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
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THE FOUNDATION
Last spring, as he worked with his players for the first time, Anderson mentioned an offensive lineman's 'Creed', a Creed he would not discuss
since his 'Cats had yet to earn it with their play. Now, in the dead of summer, he is asked if it has yet been earned.
"They earned that Creed," he said. "It is something that offensive lines that have played for me, it is something they all share. It is something
that stays in the O line room and is not given to those guys until they earned it. And they earned it going into the last spring practice. In that
meeting beforehand, we took the last 15 minutes of that meeting and they learned that Creed."
"I am not going to share the whole thing because it is pretty long and pretty personal to the guys on the offensive line," Vogel as already said
when asked about it. "But the gist of it is being mean, strong guys on the field, but being gentlemen off the field and standing up for your
teammates and being men of character all around in our lives."
"Yep. Yep. Yep," Anderson said when hearing that. "Part of it is your identity off the field. But 'The Creed' is really about who we are on the field.
There is a lot of lingo and stuff like that. But again. That is something that is sacred. These guys take that as something that is very sacred. They
don't share it with anybody, and I cannot share it with anybody either."
"I don't think I can share that either," Jared Thomas politely said minutes later.
How about just the gist then?
"What he said earlier," Thomas finally said. "We have got to come out and we have got to play nasty every single play. That is what is ultimately
in 'The Creed.' It is an honor to have that Creed as a unit. That is truly what offensive line play is, us playing as a unit. That is not something we
take lightly. That is not something Coach Anderson takes lightly.
"So, each and every game that's going to be in the back of our minds as we are going out to battle."
