Second in a series of three stories by Tim Chapman examining the questions facing Northwestern's offense, defense and special teams during spring practice.

More: Offense

The Northwestern pass defense accomplished a lot last season. Considering they lost two pretty good pass defenders in CB Montre Hartage and S Jared McGee, as well as long-time position coach Jerry Brown to retirement, they finished the season with the following national rankings:

- 46th in pass efficiency defense rating (128.5, up from 134 last year). This stat takes into account pass completion percentage, touchdowns and big plays allowed, as well as takeaways caused.

- 11th in opponent yards per completion (10.8 ypc, up from 11.3 in 2018).

- 74th in opponents’ completion percentage, allowing just 61% last year (up from 64% in 2018).

They allowed a passing TD on just 35% of their opponents’ red zone opportunities, and just 17 total passing TDs all season (about 1.5 per game).

What is most remarkable is that, in each one of these categories, the Wildcats improved from 2018’s stats during Big Ten Championship run. And they did it all in Matt MacPherson’s first year coaching the DBs at NU. MacPherson went from coaching running backs for 12 years to stepping in and replacing two stalwart players and a coaching legend, and playing with a lot of youth and inexperience on the outside. That’s cutting your teeth the right way.

Senior S JR Pace (who will wear No. 9 this year) has shown some good things throughout his career and, even though his production dipped a bit last year, he appears determined to bounce back and is ready to lead this secondary. He has very good range covering the deep middle and launches like a missile to strike ball carriers against the run.

Pace will be joined once again by senior Travis Whillock, who’s more of a run-stopping tackler at safety with a pretty good football IQ. He’s finished near the top of the squad in tackles and havoc plays (forced/recovered fumbles) the last two years, though the consistency of his tackling needs to improve.

The real fire should come from the outside in junior CB Greg Newsome, who started the season red hot before injury kept him out the final three games. Still, he finished second in the Big Ten in passes defended (11) and we certainly saw a level of swagger that, frankly, we really haven’t seen from a Northwestern defender in some time.

Fellow junior CB Cam Ruiz got better with every snap last year and, before season’s end, was covering better and playing with some of Newsome’s contagious swagger, finishing with seven passes defended.

Even redshirt sophomore CB A.J. Hampton got some good looks in the second-half of the season. Both Ruiz and Hampton were picked on early in the season but strengthened after their baptism into Big Ten football and certainly don’t seem to shy from a challenge. The key this year will be winning more of those challenges.

Though head coach Pat Fitzgerald pointed out in his recent spring kickoff press conference that “a year older doesn’t mean a year better,” we do know that this relatively young group put up better numbers than the year before, finishing with an overall secondary ranking that put them 40th in the country. And, what’s more, they return essentially everyone – six of their top seven players.

Fitzgerald has made no bones about the defense’s biggest need for improvement, and that’s takeaways. It’s been a hallmark of their successes during Fitzgerald’s time in Evanston, and he knows it will have to be what they specialize in to continue the program’s success.

As well as they defended the pass, the secondary only picked off three passes last year (the team had seven, but four came from non-DBs). This stat ranked them 100th in the country and simply did not give their struggling offense any sort of much-needed advantage or momentum.

In addition to interceptions, this group needs to force and recover more fumbles. Defenses forced and recovered just three fumbles last season. Whillock was the most disruptive in terms of takeaways, forcing one fumble and recovering two. The havoc needs to expand to his teammates, because as stingy as they want to be against the pass, there’s nothing as frustrating for an offense as losing the ball.

Equally paramount is the health of this unit. It’s been evident in Evanston that the injury bug has fed off the fellas in the back half, especially at CB. Since 2016, we’ve seen starters like Matthew Harris, Keith Watkins, Trae Williams and Greg Newsome miss a handful of games (or in some cases, an entire season) with physical maladies. Safeties like Kyle Queiro, Parrker Westphal, and even Whillock have also had to wear street clothes on Saturdays.

Not that depth is a major concern right now, but they are down two two-deep CBs, as Roderick Campbell and Brian Bullock transferred to Southern Illinois and Abilene Christian, respectively.

With injuries hitting the Cats pretty hard recently, we’ll go beyond the metrics and hope that they can get a little luck on their side in this department.

Both Fisher and Gallagher have finished in the top 10 in the conference in tackles in each of the last two seasons, and Bergin finished 13th. In terms of linebacker tackles, no other team came close to that, as Maryland and Rutgers were the only other teams with as many as two players within the top 13. Bergin and Gallagher may be two of the most unheralded LBs in the conference and get overshadowed by the media’s love for Fisher (though he earns his due).

As good as Northwestern’s trio is, the trademark of nearly every good linebacking corps is a solid front wall preceding them.

NUs all-time leading sack artist, Joe Gaziano, is gone, as is stalwart veteran defensive tackle Alex Miller. Gaziano was eighth in the Big Ten sacks and third in tackles for loss, while Miller finished second on the team in both of those categories. Gaziano was fifth among NU players with 49 tackles, while Miller was eighth with 41.

With both of them gone, how much havoc will this group be able to produce? Given the recent recruiting at that position, coupled with position coach Marty Long, who’s building himself quite the resume of players going into the NFL, production both up front and at LB behind them should be just fine.

Three-year starter Samdup Miller should return healthy for his fourth season on the edge of the line. Opposite him, though, there could be quite the competition. Conventional wisdom suggests Ernest Brown should get the nod early and the stage is certainly set for the senior. One of the biggest recruiting gets under Fitzgerald, Brown had 2.5 TFLs to go along with two sacks last season. He also batted down two passes and seemed to get nastier toward the end of his campaign.

But don’t count out redshirt sophomore Eku Leota, who made the biggest strides last season, and could be the next in line of solid sack artists at DE. He had 4.5 TFLs, 2.5 sacks, two QB hurries and forced a fumble. More than any of that, he, too, got more aggressive as the season wore on and gained confidence with each big play. Even if he doesn’t earn a starting spot, count on him to be brought in on third-down pass-rush situations, perhaps lining up on the inside, the way that Gaziano and Brown were used earlier in their careers.

Sophomore Adetomiwa “Tommy” Adebawore made quite the name for himself at defensive end last year, even if it was difficult for Fitzgerald to pronounce correctly. In just three games of significant playing time, he registered five solo tackles, a sack, a TFL and two QB hurries. In addition to Adebawore, there’s highly touted sophomore Devin O’Rourke, who’s gotten bigger but has had injuries limit him to just five games over the last two years. Then there’s redshirt first-year PJ Spencer, who came out of nowhere and drew some buzz late last season, especially from respected upperclassmen, for his work ethic and level of productivity when he was pressed into duty.

The inside should be plugged by junior Trevor Kent and senior Jake Saunders. The red flag, however, is that health problems have plagued these two a bit in their time in Evanston. Behind them is grinding veteran Joe Spivak, but then a youth movement serves in Jason Gold and Wyatt Blake, who both saw action last season. In addition, keep an eye on two first-years in for the spring, Jordan Butler and Te-Rah Edwards. They have college-ready bodies, each checking in at 6-foot-2 and more than 310 pounds.

Next up: Special Teams Questions