Five questions for Northwestern's offense

At long last, game week is here for Northwestern.

As the Wildcats prepare for Saturday night's season opener against Maryland, we will take a look at five questions facing both the offense and defense.

First up is the offense.

Mike Bajakian came to Northwestern from Boston College this offseason, and for the first time in over a decade Northwestern will have an offensive coordinator not named Mick McCall.

No one knows exactly what kind of offense Bajakian will run, as he doesn't have a system as much as a philosophy: find out who your playmakers are, and then get them the ball.

But we can make some educated guesses. We we think the Wildcats' attack will feature a lot of two-tight end sets, a lot of running and quite a bit of tempo.

Last year at BC, Bajakian leaned heavily on the running game. The Eagles' top two running backs, AJ Dillon and David Bailey, were both over 240 pounds, so Bajakian used their size and an up-tempo system to wear down opposing defenses.

Isaiah Bowser isn’t quite as big as Dillon or Bailey, but he has the size and strength to succeed in a power run system. And that type of attack would fit in well with NU's potentially dominant defense and head coach Pat Fitzgerald's notion of "complementary football."

Quarterback Peyton Ramsey mentioned that Bajakian has focused on 12 personnel (1 running back, 2 tight ends), so we think Bajakian is sticking to the same up-tempo, physical style of offense that he used last season.

Last year at Indiana, Peyton Ramsey was honorable-mention All-Big Ten according to the media. This offseason he transferred to a Northwestern team that saw six quarterbacks take snaps in 2019.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, none of those six were anywhere near All-Big Ten level.

Some of the biggest problems with the Cats' quarterback play last season was inaccuracy and turnovers. Accuracy is one of Ramsey's strengths; he completed 66.5% of his passes during his Indiana career. He also takes care of the ball very well: he threw 23 picks during his three years as a Hoosier, compared to 42 touchdowns.

With Bajakian's power-run system that will likely feature a lot of play-action passes, Ramsey should be in for a good season if he can efficiently get the ball out of his hands and into his playmakers', and then avoid mistakes.

We think the Wildcats' season will come down to this: If Ramsey is just an average Big Ten quarterback, NU's offense will be drastically improved and the Wildcats should finish with a winning record; if he reaches an All-Big Ten-level of play, the Wildcats could make some noise in the Big Ten West.

Northwestern's offensive line was dealt a serious blow in August when star left tackle Rashawn Slater opted out of the 2020 season to prepare for the NFL Draft, where he may be a first-round pick.

Slater was one of the few bright spots for the Wildcats' offense in 2019, going toe-to-toe with star edge rushers like No. 2 overall pick Chase Young of Ohio State and second round pick AJ Epenesa of Iowa. Replacing him will be paramount to the success of the Wildcats' offense in 2020. He was not only the best player on the line; he also played the most important position.

The Wildcats listed two players as co-starters for the left tackle spot this week: true freshman Peter Skoronski and redshirt freshman Zachary Franks.

Skoronski, a four-star prospect and one of the program's highest-rated recruits, has nailed down the job because of his consistency, Fitzgerald said on Monday. At 6-foot-4 and 294 pounds, Skoronski is a bit short for a tackle, but it's probably his most natural position. He is a powerful player with nimble feet, and he is one of the few first-year linemen who came in with a Big Ten-ready body.

Franks is a 6-foot-6, 305-pound redshirt freshman. He was a big-time recruit for Northwestern himself, having collected more than 30 offers and originally committing to Penn State before flipping to Northwestern. Franks' size is his best asset, and he moves well for a big man.

It sounds like Skoronski will be the first one up, but Fitzgerald said he expects the position battle to be continue and for Franks to continue to push him.

Regardless of who wins the job, however, the bottom line is that the Wildcats will have a very green player in a very important position.

It would be underselling Northwestern's offense in 2019 to say it was one of the worst in the country. It was one of the worst in the recent history of college football, ranking below 120th (out of 130 schools) in passing, total and scoring offense.

One of the Wildcats' biggest problems was a lack of big plays. Northwestern was last in the country in plays of 20+ yards in 2019, making just 27 all season. They also ranked 128th out of 130 teams in yards per play, with 4.1.

Bajakian and Ramsey will certainly help Northwestern create more explosion plays in 2020 -- mostly because it's almost impossible to get fewer. Competent quarterback play and the return of several offensive playmakers from injury (see below) will help as well.

However, don't expect the Wildcats to turn into Alabama overnight. They will still pound the ball and try to win with defense as they have done successfully for the last five years or so.

We think Bajakian will add life to a nearly comatose Northwestern offense. But we don't expect him to be a miracle worker.

Bajakian has stressed the need for NU's offense to get the ball to their playmakers in positions where they can make plays. The problem is that, based on 2019, it's not clear exactly who his playmakers will be.

The Wildcats have a lot of potential playmakers, but we're going to focus on guys who can gain yards in chunks and possibly drive up their number of explosion plays.

One player Bajakian can count on is Riley Lees. The redshirt senior wide receiver managed to put together a solid season in 2019, catching 51 passes for 430 yards and a pair of touchdowns. No one else had more than 17 catches. With improved quarterback play this season, Lees will remain the Cats' go-to receiver and look to put up even bigger numbers.

Senior wideout Kyric McGowan is one of the few proven big playmakers on the Wildcats' roster. Two years ago, he hauled in a 77-yard touchdown pass against Michigan State. Last year, he took a handoff 79 yards to the end zone against Purdue before getting injured and missing the rest of the season.

Bajakian said last week how impressed he's been with sophomore wideout Malik Washington, stressing that Washington has "taken his game to the next level."

"Malik is one guy who, when I got here, I saw on video," Bajakian said. "There weren’t a ton of clips on video from games last season, but you could tell he had a skill set that was attractive to me to be able to utilize."

Like McGowan, J.J. Jefferson has demonstrated the ability to create plays downfield, too. Jefferson had three catches of more than 30 yards as a freshman in 2018, and he started last season strong with a 50-yard touchdown against UNLV before missing the final five games of the season with a lower body injury.

There are other candidates, like Bowser, Ramaud Chiakhiao-Bowman and some combination of John Raine and Charlie Mangieri at tight end. But we think that the four players listed above will be the primary big playmakers. As they go, so will the offense.

It's interesting to note that Lees is the only one of the four who played in every game last season. McGowan, Washington and Jefferson all missed multiple games with injuries.

This year, if they all stay healthy, they may be able to give the Wildcat offense the boost it needs.