EVANSTON-This wasn’t the spring Trent Goens envisioned for himself.

The fifth-year senior thought he would be able to coast through his final spring football season with Northwestern. He had been playing defensive end for four years in NU’s system, and this would be his fourth spring practice. He had everything clocked.

Then, about a week before spring ball started, head coach Pat Fitzgerald asked to see Goens in his office. Because of graduation, injuries and a retirement, Fitzgerald explained that there was a shortage of superbacks. He asked Goens to switch over to the offensive side of the ball and play superback¸ for the good of the team. Goens, of course, said yes.

That decision turned Goens’ world upside down.

Goens said that playing superback over the last five weeks was “definitely a challenge,” but he did well enough that Fitzgerald said after Saturday’s final spring practice at Ryan Fieldhouse that Goens will be playing both ways for the Wildcats in the fall. Maybe three ways, if you count special teams.

And the funny thing is, Fitzgerald told the media before he told Goens.

“He said that?” asked Goens, with his eyebrows raised, when the message was relayed to him just a few minutes later. “That’s breaking news, I guess.”

Fitzgerald’s plan shouldn’t really come as a surprise. The 6-foot-3, 265-pounder from Chino Hills (Calif.) is nothing if not versatile. That’s why defensive line coach Marty Long calls him a “Swiss Army knife.”

Said Fitzgerald, “I think he's a guy that has the ability mentally to have multiplicity on his plate, to have multiple positions and to have multiple roles, and I thought he did an outstanding job. It's been awesome to go through.

"Now that I see the way he's wrapped up spring, I think he's going to be a guy who is heavily involved in whatever we are doing next year: offense and defense. And then obviously he's been in the kick game in his career, and I expect to see that.

“But that's not anything earth-shattering because…I think he has the skill set to be able to do it.”

Goens just shrugs when asked about accepting Fitzgerald’s challenge to learn the superback position.

“When the head coach asks you that, you say, ‘Whatever is best for the team,’” said Goens. “It obviously is important enough for them to ask me, and if they believe I can do it, I want to make sure I give it my best shot. As a senior, you want to help the team any way you can.”

Superbacks coach Bob Heffner sees it a little differently.

“He made a decision for the team, being a fifth-year senior, which is a great, unselfish sacrifice to come into my room,” he said.

The superback position room to start spring practice was as empty as a Friday night Calculus class. Heffner lost James Prather and Trey Klock to graduation. Then, starter Cameron Green announced his retirement right before the start of spring practice in February. Trey Pugh, the No. 2 to Green last season, was out this spring with an injury (he’s expected back in the fall).

Add a couple more roster casualties and Northwestern was down to just three superbacks for spring ball: walkons Cody Link and Alex Oelsner, and redshirt freshman Charlie Mangieri. So Goens and Tommy Carnifax came over from the defensive line to fill out the depth chart.

It’s far different than the depth chart at Goens’ other position, defensive end, where talent seems to be overflowing. Goens has been a rotational player at defensive end but never a starter. He has 36 tackles in 35 career games, with five sacks and one interception.

Heffner points out that moving players from other positions to superback is nothing new. Prather was a defensive end and Klock a guard before they made the switch. When recruiting, Northwestern often looks for athletic guys who can line up in different positions to play superback, so they sometimes have to borrow some beef from other rooms to fill out all of the various roles, which range from short-yardage blockers, to fullbacks, to split-out receivers.

“A lot of times, the guys who come from other rooms are the bigger guys,” explained Heffner.

At least Goens won’t have to switch jersey numbers. He went from the very defensive No. 54 to the very superback-friendly No. 83 last season, even though he could have no idea that he would be playing on offense just a few months later.

Goens says that his transition has had its ups-and-downs. He rolls his eyes recalling a pass he dropped in scrimmage on Saturday, but Heffner says that "everybody drops passes."

Goens was faced with not only the challenge of learning a position he hadn’t played since high school. He also had to unlearn as much as he learned.

“It was definitely a challenge you'd expect out of anything new,” he said. “The funny thing is, tight ends’ technique is flipping everything (from defensive end) on its head. So it's not only learning technique, but really teaching yourself not to do what I've been doing for the last four years.

“So it's definitely a challenge technically, and learning the system in a short amount of time because I got put in there a week before spring practice started. So I didn't have time to really adjust to what the offensive schemes work. That being said, I feel really comfortable with where I'm at right now.”

So is Heffner. He looks at where Goens started and is very happy with the progress that he’s made.

