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In case you're interested in seeing what the other HC are saying, I'll post the notes as available:
An Interview With:
NORTHWESTERN
COACH PAT FITZGERALD
THE MODERATOR: We're joined by
Coach Pat Fitzgerald.
Coach, an opening statement and we'll
take questions.
COACH FITZGERALD: Thanks, Doug,
appreciate it. Obviously we've digressed this year.
We miss Julie already.
Good morning, everyone. It's great to be
with you. Obviously we'd like to thank everyone for
your support for Big Ten football and Northwestern
as a football program.
It's football season and here we go again.
I'd be remiss without starting my remarks on behalf
of the Northwestern football family of expressing
our thoughts and prayers and condolences to
Adam Rittenberg and his family in this difficult,
challenging time. Adam, we're thinking about you
and your family and hope to be there with you.
I'd like to welcome our two new coaches in
Darrell Hazell of Purdue and Gary Andersen of
Wisconsin. Looking forward to competing against
their teams. I've gotten to know the gentlemen
since I was in recruiting season, and now
throughout our meetings throughout the spring and
summer and would like to welcome them on behalf
of our coaches. And obviously it's a great time of
the year.
I don't know if you guys or anyone is
charting how many times a coach up here says
"excited," but I think across the country every
coach is really in anticipation for two weeks from
now when we get together with our teams and
really start to work hard on progressing and
building off of what we accomplished in the spring
and then obviously what our young men have been
able to do throughout the summer.
Exciting time in our program's history to be
off the heels of our longest bowl streak in modern
time, of one bowl successful season, and to have
the number of young men we have coming back in
13 from a starting standpoint gives us great
confidence we'll hopefully be able to take the next
step.
We've got 12 terrific seniors embarking on
their last season, three of which are with us here
today and throughout the media days in Kain
Colter, our great quarterback; Venric Mark, our
tailback; and Tyler Scott, our defensive end.
We have a difficult schedule to go on the
road to open against a difficult Cal team, and
Coach Dykes did a great job at Louisiana Tech
and come back to Syracuse is going to be a
challenge.
As we rewind, very proud of the success
we've had, five straight bowl seasons. But as I
said as I put the Gator Bowl trophy up above my
head, we're just getting started at Northwestern.
We have a lot of work. Talk is talk, and now it's
about time for action, and looking forward to
getting back with our guys here in a few weeks.
So with that, questions?
Q. Not the most serious one here, but
how is your hip? I know you had some
surgery. How is it going? And pretty sure it
won't affect your coaching this year?
COACH FITZGERALD: Thanks for asking
about my health. I was cleared about two weeks
ago. I'll be full go for camp. Questionable as an
athlete, but ready to go.
Q. You talked about the difficult
schedule. You guys start with three opponents
all breaking in new head coaches. How does
that kind of adjust how you guys prepare for
them in the summer?
COACH FITZGERALD: Our schedule,
there's no question we're not afraid to play anyone.
We went into the season last year playing three
BCS teams in the nonconference and had great
success. Originally on the schedule we had three
BCS teams this year, and obviously that changed
and now we're playing two BCS teams to begin.
Anytime there's coaching changes, it's a
challenge on our staff. And that's probably what
I'm most proud of. As you look back over the last
couple of years, our staff has done a terrific job,
especially in our nonconference games preparing
in a little bit of an abstract way. We had to go look
at different teams when coaches have been at
different institutions, maybe even looking at NFL
tape if that's where the coordinator came from.
And our staff has done a terrific job.
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P Fitzgerald - 7 24 13 2
I think our blueprint for that success
speaks for itself with having success in the opener.
It's going to be a great challenge, especially going
out and playing at Cal and kicking off 7:30 local,
which will be 9:30 on our bodies. We'll adjust our
practice plan accordingly that week.
We've already kind of looked at the
roadmap and you hear me say a lot the blueprint of
what we're going to do, and there will be definite
tweaks and adjustments to our preparation.
At the end of the day, it's how we prepare
and what we do to determine if we're prepared for
that game.
Q. I know there's some issues with the
health of the offensive linemen group this
spring. How are they coming along and is
everybody getting healthy up front?
COACH FITZGERALD: The entire
offensive line is healthy coming out of spring and
going into Camp Kenosha. It will be great
competition in that room. We believe that group is
as talented as we've had. A year ago we brought
back three starters. We had two new faces to
break in. To see the way that Jack Konopka
played a year ago, first time ever playing offensive
line in his entire football career. We look forward
to moving him over potentially to the left tackle
position and solidifying that spot left by Patrick
Ward, who was an Academic All-American. And
Brandon Vitabile is arguably one of the most
talented centers not only in this conference, but
also in the country. So great confidence in those
two guys. And going to be terrific competition at
the right tackle, right guard and left guard position,
but we feel like there's great talent there, and
looking forward to watching it unfold.
Q. One of the topics that I think a lot of
coaches will be asked about this year is about
disciplining players, having guys who stay
straight and narrow. What are the things you
do in your program to try to make sure that
happens?
COACH FITZGERALD: I think discipline
begins in recruiting. The identification of a
student-athlete that fits your program. In
Evanston, it starts with that character evaluation.
And we've got a set of questions that are married
with the values of our program. And you hear in
our team room a lot, when I'm addressing you
there it's to my left and your right, and it's a
roadmap for our assistant coaches as they go out
to evaluate prospective student-athletes.
If you look at our history in recruiting, we're
typically a day late, a week late, a month late in
potentially offering a young person, and I know
sometimes it frustrates our fans, but we're going to
make sure when we offer a young man, that's
someone we truly want to become a part of our
football family.
And that character evaluation takes a little
bit longer. And we're going to try to use every
means necessary, the coach, the AD, the principal,
the guidance counselor, whatever champion in that
young person's life that we can find and discover
that's going to answer the tough questions to give
us the right answers to make sure that young
person's the right fit.
I'm respectful of the other programs in the
country. Everyone's unique and different in how
they go about that. But it's a very serious
discussion we have. We're very proud of the job
our young men do obviously in our community,
giving back and being a part of our community in a
very positive way on the Northwestern campus and
the greater Evanston and Chicago community and
being a role model for student-athletes across the
country. But it goes back to the identification in
recruiting.
