Inside NU - Northwestern at 2014 Big Ten Media DaysRoll Damn 'Catshttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52532/insidenu_fav.png2014-07-29T17:37:48-05:00http://www.insidenu.com/rss/stream/57070402014-07-29T17:37:48-05:002014-07-29T17:37:48-05:00Three biggest stories from Media Days
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<figcaption>Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>Pat Fitzgerald, Trevor Siemian, Ibraheim Campbell and Collin Ellis said a whole lot of words. Some of them were meaningful.</p> <p>When coaches and players are tasked with speaking to beat writers, doing television segments, and joining radio shows for several hours two days in a row, it's inevitable that the majority of quotes and stories are going to be repetitive and/or ambiguous, and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.insidenu.com/2014/7/28/5944977/pat-fitzgerald-says-young-men-six-times-in-15-minutes/in/5707040">laden with coachspeak</a>.</p>
<p>Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald is notorious in that respect. He's a seasoned concealer of information.</p>
<p>But also inevitably, interesting news is bound to come out of the two-day media bonanza. Three of our writers were in Chicago on Monday and Tuesday to navigate the scene, and of everything they were able to get, three stories stood out.</p>
<h3>1. De-commitments, and Fitz's master plan to change recruiting</h3>
<p>The biggest story actually was somewhat unrelated to anything that was said inside the Hilton Chicago. It was <a target="_blank" href="http://www.insidenu.com/2014/7/28/5946593/andrew-and-david-dowell-de-commit-from-northwestern">the de-commitment of Northwestern's two highest profile recruits</a> in its 2015 class.</p>
<p>With the news breaking on Monday evening, it cast Tuesday in an interesting light. Fitzgerald isn't allowed to talk directly about recruits until they have actually signed, so he couldn't address the situation openly. But it did lead to a discussion of his recruiting policy and recruiting rules in general.</p>
<p>This led Fitz to spout off about various problems with the modern day recruiting system. Most notably, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.insidenu.com/2014/7/29/5948823/pat-fitzgerald-proposes-48-hour-signing-window">he proposed a new rule</a>, which didn't exactly appear to be well thought out.</p>
<h3>2. Daniel Jones</h3>
<p>There was one somber note emanating from media days. Daniel Jones, Northwestern's senior cornerback who opened 2013 as a starter but then tore his ACL in week 1, missed nearly all of last season due to injury. Now, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.insidenu.com/2014/7/29/5947751/Daniel-Jones-Northwestern-retires/in/5707040">Fitzgerald says Jones has been forced to retire</a> after sustaining another injury in the spring. However, although his football career is over, he will stay at Northwestern.</p>
<p>The news is a bit of a blow for the defense, but it's not a catastrophe. If the Wildcats could afford to lose a player at any position, it would probably be cornerback, and Matt Harris, Keith Watkins and others are capable replacements.</p>
<p>This bigger shame is on the personal side of things. Jones had an injury-riddled term at NU, and it's always gutting to see a player work so hard to come back from injury only to experience yet more setbacks.</p>
<h3>3. Unionization as a unifier</h3>
<p>Technically, from the beginning, when Colter and CAPA announced that NU players were forming a union, he intended to unify a group of football players... duh. But now, with the issue somewhat in the rearview mirror, both <a target="_blank" href="http://www.insidenu.com/2014/7/28/5944635/union-effort-helped-players-learn-where-guys-come-from/in/5707040">Fitzgerald and the players said it has brought a certain degree of unity to the team</a>... just not as was originally intended.</p>
<p>As our Kevin Trahan wrote Monday:</p>
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<p>Star safety Ibraheim Campbell noted that it allowed players to learn "where guys come from" and that they "heard things you never would've heard ... why guys believe certain things."</p>
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<p>As the unionization issue swirled overhead during the spring, a couple players, including Traveon Henry, made similar statements. With the idea again coming to the forefront at media days, it appears that this really is something around which the players have bonded.</p>
<p><i>For more of the best NU-related quotes and tidbits from the past two days, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.insidenu.com/2014/7/28/5944879/the-best-northwestern-quotes-from-b1g-media-days/in/5707040">click here</a>.</i></p>
