Per usual, our paraphrased recap of James Franklin's Thursday night radio show for you guys here in the Den, beginning with his opening remarks.
- They practiced out in the rain tonight. Got some great rain work. The guys handled it really well, which was encouraging and capped a week of great preparation as rain is expected in Chicago this weekend.
On players figuring out practice routines:
- They changed something this year. In the past, for these types of environments they’ve turned music off and asked players to create their own juice. It’s just a different environment there, but they decided not to do that this year. Kept with the routine with music at practice. The energy was really good. Will wake up, have a pregame meal and then it’s kickoff at 11 a.m. Staying on east coast time. Will have all meetings an hour earlier than normal. Have played good first quarter football all year and need to continue that. No excuses. Feels like they have a really good plan.
Right tackle:
- Won’t get into what’s going on at that position. There’s a situation where a returning starter in Nellie has been limited. Have a right tackle in Wright who played really well the second half of the year but has been limited for a number of reasons. And then Fries has done a good job but is still learning and growing. They would love to have continuity, but they’re growing and learning and it’s important that they continue that. It hasn’t been perfect, but he likes the strides they’re making.
Will Fries experience:
- In a perfect world, you’d love to have the same five starters all year, but that rarely happens. It’s been invaluable for Fries. He’s got a very bright future. It will help long term for depth. Last year lost guys, and moved Bates, and got Chasz time. These things will happen, and will help when the opportunity comes. It hasn’t helped in the immediate, but long term he expects it to.
Focus for the 2019 recruiting class:
- That’s the thing that he tries to do as much as possible - was talking to scout team the other day - the position coaches have 80 percent job of getting ready for Northwestern and 20 percent getting ready for next year through development. As the head coach, it’s 50-50. Conversation with the scout DL, Ellison Jordan by the way he’s practicing this year will have a significant role. Same for Daniel Joseph and Antonio Shelton. The rest of the guys, can’t say the same, and it’ll be too late. Can’t speak to the ’19 class yet until the ’18 class signs. A lot will change between now and December and February. Always have to sign a QB. Want to avoid skipping a year, even if there isn’t a need at each position.
Redshirting players vs. graduating players early:
- Everyone realizes, it’s simple math, that you get more value out of a 22-year old senior than an 18-year old true freshman. The hard part now is that most guys graduate in 3 1/2 years. So guys have another year left of eligibility - Sickels and Barnes - but they’ve graduated and so they leave. So it’s a question in a decision of redshirting vs. having that fifth year. It’s a difficult balance. The developmental aspect is so important because maturity is magnified more than in any other sport.
Turf at Iowa:
- It’s different. No doubt about it. The stuff coming up is rubber. You have the artificial turf and grains of grass, then they pour sand on it to weigh it down and create some softness. The old turf on the back porch with no padding would tear your skin off. Now the sand down creates softness and rubber on top of it gives it more cushion. Then they rake the turf to try to get that sand and rubber to fall so the grass stands up. If you’re playing on the turf all the time you get used to it, so there’s a little home field advantage. But, never understood old adage that growing grass to slow down opponent because it slows you down too. It’s really not that different, though.
Standout individual development this year:
- It’s usually the redshirt freshmen. That first year they think they know and get smacked in the face by veteran college football. No one cares about rankings. Some can make the jump, but for most there’s a huge wakeup call. Then they get bigger, stronger, and develop. He notices the redshirt freshmen the most, particularly on the scout team. Zech McPhearson had a long conversation with him this week and has a bright future, but he has to take that next step. Then also, some of those true sophomores like Miles Sanders that played but might not have played a lot, start to also figure it out.
Shareef Miller’s development:
- He’s a guy, like a lot of them, that shows up that thinks they know and should start, but go through it. He’s gotten faster, bigger and stronger. Although he’s 255 pounds, he’s got skinny, tiny legs. That’s also why he runs so well. He’s just a really good athlete. But watching guys like Nassib and Sickels develop and grow and have some patience, it’s been good mentors and experiences. And Spencer does such a good job with the DL, he’s really starting to figure it out. Has really embraced it all and is doing really well in all areas of his life.
Indiana blitz package, and McGovern’s responsibilities calling it out:
- It’s a combination of McGovern and McSorley. It’s similar to how he did it with the Packers and Favre. The center makes the calls first and they stand, unless McSorley see s something on the perimeter that McGovern can’t, and adjusts it. Sliding protection for edge pressure to the left or right, and a lot is based on Trace’s film study being able to anticipate where the pressure is coming from. The safeties are what give it away. When you see a safety rotate to the right and left go toward the middle of the field, that tells you usually where it’s coming from. It allows linebacker to blitz, and the safety is replacing that. So that’s what the QB is looking for to see how linebackers are skewed. And the defense is trying to disguise it. That’s where you see QBs with the game slowing down because they can anticipate where blitz is coming from, anticipate the protection and where they go with the ball. If you have to figure it all out post snap, it happens too fast and that’s what happens a lot with young quarterbacks.
