Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1179542
22 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 . I O W A But earlier this month he also said enough of the season has passed that his young ones aren't freshmen anymore. "Uh-uh," he agreed one more time. So why are they still doing that, pressing and trying to do too much? "That's the same question I'm asking them," Fitzgerald said. "I'll leave. The guys'll be here. Why don't you ask them? I agree. I totally agree. First of all, especially offensively, we've played some pretty frickin' good defenses now. That's not an excuse. That's a reality. And we've done some really good things, and we've turned the ball over. We're not playing and coaching at an All Big Ten level on that side of the ball. Name one guy— (tackle) Rashawn Slater is probably playing at an All Big Ten level." Center Jared Thomas. "I agree. That's two. We play with 11, 12 if you include the coaches. So we got 10 who aren't. We've got to be better. That's what we're working on. There's no magical"— and here he leaned over and searched under the podium—"it's not here. We've got to work at it at practice. We've got to get better at it. They've got to take the practice stuff to the games. We've got guys doing things in games, I look at the tape and go, 'What the — are you doing?' They're panicking because they're getting into a situation where they're thinking— I don't know what (they're thinking). That's what I'm paying their coaches to do. Find out what the heck is in their mind and why they can't just trust themselves and go play. That's why we hit that board (that has the word "TRUST" on it). Right now we've got guys who aren't doing that." So he is as frustrated as fans who are watching? "As Walk (the late Randy Walker) said, 'I'm just Chuckles the Clown. I'm just having the time of my life.' Yeah. No. Guys are doing things that I just don't get it. Usually, when there's a semblance of competitive depth, I can pull a guy and put a guy in. Kick game is kind of easy (to do that) right now. Offensively we've got some injuries in some areas and we've had some issues personnel wise in a position in particular— we're rolling with what we've got because everybody else, quite frankly, isn't ready to go out into the arena. So that's what we're rolling with. We've just got to coach them better and just get them to be more consistent and trust the fundamentals and the technique and execute the play. But most importantly, trust themselves. More important than anything. When guys aren't taking it to the game—