Sunshine abounds for Northwestern's offense this spring
EVANSTON-The weather was absolutely glorious on Thursday morning in Evanston for Northwestern’s spring practice.
The sunshine, a temperature in the low 70s and a light breeze off of Lake Michigan were enough to make people at least temporarily forget a 1-11 2022 season that was as ugly as this April day was beautiful.
One player who is ready to put 2022 behind him and race to the season opener at Rutgers on Sept. 2 is quarterback Brendan Sullivan. Not because he played particularly badly. Sullivan actually showed some flashes that he could be the No. 1 guy for this program moving forward. No, it’s because Sullivan took a beating last year, suffering three injuries during the season that limited him to just five games, four of them starts.
"I broke a few bones last year,” said Sullivan, squinting in the sun after Thursday’s workout. “I broke my hand, broke my [sternum] and [had a] knee injury. So I got beaten up a little bit last year. So the goal is to put on a little weight and be able take some more hits next year."
Sullivan did exactly that this winter, adding enough weight and muscle that he is visibly bigger, and now listed at 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds.
Whether the offense can make similar gains this season has yet to be seen.
To put it bluntly, Northwestern’s offense was dreadful last season, averaging a paltry 13.8 points per game to rank 128th out of 131 FBS teams. They were the lowest scoring offense in Power Five football, and the Wildcats got outscored 89-15 over the final three games.
On top of that, the Wildcats lost their leading rusher, their top three receivers and four starting offensive linemen after the season, including Peter Skoronski, a left tackle who could be picked in the Top 10 in the NFL Draft later this month. The outlook is not particularly rosy.
But hope abounds in spring practice, when every team in undefeated. The last of Northwestern’s 11 straight losses, an embarrassing 41-3 rout at the hands of rival Illinois, was almost five months ago.
So Sullivan isn’t dwelling on who the Wildcats lost through graduation or the transfer portal. He’s focused on the guys who are in camp, battling every day. He looks around the huddle and thinks the Wildcats have enough “dudes” on the roster to win next season.
“I think we still got guys, man,” he said enthusiastically. “We lost a couple guys, but I still got full trust in the front seven. I still got full trust in the running backs we have in our room. We got some studs.
“We got some guys at receiver. We picked up Cam [Johnson, a transfer from Arizona State] in the offseason and I'm fully confident that this team can go all full – the run game, the pass game, the play-action game. I mean, I don't think we took a lap off from the guys we lost. I think we definitely have been jumping this spring, and I'm super-proud and excited for what we're going to be in the fall.”
Northwestern struggled across the board last season, finishing 107th in the nation in total offense (335.4 ypg), 98th in rushing (125.1) and 94th in passing (210.3). So every position group has a part to play if the offense is going to make significant strides next fall.
Sullivan thinks that the quarterbacks need to get the ball out of their hands and into playmakers’ hands quicker to make what was a sputtering offense hum smoothly.
“As a quarterback room, [we’re working on] just getting the ball out of our hands,” said Sullivan, a redshirt sophomore from Davison (Mich.). “I think that's something that we did, as a whole, a poor job of last year… So just getting the ball out of our hands to the right guys. I think that's the biggest stride we can make as a quarterback room.”
That quarterback room is not a very crowded one this spring. The coaching staff was unsuccessful bringing in any help from the transfer portal during the first transfer window, so this spring there are only three quarterbacks taking reps every day: Sullivan, freshman Jack Lausch and walkon Cole Freeman.
Ryan Hilinski, the redshirt junior who began last season as QB1 and played in eight games, is out this spring as he recovers from a knee injury. He is expected back in the fall, when true freshman Aidan Gray also will arrive. But for this spring, Sullivan, Lausch and Freeman are rotating reps. That’s it.
And that’s just fine with them. While fans obsess over who is first-, second- or third-team, the quarterbacks don’t particularly care. They are just out there trying to get better with each rep, no matter what personnel group they are on the field with.
“Everybody's getting equal reps,” explained Sullivan. “Everybody's fighting for that job, and we're all making each other better. I think the biggest word right now we have in the room is competitive maturity.
“I think we're all fighting for it, but we all know that one guy gets it at the end of the day, and we're all kind of just helping each other out, making each other better. Because at the end of the day, us bickering and complaining and then kind of fighting, that doesn't do anything to help the team.”
Each quarterback has something different that he’s working on this spring. For Sullivan, who completed 74% of his passes last season, with four touchdowns and three interceptions, it’s all about manipulating the defense with his eyes.
“I'm using my eyes better, through my progressions and through the offense,” he said. “[I’m] moving defenders throughout the play and kind of taking them where I need them to go.”
Lausch, who played in just one game and completed four of eight passes, is working more on his mastery of offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian’s system. He arrived in Evanston last summer intending to play two sports this year, but he is not playing baseball and is 100% devoted to football this spring.
“I would say the biggest thing is just, obviously, having an understanding of the offense… kind of getting a feel for, 'All right, this is where this ball's supposed to go,' and I know that pre-snap,” said the Chicago Brother Rice product. “So just kind of speeding everything up and really getting into like that elite level of understanding. Then I'd say just moving around in the pocket, staying in the pocket, moving around there as well.”
One thing that’s evident among this group of QBs is that they are all fans of one another. They are tight. The quarterbacks on the sideline are cheering for the guy taking reps.
Sullivan marveled at how quickly Lausch corrected a hitch in his release – a leftover from his baseball career, he said – and picked up the offense.
“He's delivering some nice balls now and having a great spring. I'm really proud of him,” said Sullivan like a beaming father.
Lausch praises Sullivan for “being a great dude” and mentoring him about the offense.
“On the field, in the playbook, he's been huge, just because he's been here longer than I have, and he has a great understanding of the offense,” said Lausch. “So, you know, just helping me go make faster decisions, get through my progressions.”
Both guys appreciate Freeman and Hilinski. The senior member of the group, Hilinski is out on the field in shorts and a T-shirt, like a coach, as he continues rehabbing from surgery.
“I want to get a few shouts out to Ryan,” said Lausch. “He's been phenomenal. I mean, a guy that's injured and doesn't know when he is going to get back, he's been awesome helping out the room. He's been in meetings signaling for us. I mean, that guy has been…a phenomenal human being. I couldn't thank him enough.”
So everything is upbeat and optimistic on this Chamber of Commerce morning in Evanston. While many observers see an offense riddled with question marks and holes, Sullivan and Lausch think that Northwestern can field a productive offense next fall.
And that’s as it should be. Sunshine and rolling waves can make the most pessimistic of us see the bright side of things, even on the heels of an 11-loss season.