Is Marty is confident heading into the 2020 season? 'Hell, yeah'

At most points during the 2019 season, Northwestern’s offense looked lifeless. The Wildcats scored just 16.3 points per game and ranked 13th in the Big Ten in total offense.

That changed when Andrew Marty replaced an injured Hunter Johnson in the second quarter of the Wildcats’ loss to Minnesota in Week 11. Marty accounted for 147 total yards and three touchdowns, one through the air and two on the ground. The Wildcats actually outscored the No. 10 Golden Gophers after Marty entered the game, despite losing 33-28.

The momentum carried over into the next game as Marty again accounted for three scores and led Northwestern to their only Big Ten win of the year, over Illinois, in his first-career start.

So the question posed to Marty on Wednesday was whether that momentum carried into this season for the redshirt junior quarterback, even if he is running a new offense under new coordinator Mike Bajakian.

“Hell, yeah!” said Marty emphatically. “I freaking had a blast that last game. Heck, yeah, man, it gave me a lot of confidence going into the offseason.”

Zoom calls don’t generally convey a lot of emotion, but it certainly did in this case.

In that 29-10 win over Illinois, Marty leaned heavily on his legs. He ran for 111 yards, almost exactly double his 55 passing yards.

The cold and rainy weather in Champaign certainly contributed to the run-first game plan from Northwestern, which finished with 378 rushing yards, the most for the program since 2012. But Marty said he doesn’t envision himself carrying the ball 30 times again, and he knows he has to learn to take fewer hits.

Marty only attempted 10 passes against the Illini, but one of them was a 34-yard touchdown to Riley Lees on a nice throw down the field. Continuing to get better at stretching the field with his arm has been a goal for Marty this offseason.

He took the month in between the postponement and reinstatement of the Big Ten season to focus on his fundamentals.

“I felt like I was back at a recruiting camp,” Marty said. “Just throwing man to man, right across from you. There were little things like that that we really got to take advantage of during that time.”

After his strong finish to the 2019 season, Marty took a different mentality into the offseason than he had in previous years.

“I said it after the Illinois game, that I was going to put the perspective in my head that I was going to be the starting quarterback going into offseason,” Marty said. “I really owned that and wanted to build on that. I’m honing in on my skills to help this team win.”

To earn the starting job, Marty will have to beat out graduate Peyton Ramsey, who transferred to Northwestern in the spring and figures to be the odds-on favorite. The competition hasn’t stopped the two Cincinnati natives from becoming friends, however. They’ve bonded over talking about the Bengals’ bright future with Joe Burrow, the Reds’ playoff run and their shared hometown.

“I have a lot of pride being form Cincinnati,” Marty said. “I think Cincinnati guys are hard-nosed, and you see that in Peyton. It’s nice to have another Cincinnati guy here.”