Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1187038
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 . M I N N E S O T A 23 "I'm making an assessment over every day, every minute. It's a little bit different assessment that I have the luxury to look at instead of just the little three-hour window (of a game). The three-hour windows have been bad. Right? So we've got to get the guys' confidence back, first of all. Then we've got to get their fundamentals better. Then obviously schematically we've got to figure out from a consistency standpoint what they can do better. That's the work we have in front of us." He said the quarterbacks weren't prepared. Was TJ prepared? "Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I do. Then Hunter gets banged up, so his maturation isn't fair (to judge) because he's banged up. He's in one week, out the next week. That's not fair. He'll get better. He'll get better. But mentally those guys have got a long way to go. Its obvious." What specifically did they do wrong in their preparation? "It goes back to the off-season." What in the off-season did they not do? "It goes back to the off season." ANOTHER ITEM OF INTEREST discussed on Monday was recruiting, and just how that lifeline might be effected by the kind of ugly season the 'Cats are enduring. "I'd like to think that everybody that has committed to us will stay committed to us because our program hasn't changed at all," Fitzgerald said here. "There's been outcomes obviously that we're all not happy with, and the season win-loss wise hasn't gone well. But like I said a couple weeks ago. Our program's never been in a better place. We'll be back. I promise you, we will be back. We've got a few things we'll get corrected very quickly in the off-season, then I fully believe it will get turned around pretty darn quickly. "When it comes to recruits, I think I'm very transparent. I think I'm very open. I think I'm very honest. I think our whole staff is. And I think we typically recruit guys from high character families that see what we have as a program, what we do to develop our guys to be the best they can be in everything in their lives. Sometimes you have adversity. Typically adversity reveals your character. It's easy to be upbeat and positive and trudging forward when you're competing for a Big Ten championship. It's a lot harder when you're in a tough situation. "I hope I've proven to the families of not only this class, but future classes, that when you get our football program, you get a consistency in leadership and mindset and approach. We're going to develop our guys to be the best they can be, and we're not going to be deterred because of a couple difficult losses in one season."