https://www.insidenu.com/2014/7/29/5949635/northwestern-media-days-biggest-stories-2014Henry Bushnell2014-07-29T12:49:37-05:002014-07-29T12:49:37-05:00Pat Fitzgerald proposes 48-hour signing window
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<figcaption>Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>This is not his best idea.</p> <p><b>Update: </b>Fitz was misquoted, <a href="http://www.insidenu.com/2014/7/30/5952521/fitzs-actual-signing-day-proposal-makes-more-sense" target="_blank">has not terrible idea</a>.</p>
<p>Pat Fitzgerald <a href="http://www.insidenu.com/2014/7/28/5946593/andrew-and-david-dowell-de-commit-from-northwestern" target="_blank">just had the two best recruits in his 2015 class decommit</a>, so he's not a huge fan of the recruiting process right now.</p>
<p>Fitzgerald has long had a policy of pulling offers from commits who decide to look elsewhere, and when that happened with those two recruits — twins Andrew and David Dowell — he was as hard-line on that as ever, telling fans to "get ready for more decommitments," according to Wildcat Digest.</p>
<p>In that rant, Fitzgerald also proposed a new recruit signing procedure: <a href="http://northwestern.247sports.com/Article/Fitzgerald-Denounces-Recruiting-System-29918682" target="_blank">a 48-hour rule</a>.</p>
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<p>"With technology now, (the current system) is antiquated," Fitzgerald said. "The process is sped up. What we teach families, and what we teach our guys is to hold each other accountable on both sides of the fence. This way, everybody knows I've offered (a recruit) a scholarship."</p>
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<p>Fitzgerald advocated a 48-hour decision window for recruits to either sign or decline a scholarship offer. If a recruit does not sign a national letter of intent or reject the offer within that time frame, the offer becomes void, expediting the method of reaching the destination and forcing student-athletes to explore other options.</p>
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<p>This can mean one of two things. The first option, which the Wildcat Digest guys told me they interpreted it to mean, is that a recruit would have 48 hours from receiving an offer. This is an absolutely terrible idea, for a couple reasons:</p>
<p> </p>
<ol>
<li><span>It would be impossible to track.</span></li>
<li><span>Are players supposed to just hope that they'd receive another offer if they decline during the 48-hour window? What if it's a kid's dream to go to Ohio State, and he decides to turn down Northwestern in hopes of gaining an OSU offer, but that offer never comes? Is he just out of luck? That's incredibly unfair to kids trying to make informed decisions.</span></li>
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<p> </p>
<p>But let's give Fitzgerald the benefit of the doubt and say he was referencing having a 48-hour time period to sign — possibly an early signing period, as he's advocated for before. Is an arbitrary, 48-hour limit really going to change things for Fitzgerald or help players any more than the current process? Or what if it was proposing the 48-hour window after the verbal commitment? That still limits the ability for players to make an informed decision.</p>
<p>This is all about Fitzgerald and other college coaches having even more control over recruits. And it ends up causing players to make ill-informed decisions, rather than figure out what's best for them. And frankly, it's better for schools like Northwestern, which will struggle more than the powerhouses when kids have other options.</p>
<p>There are solutions to Fitzgerald's worries that would be more realistic. For instance, <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2014/07/do_away_with_national_signing.html" target="_blank">Bo Pelini would like to get rid of National Signing Day altogether</a> to help slow down the recruiting process and make sure players can sign whenever they feel they are ready. That's player-friendly and coach-friendly without giving coaches all the power.</p>
https://www.insidenu.com/2014/7/29/5948823/pat-fitzgerald-proposes-48-hour-signing-windowKevin Trahan2014-07-29T11:53:40-05:002014-07-29T11:53:40-05:00Depth a major strength in defensive backfield
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<figcaption>Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>Through recruiting and player development, Northwestern has developed a deep crop of defensive backs.</p> <p>CHICAGO -- By all indications, Northwestern's current crop of defensive backs is one of, if not the deepest position groups on the roster heading into training camp.</p>