Q. How different is it now teaching
your guys to deal with expectations and not
just happy to be in the dance?
COACH FITZGERALD: We're not
satisfied with just going to Bowl games anymore.
That's not acceptable. That's the expectation. And
to be a consistent winner, to be a consistent
postseason team and playing in Bowl games is the
expectation.
Now obviously we raised the bar a year
ago from winning a game and getting that monkey
off our back, but at the end of the day the
expectation is to win championships. And when
you walk into our team room on the right side, it
would be your left, we'd say to win the Legends
Division and win the Big Ten. We want to put that
trophy in our case just like the other 11 institutions
and head coaches are going to visit after me.
So it's not unique to us. It's not any
different than anyone else in our league, but we've
never shied away from stating that as our goal.
Now, maybe just a few more people are
listening saying, well, maybe they might be able to
externally. But I think, as everyone does in the
country, our focus is inward. How we prepare, the
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P Fitzgerald - 7 24 13 3
way we go about our business, the process we go
about developing our young men and developing
our team, those expectations far outweigh any
external expectations that we're going to see.
So I'm happy to see that everyone's taking
notice that we're doing okay, that we're
progressing, that we're building in my opinion a
program that our fans, our alumni, our students
and everyone that's associated with Northwestern
football can be proud of.
But we're far from where we're going to be.
And to me that's the driving force in our program, is
to take the necessary steps to be competitive for a
championship. And hopefully we'll do that as we
move forward in training camp.
Q. They're making an emphasis on the
targeting rule this year with the ejections being
led. As a former All-Conference defender, how
difficult is it going to be for these guys to be
able to change the culture of the hits? And
your thoughts on how you're going to be able
to coach these guys up and what do you
expect to see moving forward?
COACH FITZGERALD: We're looking
forward to working with Bill Carollo (Big Ten
Coordinator of Football Officials) and the Big Ten
officials as they come through our training camps,
especially at Northwestern, to look at the teach
tape that I know Bill will have for us as far as
educating what hits from a year ago or maybe the
previous few seasons it would be labeled targeting
from a standpoint of what would be an ejectable
offense as we move forward.
I like the fact that that's a play that's
coming into our game to make sure we have the
number one most important thing handled, and
that's the health, safety, well-being of the
student-athletes as they play the game of football.
It's well documented I'm a rather large
hockey fan, and to see the way the rules have
changed in the game of hockey to where it's more
of an athletic game and guys aren't getting pressed
up and boarded -- it's the same for football. If
you're defenseless, you should be protected.
But there will be some hits that I'm looking
forward to learning from and seeing exactly how
that's going to be officiated.
But there's no question the health, safety,
well-being of the student-athletes is the number
one priority.
Q. I guess just kind of talk about how
the game has evolved in the past few years as
far as players' safety. And do you think there's
enough being done to protect the athletes?
COACH FITZGERALD: I definitely believe
that the coaches, the administrators, the
conference commissioners, the NCAA, and
obviously our student-athletes and our medical
teams, there's great dialogue about how can we
continue to improve our game from a health and
safety standpoint.
And I think everyone that's a shareholder
in that experience, it's critically important that we
have great dialogue, we have great discussions,
and we come up with positive solutions to keep our
young men safe.
And that's not only on game day. It's 365
days a year. If it's nutrition, sleep, the way that we
practice, the way that we play, those are all
positives.
Back -- I kind of feel like that one
commercial, back in my day, we wore neck rolls
and the game was played from the breadth of this
table. And there were certain days of the week
that I couldn't practice because of the physical
pounding you went through on game day, on
Saturday. But the way you had to practice to
prepare.
So I think we're trending in a very positive
direction. Are we at the destination? I'm not sure
we ever will be. I think that will be an ongoing
progression of making the kids and the game safer
and safer. And I think we're in a positive place.
But as I said, I think we're going to continue to
move forward to get to a great place for our
student-athletes.
Q. You obviously have several games
before you start Big Ten play, but with where
your program is right now for a primetime
game for homecoming like you have coming up
against Ohio State, that type of game, what do
you hope and expect your stadium will be like
from an atmosphere standpoint and what a
game like that is like for your program at this
point?
COACH FITZGERALD: The pageantry of
Big Ten football is special. We're a
nationally-based conference. Obviously the
breadth of our conference is special and you take it
down to individual games and just the opportunity
to compete and play Big Ten football is amazing.
Obviously on paper as you sit here the end
of July and you look at the conference slate, you
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P Fitzgerald - 7 24 13 4
get excited to play each and every one of your
games, especially the ones that are primetime
atmosphere.
But, frankly, I haven't put a lot of thought
into it. My focus has been, number one, to make
sure our guys are healthy and doing the right
things academically here in summer school, and
then our focus will shift once we get into camp
about how our freshmen integrate and how we'll
put those pieces of the puzzle together to get
prepared for the opener against Cal.
But as you look forward, obviously you get
excited for Big Ten play. I think the last time we
played each other at night was a pretty unique
environment at our place. Obviously we were
successful, so that's a fond memory in my mind.
The first thing that jumps back to me is Coach
Walk (phonetic), and that experience was really
special to be in the locker room with him, a native
Ohioan, things of that nature.
But our focus right now is on ourselves
and getting prepared for the opener. And I think as
we get closer to that game, it will get more exciting.
But obviously the undefeated team from last year,
very special to have them come and be our Big
Ten opener. That's going to be a great challenge.
Gary Anderson - Wisconsin
WISCONSIN
COACH GARY ANDERSEN
THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Gary
Andersen.
COACH ANDERSEN: It's great to be
here, excited to get to this point of the year. It's
been a crazy six and a half months. And just a lot
of thanks goes out to everybody surrounding
Wisconsin, from the administration, Coach Alvarez
and all of his people that made the transition
possible for the coaches, the wives that are
involved, the kids that are involved, the staff. It's
always a very difficult time for the moms involved.
And I publicly just thank them for allowing the
coaches to move in.
