Northwestern's defensive line a work in progress

In an offseason full of changes in Evanston, no group saw more upheaval than Northwestern's defensive line.

Defensive line coach Marty Long was fired and was replaced with Christian Smith from South Dakota State. Jordan Butler, Austin Firestone and Jason Gold Jr. all entered the transfer portal. Devin O’Rourke decided to end his career, and Henrik Barndt, Taishan Holmes and Ryan Johnson all ran out of eligibility. To top it all off, there's a new defensive coordinator calling the shots in David Braun.

Smith has his work cut out for him since there isn't much momentum to build on in Evanston. Northwestern's defensive line struggled last year while allowing 191.3 rushing yards per game.

One building block that remained, however, is sophomore defensive tackle Najee Story. The Ohio native made 25 tackles, including two TFL and a sack, last season, his first as a regular rotation player. With so many departures, Story has had to step into a leadership role as the only defensive tackle with significant game experience.

"I'm just taking what I've learned from guys that have come before me, and pass it down to the young guys to help us get better as a group," he said.

Story said one thing that he's focusing on this offseason is making sure he's always available to play next season. And that's a good thing because Northwestern is going to need him.

There are currently only two scholarship defensive tackles with the program this spring: Story and freshman Brendan Flakes. There are just four in total when counting walkons Carmine Bastone and PJ Spencer.

"D(efensive) tackle depth, right now, in the spring, we're limited in numbers, but the quality has been great with the four guys we got repping there," Smith said. “Najee's had a really good spring, so has Carmine, so has PJ, and Brendan Flakes has really turned it on the last two weeks."

Smith is still looking to bring in reinforcements to help out the four guys currently in the room and hopes to add competitive depth through the transfer portal before the Cats kick off the season in September.

"When those (four) guys are taking a lot of snaps at the end of practice, I got to get back in the office and do a good recruiting to help those guys out," he said.

Northwestern will add true freshmen Tyler Gant and Dylan Roberts to the mix come training camp, but some additional veteran reinforcements are on the Cats' wish list.

Until help arrives, Smith is focused on instilling good habits with the four DTs currently on the roster. After watching film of Northwestern's defensive line last year, Smith thought guys got "nosey" at times, looking in the backfield instead of focusing on their gap responsibilities.

He's reinforced pad level and gap integrity in an effort to shore up NU's run defense. Smith has made small tweaks to technique to help players "dominate, not chase" their gap.

Smith has seen a ton of improvement from his new players so far this spring and said that the players have been very receptive to his coaching style.

Smith may come from the FCS level, but he has confidence that what he's doing will work in the Big Ten, and he has firsthand evidence to point to. Last season, Smith and South Dakota State played at Iowa to open the season. The Jackrabbits held the Hawkeyes to only three offensive points and 57 rushing yards in a 7-3 loss.

It might be easy to chalk that up to Iowa's offensive struggles last season, but that same Iowa offense hung 33 points and 178 rushing yards on the Cats later in the year. Smith's FCS defensive line held up much better than Northwestern's.

"Ideally, you look at it and say the guys at Northwestern should be better prospects than I had at South Dakota State," he said. "It's just the technique and honing in on that craft will help us be a lot more dominant in the run game."

Story, especially, has enjoyed the transition to the new brain trust on the defensive side of the ball.

"It's a lot of fun," he said. "We're just going out and playing hard every rep, and it's just more free for us to be football players. This is where the love of the game happened for me, just being able to use my strengths to my advantage."

With a full season of game experience under his belt and a new coaching staff that is letting him play more freely, Story is playing quicker and more confidently this year. He's able to recognize what the offense is doing much more quickly, so that he can then go make a play.

Personally, Story's goal for the season is just to continue momentum from last season and play even better in 2023. For the group as a whole, he hopes to set a physical tone for rest of the defense and be a dominant front.

His new coach has similar goals.

"Play with attitude and effort," Smith said. "When people turn on the film they're going to see four guys giving it everything they have. The biggest things are: effort, physicality, pad level and violence."