<p>Heading into 2013, cornerback was a bit of question. While Nick VanHoose was a stalwart at one position, the other spot was one by Daniel Jones. Jones, who has since <a target="_blank" href="http://www.insidenu.com/2014/7/29/5947751/Daniel-Jones-Northwestern-retires">retired</a> from football, missed the entire season with an injury, opening the door for then-freshmen Matt Harris and Dwight White. Along with those two players' experience, others such as Keith Watkins and Parrker Westphal will be challenging for playing time.</p>
<p>"We're going to have great competition in camp," Coach Pat Fitzgerald said." I think that what we learned in the spring is that we've got pretty solid depth there."</p>
<p>The best part of the depth, Fitzgerald noted, was that Northwestern has "depth in classes," meaning that the talent on the roster is not exclusively concentrated in one class or another. Since 2010, Northwestern's recruiting classes have shown a conscious effort to recruit talented DBs, often turning players listed as "athletes" into defenders.</p>
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<td>CLASS</td>
<td>RECRUIT</td>
<td>AVERAGE RATING (from 247 Sports)</td>
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<td>2010</td>
<td>
<p>Ibraheim Campbell, S</p>
<p>CJ Bryant, CB</p>
<p>Daniel Jones, CB</p>
<p>Jimmy Hall, S</p>
</td>
<td>.8241</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2011</td>
<td>
<p>Jarrell Williams, CB</p>
<p>Nick VanHoose, CB</p>
</td>
<td>.82945</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2012</td>
<td>
<p>Traveon Henry, S</p>
<p>Terrance Brown, S</p>
<p>Dwight White, CB</p>
</td>
<td>.82613</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2013</td>
<td>
<p>Godwin Igwebuike, S</p>
<p>Kyle Queiro, S</p>
<p>Keith Watkins, CB</p>
<p>Marcus McShepard, CB</p>
<p>Matt Harris, CB</p>
</td>
<td>.84708</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2014</td>
<td>
<p>Parrker Westphal, CB</p>
<p>Jared McGee</p>
</td>
<td>.8617</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<p>But Fitzgerald made it clear that not all of the players looking for playing time would see it on defense. Many, he said will make a major impact on special teams.</p>
<p>"We've got talent behind them that want to play and they're going to compete to play and I think there's going to be a lot of roles filled by that whole group," he said. "Especially early in that first month, that group of athletes needs to dominate in the kicking game for us. For me to be excited about that group, that's what I need to see. I know they all want to play DB, I get it.</p>
<p>"As a young player, you've got to embrace that role. If you embrace it–that's not why I recruited those guys, who are we kidding–you're going to get your nose bloody, do some fun things, do some things where the only people who are going to know about it are your mom, your dad and girlfriend because nobody knows who all the working parts are in the kicking game except for the snapper, holder and kicker and punter and kick returner. Nobody else knows who the rest of the guys are. Those guys will get their nose bloody that way the first month."</p>
<p>Heading into his senior season, All-Big Ten safety Ibraheim Campbell has also recognized the depth of his position group, citing the ability for players to be interchangeable as a major plus.</p>
<p>"You definitely kind of recognize that the level of athlete that we have playing in our defensive backfield is better than I've seen since I've been here and it's fun to watch," Cambell said. "That whole interchangeable aspect of it is something that they're really trying to develop because while you may be a great athlete the whole experience thing is something that you can't replace so we're really trying to harp on getting guys prepared this off season to step on to the field, not necessarily as a back up and be prepared as if they were a starter every week."</p>
https://www.insidenu.com/2014/7/29/5948365/Northwestern-defensive-backs-depthJosh Rosenblat2014-07-29T10:22:42-05:002014-07-29T10:22:42-05:00Daniel Jones to retire from football
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<p>Defensive back Daniel Jones has retired from college football due to injuries.</p> <p>Cornerback Daniel Jones will retire from the Northwestern football program but will stay at the school.</p>
<p>The senior suffered a season-ending left knee injury in the 2013 season opener at Cal and also missed games in 2012 due to an injury. Jones suffered another injury this spring.</p>
<p>Jones started at corner in 2012 and maintained his hold on the position opposite Nick VanHoose coming into 2013. Replaced by Matt Harris and Dwight White, Jones was battling to win his spot back in a competition with those two and others in the Northwestern secondary.</p>
<p>Harris now looks to be the favorite to start at corner heading into camp.</p>
https://www.insidenu.com/2014/7/29/5947751/Daniel-Jones-Northwestern-retiresJosh Rosenblat2014-07-29T09:41:56-05:002014-07-29T09:41:56-05:00Are military comparisons in CFB disingenuous?
