NU's Fitzgerald focuses on offensive line
It's bad enough Northwestern ranks 89th nationally in rushing with just 122.8 yards per game.
The worse news is that, of the five Football Bowl Subdivision teams the Wildcats have faced, all but one rank among the nation's bottom third in rushing defense.
In essence, not only have the Wildcats struggled to run the ball, they've struggled against teams that ordinarily fare poorly against the run.
This might explain why Pat Fitzgerald and offensive line coach Adam Cushing have thrown open the competition this week at the three interior line spots.
As the Wildcats (4-2, 1-1) prepare to travel on Saturday to Michigan State (3-3, 2-1) - home of the nation's No. 23 run defense - senior left guard Desmond Taylor, sophomore center Ben Burkett, sophomore right guard and junior reserve Keegan Grant are playing musical chairs for three spots.
Considering Burkett owns 19 straight starts, Bartels has 15 straight starts and Taylor would have 19 in a row if not for a one-game illness, these are fighting words from the coaches.
Which, of course, is the point.
"We're going to see who practices the most fundamentally and technically sound with the attitude that we want," Fitzgerald said. "That gentleman will get the opportunity to go out there first. I'm looking forward to seeing the guys take the right steps forward and take what we just coached them on here (Monday) morning to practice this week."
Such issues weren't expected when the season began.
Northwestern retained four starters from last year's group that helped the Wildcats rush for 141.8 yards per game, good for the middle of the national pack. And this year's "new" starter, senior right tackle Kurt Mattes, started all of 2007 when NU led the Big Ten in regular-season total offense.
So what are the problems?
"There's certain things that we do that you need to do fundamentally," Fitzgerald said. "One of which has a lot to do with footwork and the way we target our eyes when we put our hands and helmets in placement on run plays. We weren't doing that consistently enough.
"So, with that being the case, some guys were running behind blocks (and) running around blocks and we weren't targeting and playing together across the board."
Turn it up: Starting with this week's game at Michigan State, Northwestern's last six opponents boast a combined record of 23-12. Their first six opponents have a combined record of 9-25.
The Wildcats start their big second half with an indoor practice at 6:50 a.m. today. Why indoors? So they can blast music and prepare for the anticipated cacophony that 75,000 fans will make at Spartan Stadium.
"What we're going to do this week is handle the noise that we'll put in the indoor tomorrow and jack it up as loud as we possibly can," Fitzgerald said. "And I'll have Excedrin No. 10 by noon tomorrow."
Disabled list: Junior running back Stephen Simmons, who walked around the locker room area with no discernible limp, has returned to the top of the depth chart.
Simmons missed three games with an ankle problem before rushing 2 times for 3 yards last week.
Senior co-captain Brendan Smith, however, is listed as a co-starter at his safety spot with Brian Peters. Smith, who injured his hand against Miami (Ohio), might not be able to go at Michigan State. Pat Fitzgerald suggested he'll know more later in the week.
Upon further review: Northwestern's stats crew overrode a problem with its software on Sunday and credited linebacker Quentin Davie with a third sack against Miami (Ohio).
That gave NU a school-record 8 sacks for the game.