A shakeup under center will dominate this week of practice.
After a tough overtime loss to Duke, David Braun dropped a major bombshell in his Monday press conference with the media. Braun announced that Jack Lausch, not Mike Wright, would be the starting quarterback this Saturday against Eastern Illinois. Here’s everything else Northwestern’s skipper had to say.
Note: These quotes have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Opening Statement: “Excited to be back in the facility with our team today, coming off a really tough, disappointing loss Friday night. Lot of lessons to be learned from Friday night, in areas of execution, some of the details and taking care of the football. That being said, could not be more optimistic about the foundation that this team has built. When you turn on the film, we got a group that plays with uncommon effort, buying into their coaching, playing their tails off for one another. We continue to develop depth throughout our roster. Noah Taylor with the blocked punt, a graduate transfer from Cornell has only been on campus as a student and is showing up in a big way on special teams. There’s a lot of things to be excited about, a lot of things to celebrate. Excited about the direction that our offensive line is going and our running backs, in terms of establishing run game. This opportunity coming off the tough loss is an opportunity for this group to respond to adversity, improve because of it, and you know, I’m fully confident that our team will do just that.
Great opportunity to get back in the facility this morning with our team, learn from Friday night. Our guys, you know, similar to our routine from last year, are out of the facility here for a few hours before they return this evening for some brief position meetings, initial install on Eastern Illinois and then a brief practice. This group understands what’s in front of us — a very quality, well coached team that’s coming off the win at Indiana State. Coach Wilkerson has done an incredible job: first year, going 2-9. Last year, 8-3 football team, very easily could have won 10 games last year, a couple really close losses. This is a very well coached operation with talent, an experienced quarterback returning that was an all-conference player, very talented running back, some skill out on the perimeter, big offensive line, defensively, did a great job against teams last year, gave up less than 20 points per game defensively last season. This is a team that is on an upward trend, very well coached, and at the end of the day, you know, we need to understand our opponent, study our opponent, respect our opponent and put all of our effort and attention into being at our best. Excited for the opportunity that we’re going to have on Saturday night.
We have made a decision at the quarterback position to give Jack Lausch the start against Eastern Illinois. I’m excited for Jack. I’m excited for our football team. Incredibly appreciative of Mike Wright and the teammate that he is and the effort that he’s put into being a part of this team. Mike will continue to be an integral piece of everything that we’re doing. You know, talk about a young man that’s high character, a great teammate, everything that we want in a Northwestern Wildcat. I know Mike, and I’m very confident in the fact that Mike will handle this like the high character young man that he is. He’ll prepare the same way, he’ll stay ready. And also excited for Jack Lausch for the opportunity to have his first college start and lead this offense.”
On Anto Saka’s development and improvement: “He’s a special young man, incredibly talented. And I remember a conversation I had with Anto when I first got here, 20 months ago. He was still in his first year here, trying to figure things out. The one thing I’m really proud of Anto is, the first thing we talked about is just carving out a role. And what does his skill set possess that would allow him to do that early on in his career. And at the end of the day that was just really developing as a pass rusher, and the partnership between Anto and Coach Smith has been really fun to watch. And where I’m proud of Anto is he’s taken that role and now built off of it and really started to hone his skill set to be a very effective every-down defensive lineman. But you know, the way that we play defense, that front four has to be disruptive, has to affect the quarterback. And you know, he’s certainly continuing to trend in the right direction and just apply all the work that he’s put in and the coaching that he’s taking.”
On what Lausch offers the team that Wright does not: “It’s just assignment sound, just executing our offense and then valuing the football. I mean, that’s something for us to be at our best, we need to win the turnover margin. It’s something that we emphasize in terms of valuing the football. And you know, at the quarterback position, you’re gonna have the ball in your hand on every single play. Your ultimate responsibility is protecting and valuing the football. It’s gonna be the ultimate charge for Jack to lead this group, to execute within the offense and make sure that we’re valuing the football.”
On offensive coordinator Zach Lujan’s involvement in the quarterback change: “Everything that we do as a program…sometimes I get questions about this being my program, it’s not mine. I’m just fortunate enough to occupy the position in that chair right now. I mean, everything that we do as a staff is a collaborative nature. At the end of the day, all the decisions ultimately fall on me and I’ll be involved with them, but it was a collaborative conversation, and something that I know personally Coach Lujan and I are in complete alignment on.”