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<p>Northwestern has a number of military-themed promotions and team-building exercises — like other teams — that are intended to support the military. But as some people have suggested, does the promotion ever cross the line to an inappropriate false equivalency?</p> <p>Kain Colter's comparison was innocent, really. It was something he would never think to be disrespectful.</p>
<p>When testifying at the Northwestern football unionization hearing in February, when Colter was asked to give some perspective on the challenges of being a college football player, he compared playing football to the thing he'd seen it compared to most often in his college career.</p>
<p>"I like to think of it like the military," <a target="_blank" href="http://www.si.com/college-football/2014/02/18/kain-colter-northwestern-union">he said</a>. "They spend months and weeks preparing for operations. We spend months getting ready for our operations."</p>
<p>The comment drew ire from critics who recognized the absurdity of that statement. There is no conceivable comparison between preparing to play Ohio State and preparing for war. One is a game, one is necessary for national security. One is about pride, one is a matter of life and death. Nobody would dare suggest that what Northwestern's football team does is as significant as what the Navy SEALs do on a daily basis.</p>
<p>But this comparison made sense to Colter, even if it's not the one Northwestern intended for him to get, because for four years, he saw his college football team mentioned synonymously with the military in what has become a common, yet perhaps uncomfortable, trend in college football.</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>Northwestern isn't the only team to incorporate military comparisons, rhetoric and promotion into its culture. Plenty of teams train with units in the armed forces as part of preseason camp. But the fusion of military and football culture is as evident at Northwestern as it is anywhere in the country but the service academies — the only places that actually have a substantive military component to what they do.</p>
<p>This June, for the third straight year, Northwestern trained with the Navy SEALs as part of a team-building exercise.</p>
<p><iframe frameborder="0" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/FF6zV0Y2qgI" height="315" width="560"></iframe></p>
<p>Every year, Northwestern has an American flag "N" on its field and helmets.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>A flag "N" to go with Northwestern's American flag unis today <a href="http://t.co/gaG41YyxDB">pic.twitter.com/gaG41YyxDB</a> (via <a href="https://twitter.com/DaveEanet">@DaveEanet</a>)</p>
— darren rovell (@darrenrovell) <a href="https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/statuses/401798482664493057">November 16, 2013</a>
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<p>And last year, Northwestern wore American flag uniforms that drew criticism for having what some thought looked like "blood spatter" on them.</p>
<blockquote lang="en" class="twitter-tweet">
<p>Northwestern to honor Wounded Warriors Project with special <a href="https://twitter.com/UnderArmour">@UnderArmour</a> uniforms <a href="http://t.co/IrhOTsPEOo">http://t.co/IrhOTsPEOo</a> / <a href="http://t.co/szrYLiHzEJ">pic.twitter.com/szrYLiHzEJ</a></p>
— Sporting News (@sportingnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/sportingnews/statuses/397417744833859585">November 4, 2013</a>
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<p>To be clear, Northwestern doesn't mean to be disingenuous or disrespectful at all in its incorporation of military themes into football. The SEALs have enjoyed their partnership with Northwestern — Pat Fitzgerald called it a series of "personal relationships" that set this all up.</p>
<p>"The parallels, I think, are about the life lessons and the team lessons you can learn," Fitzgerald said at Big Ten Media Days. "We were able to train under, work through and work together, and we're very thankful that they share their expertise."</p>
<p>This all makes sense. Fitzgerald is looking for ways to use the brotherhood aspect of the military to bring his team together, not compare the actual duties of the team and of football players to Navy SEALs. The SEALs training is meant to inspire team-building. The flag uniforms benefited the Wounded Warrior Project, and that criticism, in particular, bothered Fitzgerald.</p>
<p>"I think it goes back to, what is your intent?" he said. "I was shocked to hear the things I did about our uniforms last year when we're raising money for the Wounded Warrior Project."</p>
<p>But on touchy subjects like this one, intent is irrelevant. And while Fitzgerald and Northwestern truly do want to support the troops with these efforts, there's something uncomfortable about the military comparisons. That point was raised by SB Nation's Matt Ufford — a Northwestern grad and a veteran — who <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/2013/11/8/5079250/authentically-distressed-the-problem-with-northwesterns-flag-uniforms" target="_blank" style="background-color: #ffffff;">criticized the promotion that he viewed as more disingenuous than respectful</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sporting events, particularly around Veterans Day, have a habit of condensing military service into an easily digestible slice of patriotism. The PA announcer says words like "heroic" and "sacrifice" without context or meaning while soldiers and sailors stand in camouflage or dress uniforms, a <a sl-processed="1" href="http://theclassical.org/articles/38-seconds" target="_blank">38-second tribute </a>that squeezes an emotional trigger for the audience while whitewashing the devastating effects of war -- its 500-pound bombs and rubbled buildings, its stolen sons and daughters, its impossible and unfair cruelty.</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>Northwestern's flag uniforms perpetuate this dishonest interpretation, and a 10 percent cut of jersey sales* to a veterans non-profit isn't enough to sell me on a lie. Putting words like HONOR, COURAGE, and DUTY in place of players' names only dilutes the meaning of words that guide an ethos for people who stand silently on a sports field between commercials so the crowd can feel something about America.
