Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1182928
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 21 "I'd say he's day-to-day," Fitzgerald said of his availability. "He took a pretty big hit that, in my opinion, was unnecessary. But it happened and he's going to have to respond to it." Then, of course, the 'Cats impotent offense was touched upon, Fitzgerald once more avowing that it looked good in practice, but, come game time, "There's been a disconnect." And what is not translating this season that translated a year ago? "A fourth-year quarterback, that would be number one," he said, referring to Clayton Thorson. "The confidence in himself that he had. Been in a lot of battles, good and bad. Lot of self confidence. Trusted himself. Understood the offense like the back of his hand. Could get us out of bad plays. Just had a lot of confidence in and trust in himself and what we were doing and knew it and could go execute it. You guys have seen us play. I don't think I need to answer the reason why it's not. You've seen it. "A lot of it has to do with trust. The biggest thing is trusting yourself in the moment. There were a lot of things again that we expected to see on Saturday. Our inability in split-second decision making not to make those things (happen) is a byproduct of a lack of trust in themselves." But these practical matters filled just part of this Monday session. The rest of it, not surprisingly, centered on leading, on guiding, on working with a team that is burdened with a six-game losing streak and still winless in the Big Ten, and here Fitzgerald was not always measured in his responses. On some he let slip his South Side Irish. After the Iowa loss, he was reminded at one point, he challenged his players to consider what they would like to see from their teammates if they were seniors confronting the conclusion of their careers. Now, on this Monday, he was asked what he as the coach wants to see from his team the rest of this season. "They have a chance to leave a legacy from a standpoint of how you finish," he said. "Obviously we're not where any of us want to be. But you have a chance to finish November. Three Big Ten games. All West (Division) games. Three-out-of-four at home. Our rival (Illinois) to finish. There's a lot to still be playing for, especially sending our seniors off the right way. That would be awesome. It would be a great finish to the season, a great springboard to the off-season to get us back to a championship level team on-the-field. "Off-the-field everything is rocking as great as we've ever had it. Right now just the on- the- field production, consistency and winning are not where they need to be. Those are things that we are going to fix and we will be back. I promise you that. We will be back. I have one-million percent confidence in that. There are some things we can work on and improve and fix in this next month, and I expect that we will, and I expect that we'll compete to win and win every game if we go out and do the things winners do. If we don't we're going to have to continue to learn the tough lessons of losing. Sometimes you find out the most about yourself in times of adversity and challenges. You really get revealed on where you are in your character and your core and who you are. I'd like to think my guys are going to respond the way that we expect them to respond. That's my expectation."