Northwestern opened practice and met with the media on Thursday. Here are our takeaways.

Northwestern entered fall camp with redshirt junior Ryan Hilinski and redshirt freshman Brendan Sullivan battling for the starting quarterback job. About a week and half into camp, the two competitors are still neck and neck.

Overall, head coach Pat Fitzgerald has been happy with the progression that his signal callers have made since the end of last season.

"Collectively, in that whole room, I've seen better execution of the offense," Fitzgerald said. "At the end of the day, taking care of the ball. That's what they need to do and do it in a consistent fashion. So far they've done that in camp."

While Sullivan is yet to appear in a game in his college career, Hilinski was forced into action last year for Northwestern. It didn't go particularly well, as he completed just 54% of his passes for three scores and four interceptions. This offseason, though, he completely changed his diet and got in much better shape in an effort to add more mobility to his game.

"I realized you have to go all in," Hilinski said. "If you're not all in, then why are you doing this at all?"

Another plus for Hilinski is that for the first time in his college career he has the same offensive coordinator as he did the prior year. That's made a huge difference in his ability to confidently execute OC Mike Bajakian's offense and be a leader on the team.

Both Hilinski and Sullivan are playing well, and that, Fitzgerald said, is making it difficult to come to a decision. Fitzgerald has not yet decided if he will formally announce a starter before the first game, or if he will leave everyone wondering until the Cats' first offensive possession.

It might be tougher to find a list that Northwestern junior left tackle Peter Skoronski isn't on than finding one of the many he has been named to this preseason.

Skoronski says he doesn't pay attention to any of it.

"(I'm) just not really worried about the outside noise," he said. "I'm just trying to focus day-in and day-out here; we've got a lot to do, a lot to accomplish. I'm just trying to improve as a player every day. I'm not really worried about what anyone else is saying."

While the offensive line as a whole had its fair share of rough patches in 2021, Skoronski was as close to flawless as a player can be for the second year in a row.

Northwestern has four returning starters on the offensive line -- Skoronski and Ethan Wiederkehr at tackle, Josh Priebe at one guard spot and Charlie Schmidt at center after starting at guard last year. Skoronski is confident that the unit as a whole can raise its level of play to be one of the strengths of the team.

Even with the expectations for him sky high, Skoronski still looks at what he has to do from a simple point of view.

"My expectation is still to do what a Northwestern left tackle has to do," he said. "If I get that done I'll be just fine."

In a season full of losses, one Wildcat defeat from 2021 stands out among the rest.

NU took a 56-7 stomping at the hands of the Cornhuskers in Lincoln last October. Nebraska led 21-0 after less than 11 minutes had elapsed and rolled up more than 400 yards rushing.

Northwestern gets a chance to make things right in their first game of 2022. Fitzgerald downplayed the revenge aspect of the Week 0 game in Dublin, Ireland, saying he'd rather play a team that's less hungry than Nebraska will be.

But his players did not.

"They got after us last year, there's no doubt about that," Skoronski said. "I feel like that's a great way to start off the season and give them a really physical game, and start off with a win."

Redshirt junior cornerback Cameron Mitchell looks at the game as an opportunity to make a statement that 2022 won't follow the same path as 2021.

"You can't ignore it," Mitchell said. "You take it, you learn from it and you move forward."

While Northwestern may not necessarily have been a young team last season, they were inexperienced, and it showed in some of the mistakes that put Northwestern behind the eight ball.

This season, NU has much more guys with playing time under their belt on the rest and Fitzgerald thinks they're all the better for it.

"Where are we going to be better? I think everywhere," he said. "We got more competitive depth at every position. I thought the guys had an outstanding offseason. We were in the building the whole offseason for the first time in multiple years."

Not only are players a year older, but the Wildcats brought in nine transfers who all have college game experience under their belts. The defensive line that often got pushed around last season in allowing 214 rushing yards per game added four grad transfers.

Fitzgerald lauded the defense's execution this year as compared to last season when the players were learning new defensive coordinator Jim O'Neil's system for the first time. Players are now more familiar with the calls and schemes.

The key now, with 23 days until the season kicks off, is consistency from all the position groups, said Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald and his players called the trip to Ireland "a once in a lifetime experience."

The Cats also made it clear they won't be satisfied if all they come back to the states with is the experience. They want to return with a win, too.

Fitzgerald said that the only difference between the trip to Dublin and a regular road trip will be the length of the flight. Northwestern will have all their game-planning done before they leave, and once in Dublin the focus will be on going 1-0, just like it always is.

Hilinski said the key to not getting caught up in the moment is relying on experience and maturity. Northwestern's coaches and veteran leaders haven't minced words about what the focus should be on.

"It's a business trip," Mitchell said. "We're going to get some revenge against Nebraska. We're there for business."

Skoronski was more direct. "We're going there to win the game," he said.