</p>
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<p>Simply put, Ufford said he wanted to "disembark the bullshit train to Jingotown."</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>Sports far beyond the scope of Northwestern football tend to have a jingoistic aspect to them.</p>
<p>Throw on an American flag-themed uniform, do some SEAL training, compare the football field to the battlefield and team chemistry/brotherhood to the brotherhood displayed on the battlefield, and suddenly, the message becomes less about respect and more like, "We understand you — we treat our duties with the same significance you do," even if it's not intended that way.</p>
<p>When it reaches that point — the point where the duties of a football player are considered to be within the same realm of the duties of a soldier — hasn't the tribute gone too far?</p>
<p>Northwestern will continue its military promotions and military-themed football exercises, because the school believes doing so is good for the program and good for the armed forces. And I believe they do it with the best intentions.</p>
<p>But when respect becomes a comparison — this idea that jingoistic/patriotic promotion is necessary in sports because of some false equivalency between football and the military — then it's fair to wonder, as many have, when support crosses an inappropriate line, regardless of how it's intended.</p>
https://www.insidenu.com/northwestern-wildcats-football/2014/7/29/5947315/military-college-football-northwestern-navy-sealsKevin Trahan2014-07-28T12:51:11-05:002014-07-28T12:51:11-05:00Pat Fitzgerald is sorry, Nebraska fans
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<p>Last week, Pat Fitzgerald caused a bit of a stir when he commented on the "nothingness" in Nebraska, and that a lack of anything to do <a target="_blank" href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/chi-northwestern-football-coach-pat-fitzgerald-sinks-winning-putt-zings-nebraska-fans-20140722,0,2069895.story">is what causes Huskers fans to travel to away games</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"It's a pretty boring state, so they're really excited to see Chicago," Fitzgerald said. "I talked to the state senator about putting state troopers out on I-80 (to block them)."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Of course, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.insidenu.com/2014/7/23/5929451/Pat-Fitzgerald-Nebraska-Cal">people overreacted</a>, because Nebraska fans overreact <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2014/5/6/5687056/big-ten-tournament-washington-dc-verizon-center#comments">to basically everything</a>. So on Monday, when the Nebraska media got to talk to Fitzgerald, he issued an "apology," stating the obvious that the was just complimenting how impressive it is that Nebraska fans travel that well.</p>
<p>"Our fans need to step up," Fitzgerald said, <a target="_blank" href="http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/104258/fitzgerald-apologizes-to-nebraska-fans">according to ESPN.com</a>.</p>
<p>There was more, too:</p>
<blockquote lang="en" class="twitter-tweet">
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Northwestern?src=hash">#Northwestern</a> HC Pat Fitzgerald: "I've learned a lot of new hashtags on Twitter from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Nebraska?src=hash">#Nebraska</a> fans. They're very creative."</p>
— Brian Hamilton (@BrianHamiltonSI) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrianHamiltonSI/statuses/493776021158514688">July 28, 2014</a>
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<p>Serves you right, Fitz, disparaging the 4-loss tradition of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (or, as they put it, Nebraska University).</p>
https://www.insidenu.com/2014/7/28/5945241/pat-fitzgerald-is-sorry-nebraska-fansKevin Trahan2014-07-28T11:31:44-05:002014-07-28T11:31:44-05:00Pat Fitzgerald wants to talk about his young men.<img src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lwkn52owjH9LMmifSG-C8UtEkpM=/410x410/cdn.vox-cdn.com/fan_shot_images/336888/Screen_Shot_2014-07-28_at_12.24.53_PM.png" />
<div class="source source-img"><p><p>As we pointed out <a href="http://www.insidenu.com/2014/7/18/5914159/the-official-insidenu-terms-sheet" target="new">in our terms sheet</a>, Pat Fitzgerald loves to talk about his "young men." Basically, it's a way to point out that Fitz doesn't just coach football players, he turns them into terrific ... well ... young men.</p>