“It's amazing how much he learned in 15 days,” said Heffner, who just celebrated 10 years on the coaching staff in February. “He knew zero of our offense, and there's a lot of stuff. I'll be the first one to tell you there's a lot more.

“He's made great progress. He blocks, he's tough, he's been a great leader in my room. It's a very young room right now. He's on Leadership Council here for the team. He's a fine young man. He's been a great addition.”

Goens thinks he has a long way to go, but one advantage he has is that he has plenty of time to work on it. He graduates in June with a degree in Economics. He has one class now, for his final quarter as an undergrad. He won’t take any classes over the summer and then just one class next fall, in the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

He figures he will be able to spend the time learning his new position that would have otherwise been spent hitting the books.

“I have a lot of time on my hands now. The next six months I have one class,” he said. “I have a lot of time to focus what I need to work on. There's a lot to work on and I know that. I feel comfortable I'm on the right trajectory, and with all this extra time it will be used to my advantage to get myself ready to go. When fall camp comes around, I'll be firing on all cylinders.”

Goens isn’t sure at this point what his role will be. Neither does Heffner. But the coach is certain of one thing: he will have one.

“He will play football for us,” said Heffner confidently. “How much? Who knows? He will play for us at superback. He will be in short-yardage, but he will be doing a lot of things for us. Trent’s got a major role.”

Heffner is busy figuring out everyone’s role, not just Goens.

There’s Mangieri, who played on special teams and a little bit in short-yardage last year. “He’s more of a hybrid,” explains Heffner. “He’s done some really good things in the spring.”

Heffner says that Mangieri and Goens are in the mix to be the starter. “They're in a battle right now. There are both going to play. It’s a two-headed (battle) right now.” Then Pugh, who is the most experienced superback, will join the fray in the fall and carve out his role.

Heffner hopes that Carnifax, who came into the superbacks room about five days into spring practice, will be able to fill Klock’s role as “a short-yardage, big blocking tight end and have a role on extra point field goals and that kind of stuff.”

The two walkons, Link and Oelsner, were able to get a lot more reps this spring because of all the attrition. Then, in June, incoming freshman Thomas Gordon will arrive.

Heffner sees Gordon as more of a flex guy, like Mangieri, until he gains weight. “Eventually, (Gordon will) be able to do a little bit of everything. He's a freshman but he came from Texas and played with a good team, so I'm excited to have him in the program.”

Because superbacks rotate so much and line up in so many different ways, the more options Heffner has, the better. He thinks that just about everyone will play.

“The second-teamer has to be just as good as the first-teamer,” said Heffner. “I know all coaches say that, but in my room, they're rotating. Trey Pugh rotated with Cam Green. Cam Green rotated in for Garrett Dickerson. Garrett Dickerson rotated in for Dan Vitale. It's always been like that. Years ago, Brendan Mitchell came in for Drake Dunsmore.”

Goens isn’t really focused on what role he will play. He doesn’t really care. He thinks he’ll be flexing out and playing a hybrid role, but “whatever they say, I’m doing it,” he said.

“It's fun. I'm able to use my football knowledge over the last four years on defense to help with what I'm doing on offense,” he said. “I'm trying something out new on the last ride. It's going to make it more memorable, I think.

“It's been tough to leave those guys in the D-line room, but it's been fun to transition in the other room. It's a challenge, and I'm open to it and it's exciting.”

Goens may be learning new things, but he can’t forget everything he learned about defensive end, either. Long has plans for Goens on the defensive line, too. He and Heffner will have to figure out the best way to divide Goens’ time in practice come fall.

“Trent…can do it all, and he's smart enough to learn both sides,” said Long. “Like when Corey Wootton played for us, he played some superback in the tight-zone, goal-line area, but he also played a ton for me.”

You can't write a story about Goens without mentioning his mustache.

Goens has been a steady role player for the Wildcats for the last three years, since appearing in nine games as a redshirt freshman in 2016. But his mustache has become a bit of a star.

Goens’ trim, black 'stache looks more like a policeman’s than a porn star’s. That’s ironic because Goens’ father is a cop.

“My dad has a sweet mustache, I guess it runs in the family,” said Goens with a smile. “I can't compare mind to his, though. He had it for 20 years. On the first day he shaved, I was like, ‘Who is that guy? Mom, who is that man you are with?’”

Don’t get used to Goens’ mustache, however. It only has a short time remaining. Just a few days, actually.

Not everyone, it seems, is a fan.

“The thing is, my girlfriend is coming on Thursday, so on Wednesday it'll be gone,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’m just enjoying the time while I can have it.”