Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1177122
36 n o r t h w e s t e r n f o o t b a l l • D I G I T A L P R O G R A M • N O R T H W E S T E R N v s . O h i o S t a t e coach spotlight THE INNER WORKINGS They operate always in a world called The Pit. Yet there, in a maelstrom of gigantic bodies, they must perform with the fine precision of a diamond cutter. Their calling card is their size and their strength. Yet, concurrently, their successes and failures are determined by the quickness of their feet and their mastery of technique. They are the most valorous of football players, consigned to operate in a swirling mélange of hands and elbows, heads and shoulders. Yet their virtues are oft-overlooked and the complexity of their job is little understood. This is why Anderson's breadth of knowledge is not unimportant. Consider. Every day, said Vogel, "He stresses just being nasty and just finishing, (playing) through the whistle and basically instilling fear into our opponent by being more physical than them. . . What he instills in us is being protectors on the field, having everybody on the offense's back. Just being the guys who are tough and willing to get beat up and go get in fights on the line of scrimmage so that we can have our fast, pretty guys running around behind us." But when Anderson is asked that, he said, "First of all, like I have told them, you can't be nasty unless you're using the proper technique. Eye progression. And know where and how to do things. You have got to understand things conceptually, not just what you are supposed to do. If you can do all those things, you can play fast and physical. That is how you intimidate, by playing fast and playing physical. If you do not know those things, your aggressiveness turns into penalties. When you know what you are doing, then aggressiveness turns to nastiness and now you know how to finish and be physical. Attention to details. Little details make up big things." "Absolutely. Absolutely," Thomas will soon attest. "For me, I look at my game when I first came in, I was very raw. I had the ability, but it was not put together. There is so much you have to learn. But once you really invest yourself in the technique and you are confident in what you are doing and what you are seeing, that is when you can be nasty. You don't have to think about it. You can just be nasty with your technique." JUNIOR OL GUNNAR VOGEL