On the offense as a whole: “I’m incredibly confident in the direction that we’re going. It’s the same conversation that I had with our team this morning. As competitors, we can get so tied into being attached to the performance and the result. And then you ride this wave of when things are going well. It’s all sunshine and roses, and when things aren’t going well, it is hit the panic button. And at the end of the day, the things that we need to evaluate is our intent, our effort, our processes, things that we can control. And know very well in all three phases of the game there are plenty of things, as a football team, as a coaching staff, myself, that we can improve on in all those areas. But I see improvement. I see guys gaining a certain understanding. You talked about, what are things we’re doing well right now offensively? Well, I’m abundantly confident in the direction that our run game is going, and some things that we’ve been able to establish on the ground. I’m really proud of the way that the ball has come out on time. Mike has done a really good job of getting timing with the football. Our offensive line has done a good job of protecting him, that’s something that needs to continue. And then there’s just plenty of things that we can clean up. But sometimes when you go through adversity and things don’t go as well as you necessarily want them to early on, it can actually go well for you in the long term, because you have to fully evaluate. You’re forced to fully evaluate everything. And the thing I’m most confident in terms of our entire staff, including Coach Lujan, Coach Creighton, Coach McGarigle, is low-ego, high-output guys that are going to take ownership and evaluate everything and continue to improve. And I’m excited about the foundation and the trend. We need to execute at a higher level and turn moving the ball into points and need to eradicate some of the self-inflicted wounds that put us behind the chains, especially against an aggressive defense like Duke. That can be really detrimental to your overall performance.”
On why he waited until Monday to make the quarterback change: “Let me boldly state this. I am highly competitive and emotionally intense. I know that, I think that those are great qualities. You also have to guard yourself against some of those things. And I do not like making decisions when I am an emotional state. So the statement that I made on Friday night, I stand behind it in the moment. I wasn’t going to speak to those types of decisions when I hadn’t had a chance to evaluate the film and process and really evaluate what was in the best interest of the team. But having a chance to look at the film and evaluate where we’re at, I think the decision that we’re going with is in the best interest of our football program.”
On the growth he’s seen from Lausch: “Intentional, resilient, gritty. Jack, when he arrived on campus, was a great athlete, great competitor, incredible intangibles that you look for in the quarterback position, but not a ready-made Big Ten quarterback. And he’s done such a great job of just developing in so many different areas, from throwing from the pocket to some of the things that he can do throwing the ball on the run, and just being more consistent with those types of things, with his decision making. But the growth that we’ve seen out of Jack Lausch throughout last fall, but specifically from January on, has been something that leads us to have a lot of optimism for not only this week, but for the future.”
On what he’s told Lujan about transitioning from FCS to FBS: “First off is trust yourself. I think the ultimate mistake you can make as a head coach is mandating things from a standpoint of just coming in and just because the result what you look for, snap to judgment, rather than being curious of our process and the decisions that we made. Zach is a phenomenal play-caller, phenomenal game planner, an incredible collaborator. That’s the ultimate challenge in coming into the new role. Yes, it’s the Big Ten. Yes, it’s a higher level of football, but it’s also just understanding and really getting a full grasp of our personnel and what our guys are best at and how to reach that group most effectively. But what I have abundance of confidence in right now is that group is improving. The O-line is really starting to catch their stride. Things that we’re seeing out of the running back room are really exciting. Our guys in the tight end room and the wide receiver room are attacking the football. Some of the catches we’ve seen out of Bryce Kirtz the last couple weeks. A.J. Henning, a huge third down conversion where he makes a great catch. Thomas Gordon, against zero coverage pressure, Mike puts it in a good spot. Thomas goes up and attacks it, makes an unbelievable play. There’s so many things to build off of. And just because the overall results aren’t there yet doesn’t mean that there’s not good things happening. And trust in himself. You know, he got himself here for a good reason. He’s damn good at what he does. And just continue to trust the process.”
On avoiding third down and long situations: “Number one, the things that we can absolutely control are pre-snap and post-snap penalties. It’s false starts that we have to eradicate. We can’t be starting at first-and-15. We have a couple of holding calls that popped up on first down that put us in first-and-20 situations. There’s technique things there that can be improved upon. Where I give our guys credit — some of those are showing up because they are straining and just so prideful about executing their job. But technically, we can clean some of those things up. Those are things that we can control. And then trusting some of the throws in our quick game on early downs, and continuing to lean on our run game, which has been producing. We all know this: it’s much easier to call offense from second-and-6 than second-and-16.”
On the final play of double overtime: “Mike did a good job of giving him a chance, extended the play. Duke did some good things in those types of scenarios, a potential situation where they’re bringing zero (blitz)and trying to get the ball out now, playing off man. They end up rushing three, dropping eight, there’s really no windows to throw the ball. Mike extends the play, gives Frank (Covey IV) a chance. Frank did a great job of keeping himself available. He didn’t end up converting. But credit to everyone involved on that play. We had a chance there. It was close. It was maximum effort by Frank, he did everything he possibly could, but there was an opportunity there.”
On injured offensive lineman Nick Herzog: “We anticipate Nick being available for us.”