Thank the kids also for putting us in a
position to be able to build trust. Trust is a big
thing with us. We talked about it day one, and I
think after six and a half months we've got trust
within players to coaches and coaches to players.
So excited about moving into what we call
the fourth quarter, which is the season for us. It's
an exciting time and this is a big part of it. We're
kicking it off today. Questions.
Q. When there are coaching changes,
normally it's with a program that has not had
success. How different is it when you go to a
program that has, and how do you handle that
process differently?
COACH ANDERSEN: You know, I think
you always try to -- as a head coach, big part of
your job -- I tell myself this all the time hiring the
coach as a head coach is really game day as a
coordinator, if you will. You need to be prepared.
It's not something that should catch you by
surprise. You have to formulate a plan,
understand a lot of things, what's the pay scale,
what type of coach you're looking for, what type of
recruiting are you going to be in. Does he fit what
you need as an assistant coach and for me it's two
things when I hire an assistant coach. Number
one, take care of kids and, number two, you've got
to be able to recruit.
So that's how I look at it. No different,
maybe a bigger pool of coaches at the University
of Wisconsin than it would be at some other places
I've been, but it's always a challenge to always get
the best coach available.
Q. What's it like to take over a program
that really doesn't from the outside appear to
be broken or in dire need of great rebuilding?
What kind of imprint do you put on it
immediately? What have you put on it
immediately, I guess, to sort of change the
swing a little bit?
COACH ANDERSEN: Well, I think,
number one, I'm not interested in comparing what
was different, whether that may have been what
we deem as being great, good, or indifferent.
There's going to be differences when you
take over a program. It's important to put your own
stamp on it. So I've never asked the question of
how things work. There's a lot of different ways to
do it. And there was a lot of success.
For us, it's sit back and look at and get our
core values into place, let our kids understand
again the trust factor. Let them understand the
true set of core values that we're going to hold
them accountable to a high level.
And as coaches, as players, and really as
a university, we expect the kids to succeed
socially, academically and athletically. That's an
easy statement to make. There's a lot that goes
into that, but that's our stamp. Young men that
walk out socially, our goal is to change them from a
young man into a man. And our goal academically
is to allow them to receive a world-class education.
And it's truly a world-class education, it's
not just a degree at Wisconsin. It's powerful. It will
carry you through the rest of your life if you allow it
to and to compete at the highest level athletically.
That's our stamp, that's who we are, and that's
what we've tried to get done in the last six and a
half months.
And trust me, I do understand it. We
walked into a program that is absolutely -- was not
broke. It's been very successful and there's great
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G Andersen - 7 24 13 2
young men that have been recruited there, and the
prior staff did a great job in that area.
Q. Coach, we've seen that Wisconsin
has gone and recruited more into Utah, picked
up a prospect there recently. Is recruiting
outside of perhaps Wisconsin's traditional
recruiting footprint, particularly in the Mountain
West area, going to be a priority moving
forward?
COACH ANDERSEN: I think if you look
back in the past, there's again different staffs,
Coach Alvarez was obviously there for a long time.
Brett and his staff had an identity where they were
recruiting, number one.
Ours will be no different from those staffs
staying in state. Very good coaches. Football is
important. High school programs are run very well.
And a large number of high schools. I had no idea
when I walked in that there's 400-plus high schools
that play high school football in Wisconsin. That
will stay the same. I think as a conference and I
think as the University of Wisconsin we want to
recruit nationally because we can.
The Big Ten, it's a very, very powerful
conference. It's very recognizable and people
understand you're going to play at the highest level
and on the biggest stages.
And I feel the same way about the
University of Wisconsin, with what we have to offer
from an academic standpoint, with what we have to
offer for young men socially.
And I go back to it academically and the
athletic world, it's a place where we should be able
to recruit throughout the country. And we always
will, whether it may be in Florida, California,
wherever it will be. Gotta be careful not to get too
separated out so we cannot do a good job in
certain areas. But we will nationally recruit.
Q. It was kind of a revolving door at
quarterback last year for Wisconsin with the
three or four different guys who started, the
injuries and everything that happened. Coming
out of the spring going into the fall how do you
see that situation? Will you whittle it down just
to two guys at some point and then have a
competition, or where do things kind of stand
with that right now?
COACH ANDERSEN: Great question. It's
a question I'm sure is going to get asked a few
times in the next month or so. It's a three-man
battle right now, as we kind of came through
spring.
We sat down with all the young men when
we were first there and gave them a very clear
vision that when we sat down in April we would
discuss exactly where they're at, what the situation
is, and when we came out of it, Curt (Phillips) and
Joe (Ferguson) came out on top in spring.
And it was a very unique situation, as it
always is, at the quarterback spot when you have
competition. We recruited Tanner (McEvoy).
Brought Tanner in. He will also compete. He
deserves that opportunity because he's a junior
college player with three years left to play.
Anytime we recruit a junior college player
he's going to be given the opportunity to walk in fall
camp and compete and get reps with the ones and
twos at times just as every freshman will if he
deems himself mentally and physically prepared to
be able to be in those situations that he has a
chance to help our team.
It will be a three-man race. I have no
timeline on it. And we may jog out there the first
play of the game with two quarterbacks on the field
and see what happens from there. So who knows,
it will be interesting.
Q. What kind of tangibles does Chris
Borland bring on the field and maybe the
intangibles off the field from a leadership
perspective?
COACH ANDERSEN: First of all, I'd say
23 seniors, great leadership throughout the team.
And Chris is the heart and soul of that defense.
But there's some guys that are right there with him
from a leadership standpoint.
But what Chris does consistently is a lot of
people talk about leadership on and off the field.
And his consistency with his leadership is the key.
There's no ups and downs, no really good days or
bad days. He's not overly flashy. He's not a
rah-rah guy, he's the king of backflips after
practice. So I don't know how he does it, but that's
kind of his deal.
But he's so consistent with where he
carries himself academically, the expectation level
that he has for himself daily, it's easy to follow him.
And that's where his leadership starts. But he
also -- he carries himself with the presence of he's
approachable for the young players in our
program. He's a big part of our Big Brother
program which we've had throughout the summer,
bringing the new young men into our program it's
very important.
