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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 . P U R D U E
EXCEPTION, NOT RULE
By: Skip Myslenski
There were some nuts and bolts and even a half-penny nail or two tossed around at Pat Fitzgerald's
traditional Monday presser. There was the harsh reality that no 'Cat copped the Defensive Big
Playmaker Award coming out of the Indiana loss, which was no real surprise. It was, after all, the
fourth straight game in which it had failed to created a turnover. There was also more news from
the hospital ward, Fitzgerald announcing that running back Isaiah Bowser would not be playing
Saturday against Purdue and that corner Greg Newsome II and d end Samdup Miller, both of whom
went down against the Hoosiers, were done for the year.
There was a discussion of how this continuing spate of injuries has influenced some of his coaching
decisions. "The number one motivator is still the bench," Fitzgerald would say here. "At some positions
I would have made some major changes if I had something to go to. We don't have that right now. So
we're working everyday one play at a time, trying to get guys to execute better, execute cleaner. And
then getting their confidence up when it's a negative you-know-what storm around them. They've just
got to continue to trudge on and just keep working. That's the way life is. We told the guys, and we'll
tell them again tomorrow when we meet, when you face adversity, you learn a lot about yourself, and
this is a life lesson you'll take with you the rest of your life. You may not like it, but you know what?
Life doesn't care. Life doesn't care. So you've got to keep fighting through it and at a certain point it
will turn."
The quarterback Hunter Johnson was brought up. He relieved starter Aidan Smith in Saturday's
second quarter, which marked his first game appearance in over a month, but then exited it in the
third after getting sacked for a loss of six.