- They practiced out in the rain tonight. Got some great rain work. The guys handled it really well, which was encouraging and capped a week of great preparation as rain is expected in Chicago this weekend.
On players figuring out practice routines:
- They changed something this year. In the past, for these types of environments they’ve turned music off and asked players to create their own juice. It’s just a different environment there, but they decided not to do that this year. Kept with the routine with music at practice. The energy was really good. Will wake up, have a pregame meal and then it’s kickoff at 11 a.m. Staying on east coast time. Will have all meetings an hour earlier than normal. Have played good first quarter football all year and need to continue that. No excuses. Feels like they have a really good plan.
Right tackle:
- Won’t get into what’s going on at that position. There’s a situation where a returning starter in Nellie has been limited. Have a right tackle in Wright who played really well the second half of the year but has been limited for a number of reasons. And then Fries has done a good job but is still learning and growing. They would love to have continuity, but they’re growing and learning and it’s important that they continue that. It hasn’t been perfect, but he likes the strides they’re making.
Will Fries experience:
- In a perfect world, you’d love to have the same five starters all year, but that rarely happens. It’s been invaluable for Fries. He’s got a very bright future. It will help long term for depth. Last year lost guys, and moved Bates, and got Chasz time. These things will happen, and will help when the opportunity comes. It hasn’t helped in the immediate, but long term he expects it to.
Focus for the 2019 recruiting class:
- That’s the thing that he tries to do as much as possible - was talking to scout team the other day - the position coaches have 80 percent job of getting ready for Northwestern and 20 percent getting ready for next year through development. As the head coach, it’s 50-50. Conversation with the scout DL, Ellison Jordan by the way he’s practicing this year will have a significant role. Same for Daniel Joseph and Antonio Shelton. The rest of the guys, can’t say the same, and it’ll be too late. Can’t speak to the ’19 class yet until the ’18 class signs. A lot will change between now and December and February. Always have to sign a QB. Want to avoid skipping a year, even if there isn’t a need at each position.
Redshirting players vs. graduating players early:
- Everyone realizes, it’s simple math, that you get more value out of a 22-year old senior than an 18-year old true freshman. The hard part now is that most guys graduate in 3 1/2 years. So guys have another year left of eligibility - Sickels and Barnes - but they’ve graduated and so they leave. So it’s a question in a decision of redshirting vs. having that fifth year. It’s a difficult balance. The developmental aspect is so important because maturity is magnified more than in any other sport.
Turf at Iowa:
- It’s different. No doubt about it. The stuff coming up is rubber. You have the artificial turf and grains of grass, then they pour sand on it to weigh it down and create some softness. The old turf on the back porch with no padding would tear your skin off. Now the sand down creates softness and rubber on top of it gives it more cushion. Then they rake the turf to try to get that sand and rubber to fall so the grass stands up. If you’re playing on the turf all the time you get used to it, so there’s a little home field advantage. But, never understood old adage that growing grass to slow down opponent because it slows you down too. It’s really not that different, though.
Standout individual development this year:
- It’s usually the redshirt freshmen. That first year they think they know and get smacked in the face by veteran college football. No one cares about rankings. Some can make the jump, but for most there’s a huge wakeup call. Then they get bigger, stronger, and develop. He notices the redshirt freshmen the most, particularly on the scout team. Zech McPhearson had a long conversation with him this week and has a bright future, but he has to take that next step. Then also, some of those true sophomores like Miles Sanders that played but might not have played a lot, start to also figure it out.
Shareef Miller’s development:
- He’s a guy, like a lot of them, that shows up that thinks they know and should start, but go through it. He’s gotten faster, bigger and stronger. Although he’s 255 pounds, he’s got skinny, tiny legs. That’s also why he runs so well. He’s just a really good athlete. But watching guys like Nassib and Sickels develop and grow and have some patience, it’s been good mentors and experiences. And Spencer does such a good job with the DL, he’s really starting to figure it out. Has really embraced it all and is doing really well in all areas of his life.
Indiana blitz package, and McGovern’s responsibilities calling it out:
- It’s a combination of McGovern and McSorley. It’s similar to how he did it with the Packers and Favre. The center makes the calls first and they stand, unless McSorley see s something on the perimeter that McGovern can’t, and adjusts it. Sliding protection for edge pressure to the left or right, and a lot is based on Trace’s film study being able to anticipate where the pressure is coming from. The safeties are what give it away. When you see a safety rotate to the right and left go toward the middle of the field, that tells you usually where it’s coming from. It allows linebacker to blitz, and the safety is replacing that. So that’s what the QB is looking for to see how linebackers are skewed. And the defense is trying to disguise it. That’s where you see QBs with the game slowing down because they can anticipate where blitz is coming from, anticipate the protection and where they go with the ball. If you have to figure it all out post snap, it happens too fast and that’s what happens a lot with young quarterbacks.