On various changes in college football this season: “I think the two minute warning is great from a clock management standpoint. It boils things down a little bit for you in terms of managing the game and managing the clock. I think the more in college football that we can move to a model where we are in sync with the NFL, I think that’s great for our players. I think it’s great for the experience. I think it’s great for the young men that have an opportunity to transition to the NFL. The headset technology, still figuring out how to best maximize that. Where the college game is different — you see some tempo in the NFL, obviously, you see a ton of it in college football. So it’s unique with only having one headset on the field defensively, And then the sideline tablets, we got to continue to maximize those to make appropriate adjustments. I won’t name any specifics, but there was one specific adjustment that was made at halftime based on what we’d seen on the tablet that played a critical role in setting us up for success.”
On successful defensive line play: “It sounds super cliche, but just continue to play with great fundamentals and great technique. I think our D-line and linebackers do a great job of constricting gaps and getting off the blocks. Block destruction is such a critical piece of that. The linebackers have a very sound understanding of what we’re doing in terms of our run fits. We need to continue to tackle well. The one thing that I think will be critical as we continue to evolve as a defense, is understanding that when you see some of these operations that are RPO-based, that you saw against Duke, when they started to get the sense that they were really struggling to run the ball consistently. Well, the way that they’re going to try and protect against your pass rush is force your front seven to defend a run frame and poke the ball under the mesh and then find windows behind it. I think continuing to help our guys understand how we’re being attacked, understand the intent of the call to hold off some of those windows. Sometimes against those RPO teams, Tim McGarigle will cringe hearing me say this, but sometimes you have to be willing, occasionally, based on the intent of the call to give up a four or five yard gain in one game, to hold off a window that can be an explosive play down the field.”
On injured defensive linemen Carmine Bastone and Brendan Flakes: “Really optimistic about Brendan’s return. Not sure if it’ll be this week, but cautiously optimistic that we’ll have Flakes back. Carmine, optimistic that we’ll have him back here sooner than later, but still uncertain about what that looks like.”
On ensuring Lausch avoids overly risky plays: “I want to give Mike props. I think there’s some things that Mike did really well. He got the ball out on time. Some of the production we’ve seen offensively was Mike doing things with his legs, extending plays. Some of those throws that we saw against Duke on Friday night. He got the score in Week 1. I think it’s just a very delicate balance of what is an extended play that can lead to production and really weighing the risk-reward. At the end of the day, the non-negotiable is: we can’t put the ball in danger. We don’t want to punt, but punts are okay every now and then, especially if we picked up a few first downs and are starting to flip the field. But you know, turning the ball over is not winning football.”
On Eastern Illinois quarterback Pierce Holley: “He’s just got a really strong command of what they’re trying to do offensively. I think he makes really sound decisions in the RPO game, he’s comfortable in the pocket. I think he is very talented and comfortable as a pocket passer, and can give his playmakers the ball and take some shots too. That can be really dangerous in the downfield passing game. He’s someone where we have to do a great job of disguising our coverages, forcing him to process post snap and affecting the pocket. Because if he’s throwing in a clean pocket throughout the course of Saturday night, he would cause a ton of issues.”
On Lausch’s role with the team through the first two weeks: “I think Jack just continued to be what he’s always been since he’s arrived. I won’t share details of our conversation when we notified both him and Mike about our decision coming out of camp. But what I will tell you is he was angry, not at anyone in particular, but he’s such a competitor, he wanted an opportunity to start. You could tell he was emotional about it, it wasn’t news that he wanted to hear, but he took full ownership and said, ‘Coach, I know I need to improve. I know I need to get better, and I’m gonna make sure that I stay ready.’ I think the ultimate compliment to Jack Lausch in terms of who he is as a person, is the natural human tendency in a situation like that is to see aggression before you see the build back up. Just because it’s a hard thing to hear and it’s not the result that you were looking for. We saw Jack Lausch immediately continue to improve after that. That’s a credit to his character as a young man.”
On whether the chance to start Lausch for the next two seasons factored into the decision: “Not one bit. This decision was solely based on what we feel is in the best interest of the 110 guys on this team and what’s in our team’s best interest going into Week 3.”
On his message to incoming freshmen: “So excited. I appreciate the question. It’s a conversation we’ve had in here a lot, but again, the thing that just gets me really passionate and enthused is how special this place is. Opportunity to receive a world class education and being engaged in Big Ten athletics. We’ve seen it at Welsh-Ryan. We saw it at the old Ryan Field last year. I go back to the Purdue game from last season. And now for an opportunity for our students to engage, literally not just on campus, but on the lakefront venue, is something that I can’t wait for our students to be back in full force.”
On his role at Wildcat Welcome: “Knowing my rhythm and my voice, I don’t know if you want me to be teaching anyone the fight song, but I will get an opportunity to spend time with those first-years. And I can’t wait to just engage that group and hopefully call them to be as engaged with our football program and our other sports here at Northwestern as they want to be. Because at the end of the day, when our students show up in full force, it makes a huge difference.”