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G Andersen - 7 24 13 3
And Chris has also accepted a lot of
change at the University of Wisconsin with the
coaches since he's been there, and he figures it
out. He understands. He's going to listen to you
first. He's going to figure you out as you move
along, and then I believe he's going to trust you.
And to me that's what a quality young man
does. That's what a quality person does. I believe
he's the best linebacker in the country in my
opinion from what I've seen. I've had a unique
opportunity to watch him all last summer as we
prepared to play Wisconsin while I was at Utah
State. And I've also had the opportunity to see him
go through spring ball, see him work himself
through the winter workouts and how he leads the
team.
So tremendous kid, tremendous leader,
and I believe he's the best linebacker in the
country.
Q. Any moments this summer where
you've realized the enormity of the job where
it's hit you? Any moments where it struck you
the enormity of the Wisconsin job, how big it is,
anything big stand out?
COACH ANDERSEN: No, not really. I
mean, it's been the transition again has been
great. The summer's been great. A job is a job,
and I think I look at them all the same as far as
what are you doing to influence kids.
When I say that, you're a coach. So to me
a coach is you're an educator and you're a father
figure. That doesn't matter what level you're
coaching at.
When I say that, that the job of coaching is
that, regardless of the level. This is a very big
stage. It's something we're excited about being on.
Coaching at the highest level is something that
selfishly -- I hate to use that word, I hate to speak
about that word, but for me and all of our coaches
to have the opportunity to compete in the Big Ten
and coach at the highest level, it's important for
me.
So if there's a moment, maybe that's the
moment, but it's been good. But, again, coaching
is coaching in my opinion regardless if it's eight
years old in Little League or it's the biggest stage
which we sit on here today.
Q. You coached with Urban Meyer for a
year at Utah. I was wondering if you could
describe your relationship with him and any
influence he's had on you if any?
COACH ANDERSEN: Relationship with
Urban? Is that the question?
Q. Yes.
COACH ANDERSEN: Very good. You
know, Coach has been very good to me. I have a
lot of respect for him, the way he carries himself.
We had a great run.
I tell people all the time when they ask me
about Urban Meyer, my first thing is it was great for
me. We were 12-0 and won a BCS Bowl, so there
wasn't a lot of confrontational times in that situation
for us.
But very good friend. Somebody I reach
out to when I have questions about things. I think
there's very much a mutual respect there. And
look forward to seeing him this morning and
hopefully we'll be able to spend a little time as we
go through. It's great to compete against your
friends.
That's going to be a big game. It's way
down the road at this point, and we're excited
about the opportunity to compete. But he's a good
person, good family man, and somebody I have
great respect for.
Q. Along those lines, coaching with
Urban, this last weekend they had some kids
act out, some disciplinary things. Wonder if
you could speak to his handling of that, how he
does that in-house. He might take a bit of a hit
because of that. Do you think that's fair or
unfair, just what is your take on all that?
COACH ANDERSEN: First of all I have no
idea how Coach Meyer handled the situation. I'm
not big into that stuff. I haven't read anything
about it. So I don't know. But I know he's going to
be very fair. The tricky thing in today's world is
exactly what happened and allowing yourself as a
coach to get your athletic director and your athletic
director get everybody involved regardless of the
situation, if it needs to be and try to help the young
men that are involved and get the facts straight,
that's the key, before it gets out there and then it
never has the opportunity to be fair to the kid that's
involved with a group of people that are involved.
So fairness is important. I think Coach will
handle it very fairly. He always seems to do that.
And education for kids these days is important,
regardless of the scenario of the situation they get
themselves in, you try to educate them. You try to
talk to them, but the decisions that they make,
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G Andersen - 7 24 13 4
when they walk out of your facility, the decisions
that they're making nightly are so very important.
And, again I go back to it, as coaches,
we're father figures. I've raised three boys of my
own. They're far from perfect. When you put 105
young men or 120 depending on the time of the
year, they're never going to be perfect, but doesn't
mean we shouldn't strive for that and, again,
educate them, help them grow from young men to
men as much as you can, and then you hope they
make the right decisions.
But discipline is -- it's for everybody else to
handle their own way.
Q. As far as the offensive call play is
concerned, what kind of freedom do you think
you have with James and Melvin in the back
field? Any kind of versatility that you can get
with those guys?
COACH ANDERSEN: James and Melvin
very complementary to each other, very different in
their styles. And a lot of it is going to depend on
how those four tight ends come around that allow
Melvin and James to possibly be on the field at the
same time, which quarterback's playing, how well
the quarterback can hurt you with his legs that's
actually in the game, that matters.
And so there's a lot that goes into that.
But those two packaged together, whether they're
on the field at the same time or separately, cause a
lot of problems. You saw it last year when there
was times when Melvin got out there and lined up
and the fly sweep was very effective in some
games for them and James was in the backfield
sometimes. Monte was there a lot obviously, but
James was in there, too. So it will be hopefully a
very powerful 1-2 punch.
I know they worked extremely hard this
summer. I'm proud of the way they handled
themselves throughout the summer as a running
back crew. Need a third back to step up. But
overall as the football team, I'd say those two
young men are prepared like so many on our team
the way that you would hope they would as a
program as a whole.
But proud of those two. They'll be a big
part of our offense.
Q. Any update on Tanner's (McEvoy)
health and what the reaction was like in
Madison with the news this week with Tanner?
COACH ANDERSEN: Tanner's fine.
Those were always tricky situations, and, again, Igo back and share with you what I tell young men
all the time in team meetings.
And I say this in recruiting all the time, you
gotta understand your situation. You gotta
understand your surroundings. Doesn't matter if
you grow up in a town of 40 or grow up in a town of
4 million. There's always -- there's issues that can
pop up and you have to be careful.
And still there's still problems that pop up
that you can't prevent. So it happened. We're
going to do our best to learn from it as a football
program. I know we'll do our best to reach out to
many of the student-athletes as we can to talk
about it and not just football players, to be able to
be prepared to understand your surroundings.
But Tanner will be fine. He's back with us
now. Expect him to walk into camp full steam
ahead and be prepared to compete for that
quarterback role.
