
“We had a breakdown in protection that cannot happen and is inexcusable,” Fitzgerald said. “I thought Slade has targeted the ball really well … We need to just give him the opportunity with protection to get the ball where he wants.”
BACH
