Advertisement
football Edit

Bajakian's new offense already 'second nature' to Northwestern

There’s no question that the offense is by far Northwestern fans’ biggest concern going into the 2020 season.

While they are excited to see what a new offensive coordinator and a new quarterback can do to revive what was the worst passing offense in the Big Ten last season, they are leery because COVID-19 has limited the team’s ability to practice. They worry whether players will have enough time to get up to speed in new coordinator Mike Bajakian’s system before the season opener on Oct. 24.

Wide receiver Riley Lees and that new quarterback, Peyton Ramsey, essentially said on Wednesday that there’s nothing to worry about. The offense is easy to learn.

It’s so easy that Lees, a fifth-year senior, feels like he’s been running Bajakian’s offense since he arrived in Evanston in 2016.

“This stuff is second nature right now,” said Lees. “I feel like this is my fifth year running this offense, basically.”

The transition for Ramsey, a fifth-year grad transfer from Indiana, has also been pretty simple. What’s different about Bajakian’s new offense when compared to his old one in Bloomington?

“Not a whole lot,” he said. He maintains that most college offenses are similar, no matter where you play.

“Football is football and it’s all about how, formationally, you can scheme teams. For the most part, everybody runs the same plays and runs the same routes. It’s just a matter of how you game plan it and how you utilize those things.”

Lees echoed Ramsey’s take.

“Schematically, a curl flat (route) is a curl flat in football. It is what it is,” he said. “It’s more about terminology and things like that.”

Those comments will no doubt ease the angst of Wildcat fans. Last year’s offensive debacle was caused, for the most part, by the new quarterbacks’ inability to get up to speed in previous offensive coordinator Mick McCall’s offense. Head coach Pat Fitzgerald explained it time and time again last season.

After fifth-year senior TJ Green went down with a season-ending injury in the opener, Aidan Smith and Hunter Johnson rotated in the starting job and never appeared to master the offense. As a whole, the four quarterbacks to record stats last year – Green, Johnson, Smith and Andrew Marty – combined to complete just 50% of their passes for 117.0 yards per game, with a backwards ratio of six touchdowns to 15 interceptions.

Coach Jake, he’s brought a lot of energy, he’s real upbeat. Very good teacher. He’s making learning his offense very easy.
— WR Riley Lees

The Wildcats ranked 126th in the nation in passing offense and 130th, dead last, in passing efficiency.

Maybe worse than that – and what ultimately may have cost McCall his job – is that Fitzgerald was talking to the media about the same mistakes in Week 12 that he was after Week 1.

Bajakian said in the spring that his offense would be easy to learn. Apparently, he’s keeping his word.

One key has been repetition. Even if spring practice was cut short and fall camp just started, Lees thinks that the time the team spent in Zoom meetings this summer made the transition to Bajakian’s new attack easier.

“In the spring meetings that we were able to get when obviously everyone was quarantined at home, I think that helped a lot because it helped us to get deeper into our install than we did in spring ball,” he said. “So now, going into fall camp, this is our fourth or fifth time going over day one through five.”

The other factor is Bajakian himself.

“Coach Jake, he’s brought a lot of energy, he’s real upbeat,” said Lees. “Very good teacher. He’s making learning his offense very easy.”

Ramsey may be coming from a different program, but he says that the Xs and Os have been the easy part of his transition. He also had the benefit of a bit of a cheat code at Indiana.

His quarterbacks coach at IU, Nick Sheridan (now the offensive coordinator), happened to be a graduate assistant under Bajakian when Bajakian ran the offense at Tennessee. So Sheridan’s system was pretty similar to Bajakian’s.

There are a few new wrinkles for Ramsey to get used to. At Northwestern, he said, there’s a “little more play action, little more 12 personnel with (one running back and) two tight ends in a game.” He also said that they’ll use tempo to keep the defense off-balance.

But besides that, the disparities are minor.

“Subtle differences in personnel,” he explained. “Not too big a difference other than learning the words, learning the terms and executing them.”

Lees thinks that the offense is already comfortable running the new offense. Bajakian has done his job. Now the Wildcats just have to go out and show that when the games count.

Advertisement