An Interview With:
NORTHWESTERN
COACH PAT FITZGERALD
THE MODERATOR: We're joined by
Coach Pat Fitzgerald.
Coach, an opening statement and we'll
take questions.
COACH FITZGERALD: Thanks, Doug,
appreciate it. Obviously we've digressed this year.
We miss Julie already.
Good morning, everyone. It's great to be
with you. Obviously we'd like to thank everyone for
your support for Big Ten football and Northwestern
as a football program.
It's football season and here we go again.
I'd be remiss without starting my remarks on behalf
of the Northwestern football family of expressing
our thoughts and prayers and condolences to
Adam Rittenberg and his family in this difficult,
challenging time. Adam, we're thinking about you
and your family and hope to be there with you.
I'd like to welcome our two new coaches in
Darrell Hazell of Purdue and Gary Andersen of
Wisconsin. Looking forward to competing against
their teams. I've gotten to know the gentlemen
since I was in recruiting season, and now
throughout our meetings throughout the spring and
summer and would like to welcome them on behalf
of our coaches. And obviously it's a great time of
the year.
I don't know if you guys or anyone is
charting how many times a coach up here says
"excited," but I think across the country every
coach is really in anticipation for two weeks from
now when we get together with our teams and
really start to work hard on progressing and
building off of what we accomplished in the spring
and then obviously what our young men have been
able to do throughout the summer.
Exciting time in our program's history to be
off the heels of our longest bowl streak in modern
time, of one bowl successful season, and to have
the number of young men we have coming back in
13 from a starting standpoint gives us great
confidence we'll hopefully be able to take the next
step.
We've got 12 terrific seniors embarking on
their last season, three of which are with us here
today and throughout the media days in Kain
Colter, our great quarterback; Venric Mark, our
tailback; and Tyler Scott, our defensive end.
We have a difficult schedule to go on the
road to open against a difficult Cal team, and
Coach Dykes did a great job at Louisiana Tech
and come back to Syracuse is going to be a
challenge.
As we rewind, very proud of the success
we've had, five straight bowl seasons. But as I
said as I put the Gator Bowl trophy up above my
head, we're just getting started at Northwestern.
We have a lot of work. Talk is talk, and now it's
about time for action, and looking forward to
getting back with our guys here in a few weeks.
So with that, questions?
Q. Not the most serious one here, but
how is your hip? I know you had some
surgery. How is it going? And pretty sure it
won't affect your coaching this year?
COACH FITZGERALD: Thanks for asking
about my health. I was cleared about two weeks
ago. I'll be full go for camp. Questionable as an
athlete, but ready to go.
Q. You talked about the difficult
schedule. You guys start with three opponents
all breaking in new head coaches. How does
that kind of adjust how you guys prepare for
them in the summer?
COACH FITZGERALD: Our schedule,
there's no question we're not afraid to play anyone.
We went into the season last year playing three
BCS teams in the nonconference and had great
success. Originally on the schedule we had three
BCS teams this year, and obviously that changed
and now we're playing two BCS teams to begin.
Anytime there's coaching changes, it's a
challenge on our staff. And that's probably what
I'm most proud of. As you look back over the last
couple of years, our staff has done a terrific job,
especially in our nonconference games preparing
in a little bit of an abstract way. We had to go look
at different teams when coaches have been at
different institutions, maybe even looking at NFL
tape if that's where the coordinator came from.
And our staff has done a terrific job.
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P Fitzgerald - 7 24 13 2
I think our blueprint for that success
speaks for itself with having success in the opener.
It's going to be a great challenge, especially going
out and playing at Cal and kicking off 7:30 local,
which will be 9:30 on our bodies. We'll adjust our
practice plan accordingly that week.
We've already kind of looked at the
roadmap and you hear me say a lot the blueprint of
what we're going to do, and there will be definite
tweaks and adjustments to our preparation.
At the end of the day, it's how we prepare
and what we do to determine if we're prepared for
that game.
Q. I know there's some issues with the
health of the offensive linemen group this
spring. How are they coming along and is
everybody getting healthy up front?
COACH FITZGERALD: The entire
offensive line is healthy coming out of spring and
going into Camp Kenosha. It will be great
competition in that room. We believe that group is
as talented as we've had. A year ago we brought
back three starters. We had two new faces to
break in. To see the way that Jack Konopka
played a year ago, first time ever playing offensive
line in his entire football career. We look forward
to moving him over potentially to the left tackle
position and solidifying that spot left by Patrick
Ward, who was an Academic All-American. And
Brandon Vitabile is arguably one of the most
talented centers not only in this conference, but
also in the country. So great confidence in those
two guys. And going to be terrific competition at
the right tackle, right guard and left guard position,
but we feel like there's great talent there, and
looking forward to watching it unfold.
Q. One of the topics that I think a lot of
coaches will be asked about this year is about
disciplining players, having guys who stay
straight and narrow. What are the things you
do in your program to try to make sure that
happens?
COACH FITZGERALD: I think discipline
begins in recruiting. The identification of a
student-athlete that fits your program. In
Evanston, it starts with that character evaluation.
And we've got a set of questions that are married
with the values of our program. And you hear in
our team room a lot, when I'm addressing you
there it's to my left and your right, and it's a
roadmap for our assistant coaches as they go out
to evaluate prospective student-athletes.
If you look at our history in recruiting, we're
typically a day late, a week late, a month late in
potentially offering a young person, and I know
sometimes it frustrates our fans, but we're going to
make sure when we offer a young man, that's
someone we truly want to become a part of our
football family.
And that character evaluation takes a little
bit longer. And we're going to try to use every
means necessary, the coach, the AD, the principal,
the guidance counselor, whatever champion in that
young person's life that we can find and discover
that's going to answer the tough questions to give
us the right answers to make sure that young
person's the right fit.
I'm respectful of the other programs in the
country. Everyone's unique and different in how
they go about that. But it's a very serious
discussion we have. We're very proud of the job
our young men do obviously in our community,
giving back and being a part of our community in a
very positive way on the Northwestern campus and
the greater Evanston and Chicago community and
being a role model for student-athletes across the
country. But it goes back to the identification in
recruiting.