<p>According to the ASAP Sports transcript, Fitz said the term six times during his opening 15 minute media session — a little over once every two minutes. To contrast that, he said "Northwestern" and "Big Ten" just twice each.</p>
<p>During the breakout sessions, which are not transcribed, he said it even more ... up to 10 times, according to Paul Banks.</p>
<p>We might not get football for another month, but it's great to see that Fitz's talking points are in midseason form.</p></p></div>
https://www.insidenu.com/2014/7/28/5944977/pat-fitzgerald-says-young-men-six-times-in-15-minutesKevin Trahan2014-07-28T11:19:02-05:002014-07-28T11:19:02-05:00The best Northwestern quotes from B1G Media Days
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<p>Take a look at the best quotes from Pat Fitzgerald and Northwestern's player representatives at Big Ten Media Days.</p>
<p><b>On improving next year:</b> "We needed to improve our strength this offseason. We had 176 personal records in the weight room in the three core lifts by our student-athletes. And it's a great job by our strength coach, Jay Hooten, and, most importantly, guys working their tails off to improve in an area we were lacking last year."</p>
<p><b>On unity after the union effort:</b> "As we visited throughout the whole offseason, I believe there's no more unified football program in the country. We've been through more since probably January than most, and it's been nothing but a positive and nothing more than unifying in our locker room and throughout our entire football program. So I think we're a leg up from that standpoint."</p>
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<p>Fitz said being able to keep his assistants has been NU's biggest asset.</p>
— Inside Northwestern (@insidenu) <a href="https://twitter.com/insidenu/statuses/493769624362553348">July 28, 2014</a>
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<p>Fitz: "Preseason hype all goes back to last year." Yupp <a href="http://t.co/X0Zqf47QOD">http://t.co/X0Zqf47QOD</a></p>
— Inside Northwestern (@insidenu) <a href="https://twitter.com/insidenu/statuses/493770074944065539">July 28, 2014</a>
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<p>Fitz said he doesn't think luck was an issue last year. Well ...</p>
— Inside Northwestern (@insidenu) <a href="https://twitter.com/insidenu/statuses/493770697173262337">July 28, 2014</a>
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<p>Fitz has talked to Colter a few times. About the union? "Ha! No."</p>
— Inside Northwestern (@insidenu) <a href="https://twitter.com/insidenu/statuses/493771300846850049">July 28, 2014</a>
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<p>Fitz hopes SOS is more important than being "sexy." Concerned about those like NU who have to "overcome a stigma."</p>
— Inside Northwestern (@insidenu) <a href="https://twitter.com/insidenu/statuses/493771801130848257">July 28, 2014</a>
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<p>Ibraheim Campbell said there's a "new level of athlete" in the secondary that's come in the past few classes.</p>
— Inside Northwestern (@insidenu) <a href="https://twitter.com/insidenu/statuses/493774585666367488">July 28, 2014</a>
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<p>Fitz on Nebraska comments: "It was a bad joke … I know it was a bad joke." Said he was just having fun, complimenting their traveling.</p>
— Inside Northwestern (@insidenu) <a href="https://twitter.com/insidenu/statuses/493775418088882179">July 28, 2014</a>
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<p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Northwestern?src=hash">#Northwestern</a> HC Pat Fitzgerald: "I've learned a lot of new hashtags on Twitter from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Nebraska?src=hash">#Nebraska</a> fans. They're very creative."</p>
— Brian Hamilton (@BrianHamiltonSI) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrianHamiltonSI/statuses/493776021158514688">July 28, 2014</a>
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<p>Siemian mentions QB Clayton Thorson as a player he's excited about in a couple years.</p>
— Inside Northwestern (@insidenu) <a href="https://twitter.com/insidenu/statuses/493775898814857216">July 28, 2014</a>
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<p>Fitz doesn't want to talk about players getting paid. Says it's "one variable" and not a solution to the problem.</p>
— Inside Northwestern (@insidenu) <a href="https://twitter.com/insidenu/statuses/493780212287430656">July 28, 2014</a>
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https://www.insidenu.com/2014/7/28/5944879/the-best-northwestern-quotes-from-b1g-media-daysKevin Trahan