Q. How different is it now teaching
your guys to deal with expectations and not
just happy to be in the dance?
COACH FITZGERALD: We're not
satisfied with just going to Bowl games anymore.
That's not acceptable. That's the expectation. And
to be a consistent winner, to be a consistent
postseason team and playing in Bowl games is the
expectation.
Now obviously we raised the bar a year
ago from winning a game and getting that monkey
off our back, but at the end of the day the
expectation is to win championships. And when
you walk into our team room on the right side, it
would be your left, we'd say to win the Legends
Division and win the Big Ten. We want to put that
trophy in our case just like the other 11 institutions
and head coaches are going to visit after me.
So it's not unique to us. It's not any
different than anyone else in our league, but we've
never shied away from stating that as our goal.
Now, maybe just a few more people are
listening saying, well, maybe they might be able to
externally. But I think, as everyone does in the
country, our focus is inward. How we prepare, the
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P Fitzgerald - 7 24 13 3
way we go about our business, the process we go
about developing our young men and developing
our team, those expectations far outweigh any
external expectations that we're going to see.
So I'm happy to see that everyone's taking
notice that we're doing okay, that we're
progressing, that we're building in my opinion a
program that our fans, our alumni, our students
and everyone that's associated with Northwestern
football can be proud of.
But we're far from where we're going to be.
And to me that's the driving force in our program, is
to take the necessary steps to be competitive for a
championship. And hopefully we'll do that as we
move forward in training camp.
Q. They're making an emphasis on the
targeting rule this year with the ejections being
led. As a former All-Conference defender, how
difficult is it going to be for these guys to be
able to change the culture of the hits? And
your thoughts on how you're going to be able
to coach these guys up and what do you
expect to see moving forward?
COACH FITZGERALD: We're looking
forward to working with Bill Carollo (Big Ten
Coordinator of Football Officials) and the Big Ten
officials as they come through our training camps,
especially at Northwestern, to look at the teach
tape that I know Bill will have for us as far as
educating what hits from a year ago or maybe the
previous few seasons it would be labeled targeting
from a standpoint of what would be an ejectable
offense as we move forward.
I like the fact that that's a play that's
coming into our game to make sure we have the
number one most important thing handled, and
that's the health, safety, well-being of the
student-athletes as they play the game of football.
It's well documented I'm a rather large
hockey fan, and to see the way the rules have
changed in the game of hockey to where it's more
of an athletic game and guys aren't getting pressed
up and boarded -- it's the same for football. If
you're defenseless, you should be protected.
But there will be some hits that I'm looking
forward to learning from and seeing exactly how
that's going to be officiated.
But there's no question the health, safety,
well-being of the student-athletes is the number
one priority.
Q. I guess just kind of talk about how
the game has evolved in the past few years as
far as players' safety. And do you think there's
enough being done to protect the athletes?
COACH FITZGERALD: I definitely believe
that the coaches, the administrators, the
conference commissioners, the NCAA, and
obviously our student-athletes and our medical
teams, there's great dialogue about how can we
continue to improve our game from a health and
safety standpoint.
And I think everyone that's a shareholder
in that experience, it's critically important that we
have great dialogue, we have great discussions,
and we come up with positive solutions to keep our
young men safe.
And that's not only on game day. It's 365
days a year. If it's nutrition, sleep, the way that we
practice, the way that we play, those are all
positives.
Back -- I kind of feel like that one
commercial, back in my day, we wore neck rolls
and the game was played from the breadth of this
table. And there were certain days of the week
that I couldn't practice because of the physical
pounding you went through on game day, on
Saturday. But the way you had to practice to
prepare.
So I think we're trending in a very positive
direction. Are we at the destination? I'm not sure
we ever will be. I think that will be an ongoing
progression of making the kids and the game safer
and safer. And I think we're in a positive place.
But as I said, I think we're going to continue to
move forward to get to a great place for our
student-athletes.
Q. You obviously have several games
before you start Big Ten play, but with where
your program is right now for a primetime
game for homecoming like you have coming up
against Ohio State, that type of game, what do
you hope and expect your stadium will be like
from an atmosphere standpoint and what a
game like that is like for your program at this
point?
COACH FITZGERALD: The pageantry of
Big Ten football is special. We're a
nationally-based conference. Obviously the
breadth of our conference is special and you take it
down to individual games and just the opportunity
to compete and play Big Ten football is amazing.
Obviously on paper as you sit here the end
of July and you look at the conference slate, you
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P Fitzgerald - 7 24 13 4
get excited to play each and every one of your
games, especially the ones that are primetime
atmosphere.
But, frankly, I haven't put a lot of thought
into it. My focus has been, number one, to make
sure our guys are healthy and doing the right
things academically here in summer school, and
then our focus will shift once we get into camp
about how our freshmen integrate and how we'll
put those pieces of the puzzle together to get
prepared for the opener against Cal.
But as you look forward, obviously you get
excited for Big Ten play. I think the last time we
played each other at night was a pretty unique
environment at our place. Obviously we were
successful, so that's a fond memory in my mind.
The first thing that jumps back to me is Coach
Walk (phonetic), and that experience was really
special to be in the locker room with him, a native
Ohioan, things of that nature.
But our focus right now is on ourselves
and getting prepared for the opener. And I think as
we get closer to that game, it will get more exciting.
But obviously the undefeated team from last year,
very special to have them come and be our Big
Ten opener. That's going to be a great challenge.
Gary Anderson - Wisconsin
WISCONSIN
COACH GARY ANDERSEN
THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Gary
Andersen.
COACH ANDERSEN: It's great to be
here, excited to get to this point of the year. It's
been a crazy six and a half months. And just a lot
of thanks goes out to everybody surrounding
Wisconsin, from the administration, Coach Alvarez
and all of his people that made the transition
possible for the coaches, the wives that are
involved, the kids that are involved, the staff. It's
always a very difficult time for the moms involved.
And I publicly just thank them for allowing the
coaches to move in.
Thank the kids also for putting us in a
position to be able to build trust. Trust is a big
thing with us. We talked about it day one, and I
think after six and a half months we've got trust
within players to coaches and coaches to players.
So excited about moving into what we call
the fourth quarter, which is the season for us. It's
an exciting time and this is a big part of it. We're
kicking it off today. Questions.
Q. When there are coaching changes,
normally it's with a program that has not had
success. How different is it when you go to a
program that has, and how do you handle that
process differently?
COACH ANDERSEN: You know, I think
you always try to -- as a head coach, big part of
your job -- I tell myself this all the time hiring the
coach as a head coach is really game day as a
coordinator, if you will. You need to be prepared.
It's not something that should catch you by
surprise. You have to formulate a plan,
understand a lot of things, what's the pay scale,
what type of coach you're looking for, what type of
recruiting are you going to be in. Does he fit what
you need as an assistant coach and for me it's two
things when I hire an assistant coach. Number
one, take care of kids and, number two, you've got
to be able to recruit.
So that's how I look at it. No different,
maybe a bigger pool of coaches at the University
of Wisconsin than it would be at some other places
I've been, but it's always a challenge to always get
the best coach available.
Q. What's it like to take over a program
that really doesn't from the outside appear to
be broken or in dire need of great rebuilding?
What kind of imprint do you put on it
immediately? What have you put on it
immediately, I guess, to sort of change the
swing a little bit?
COACH ANDERSEN: Well, I think,
number one, I'm not interested in comparing what
was different, whether that may have been what
we deem as being great, good, or indifferent.
There's going to be differences when you
take over a program. It's important to put your own
stamp on it. So I've never asked the question of
how things work. There's a lot of different ways to
do it. And there was a lot of success.
For us, it's sit back and look at and get our
core values into place, let our kids understand
again the trust factor. Let them understand the
true set of core values that we're going to hold
them accountable to a high level.
And as coaches, as players, and really as
a university, we expect the kids to succeed
socially, academically and athletically. That's an
easy statement to make. There's a lot that goes
into that, but that's our stamp. Young men that
walk out socially, our goal is to change them from a
young man into a man. And our goal academically
is to allow them to receive a world-class education.
And it's truly a world-class education, it's
not just a degree at Wisconsin. It's powerful. It will
carry you through the rest of your life if you allow it
to and to compete at the highest level athletically.
That's our stamp, that's who we are, and that's
what we've tried to get done in the last six and a
half months.
And trust me, I do understand it. We
walked into a program that is absolutely -- was not
broke. It's been very successful and there's great
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G Andersen - 7 24 13 2
young men that have been recruited there, and the
prior staff did a great job in that area.
Q. Coach, we've seen that Wisconsin
has gone and recruited more into Utah, picked
up a prospect there recently. Is recruiting
outside of perhaps Wisconsin's traditional
recruiting footprint, particularly in the Mountain
West area, going to be a priority moving
forward?
COACH ANDERSEN: I think if you look
back in the past, there's again different staffs,
Coach Alvarez was obviously there for a long time.
Brett and his staff had an identity where they were
recruiting, number one.
Ours will be no different from those staffs
staying in state. Very good coaches. Football is
important. High school programs are run very well.
And a large number of high schools. I had no idea
when I walked in that there's 400-plus high schools
that play high school football in Wisconsin. That
will stay the same. I think as a conference and I
think as the University of Wisconsin we want to
recruit nationally because we can.
The Big Ten, it's a very, very powerful
conference. It's very recognizable and people
understand you're going to play at the highest level
and on the biggest stages.
And I feel the same way about the
University of Wisconsin, with what we have to offer
from an academic standpoint, with what we have to
offer for young men socially.
And I go back to it academically and the
athletic world, it's a place where we should be able
to recruit throughout the country. And we always
will, whether it may be in Florida, California,
wherever it will be. Gotta be careful not to get too
separated out so we cannot do a good job in
certain areas. But we will nationally recruit.
Q. It was kind of a revolving door at
quarterback last year for Wisconsin with the
three or four different guys who started, the
injuries and everything that happened. Coming
out of the spring going into the fall how do you
see that situation? Will you whittle it down just
to two guys at some point and then have a
competition, or where do things kind of stand
with that right now?
COACH ANDERSEN: Great question. It's
a question I'm sure is going to get asked a few
times in the next month or so. It's a three-man
battle right now, as we kind of came through
spring.
We sat down with all the young men when
we were first there and gave them a very clear
vision that when we sat down in April we would
discuss exactly where they're at, what the situation
is, and when we came out of it, Curt (Phillips) and
Joe (Ferguson) came out on top in spring.
And it was a very unique situation, as it
always is, at the quarterback spot when you have
competition. We recruited Tanner (McEvoy).
Brought Tanner in. He will also compete. He
deserves that opportunity because he's a junior
college player with three years left to play.
Anytime we recruit a junior college player
he's going to be given the opportunity to walk in fall
camp and compete and get reps with the ones and
twos at times just as every freshman will if he
deems himself mentally and physically prepared to
be able to be in those situations that he has a
chance to help our team.
It will be a three-man race. I have no
timeline on it. And we may jog out there the first
play of the game with two quarterbacks on the field
and see what happens from there. So who knows,
it will be interesting.
Q. What kind of tangibles does Chris
Borland bring on the field and maybe the
intangibles off the field from a leadership
perspective?
COACH ANDERSEN: First of all, I'd say
23 seniors, great leadership throughout the team.
And Chris is the heart and soul of that defense.
But there's some guys that are right there with him
from a leadership standpoint.
But what Chris does consistently is a lot of
people talk about leadership on and off the field.
And his consistency with his leadership is the key.
There's no ups and downs, no really good days or
bad days. He's not overly flashy. He's not a
rah-rah guy, he's the king of backflips after
practice. So I don't know how he does it, but that's
kind of his deal.
But he's so consistent with where he
carries himself academically, the expectation level
that he has for himself daily, it's easy to follow him.
And that's where his leadership starts. But he
also -- he carries himself with the presence of he's
approachable for the young players in our
program. He's a big part of our Big Brother
program which we've had throughout the summer,
bringing the new young men into our program it's
very important.
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G Andersen - 7 24 13 3
And Chris has also accepted a lot of
change at the University of Wisconsin with the
coaches since he's been there, and he figures it
out. He understands. He's going to listen to you
first. He's going to figure you out as you move
along, and then I believe he's going to trust you.
And to me that's what a quality young man
does. That's what a quality person does. I believe
he's the best linebacker in the country in my
opinion from what I've seen. I've had a unique
opportunity to watch him all last summer as we
prepared to play Wisconsin while I was at Utah
State. And I've also had the opportunity to see him
go through spring ball, see him work himself
through the winter workouts and how he leads the
team.
So tremendous kid, tremendous leader,
and I believe he's the best linebacker in the
country.
Q. Any moments this summer where
you've realized the enormity of the job where
it's hit you? Any moments where it struck you
the enormity of the Wisconsin job, how big it is,
anything big stand out?
COACH ANDERSEN: No, not really. I
mean, it's been the transition again has been
great. The summer's been great. A job is a job,
and I think I look at them all the same as far as
what are you doing to influence kids.
When I say that, you're a coach. So to me
a coach is you're an educator and you're a father
figure. That doesn't matter what level you're
coaching at.
When I say that, that the job of coaching is
that, regardless of the level. This is a very big
stage. It's something we're excited about being on.
Coaching at the highest level is something that
selfishly -- I hate to use that word, I hate to speak
about that word, but for me and all of our coaches
to have the opportunity to compete in the Big Ten
and coach at the highest level, it's important for
me.
So if there's a moment, maybe that's the
moment, but it's been good. But, again, coaching
is coaching in my opinion regardless if it's eight
years old in Little League or it's the biggest stage
which we sit on here today.
Q. You coached with Urban Meyer for a
year at Utah. I was wondering if you could
describe your relationship with him and any
influence he's had on you if any?
COACH ANDERSEN: Relationship with
Urban? Is that the question?
Q. Yes.
COACH ANDERSEN: Very good. You
know, Coach has been very good to me. I have a
lot of respect for him, the way he carries himself.
We had a great run.
I tell people all the time when they ask me
about Urban Meyer, my first thing is it was great for
me. We were 12-0 and won a BCS Bowl, so there
wasn't a lot of confrontational times in that situation
for us.
But very good friend. Somebody I reach
out to when I have questions about things. I think
there's very much a mutual respect there. And
look forward to seeing him this morning and
hopefully we'll be able to spend a little time as we
go through. It's great to compete against your
friends.
That's going to be a big game. It's way
down the road at this point, and we're excited
about the opportunity to compete. But he's a good
person, good family man, and somebody I have
great respect for.
Q. Along those lines, coaching with
Urban, this last weekend they had some kids
act out, some disciplinary things. Wonder if
you could speak to his handling of that, how he
does that in-house. He might take a bit of a hit
because of that. Do you think that's fair or
unfair, just what is your take on all that?
COACH ANDERSEN: First of all I have no
idea how Coach Meyer handled the situation. I'm
not big into that stuff. I haven't read anything
about it. So I don't know. But I know he's going to
be very fair. The tricky thing in today's world is
exactly what happened and allowing yourself as a
coach to get your athletic director and your athletic
director get everybody involved regardless of the
situation, if it needs to be and try to help the young
men that are involved and get the facts straight,
that's the key, before it gets out there and then it
never has the opportunity to be fair to the kid that's
involved with a group of people that are involved.
So fairness is important. I think Coach will
handle it very fairly. He always seems to do that.
And education for kids these days is important,
regardless of the scenario of the situation they get
themselves in, you try to educate them. You try to
talk to them, but the decisions that they make,
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G Andersen - 7 24 13 4
when they walk out of your facility, the decisions
that they're making nightly are so very important.
And, again I go back to it, as coaches,
we're father figures. I've raised three boys of my
own. They're far from perfect. When you put 105
young men or 120 depending on the time of the
year, they're never going to be perfect, but doesn't
mean we shouldn't strive for that and, again,
educate them, help them grow from young men to
men as much as you can, and then you hope they
make the right decisions.
But discipline is -- it's for everybody else to
handle their own way.
Q. As far as the offensive call play is
concerned, what kind of freedom do you think
you have with James and Melvin in the back
field? Any kind of versatility that you can get
with those guys?
COACH ANDERSEN: James and Melvin
very complementary to each other, very different in
their styles. And a lot of it is going to depend on
how those four tight ends come around that allow
Melvin and James to possibly be on the field at the
same time, which quarterback's playing, how well
the quarterback can hurt you with his legs that's
actually in the game, that matters.
And so there's a lot that goes into that.
But those two packaged together, whether they're
on the field at the same time or separately, cause a
lot of problems. You saw it last year when there
was times when Melvin got out there and lined up
and the fly sweep was very effective in some
games for them and James was in the backfield
sometimes. Monte was there a lot obviously, but
James was in there, too. So it will be hopefully a
very powerful 1-2 punch.
I know they worked extremely hard this
summer. I'm proud of the way they handled
themselves throughout the summer as a running
back crew. Need a third back to step up. But
overall as the football team, I'd say those two
young men are prepared like so many on our team
the way that you would hope they would as a
program as a whole.
But proud of those two. They'll be a big
part of our offense.
Q. Any update on Tanner's (McEvoy)
health and what the reaction was like in
Madison with the news this week with Tanner?
COACH ANDERSEN: Tanner's fine.
Those were always tricky situations, and, again, Igo back and share with you what I tell young men
all the time in team meetings.
And I say this in recruiting all the time, you
gotta understand your situation. You gotta
understand your surroundings. Doesn't matter if
you grow up in a town of 40 or grow up in a town of
4 million. There's always -- there's issues that can
pop up and you have to be careful.
And still there's still problems that pop up
that you can't prevent. So it happened. We're
going to do our best to learn from it as a football
program. I know we'll do our best to reach out to
many of the student-athletes as we can to talk
about it and not just football players, to be able to
be prepared to understand your surroundings.
But Tanner will be fine. He's back with us
now. Expect him to walk into camp full steam
ahead and be prepared to compete for that
quarterback role.
