Disruptive defensive end Corey Wotton was awarded Monday night for his breakout season.

The junior from Rutherford, N.J. totaled nine sacks, 15 tackles for loss, one blocked kick and a forced fumble on the season to earn first-team All-Big Ten honors, as chosen by the conference’s coaches. Continue reading »

Trailing by one point at the start of the fourth quarter against Iowa in its Big Ten opener, Northwestern needed a big play.

The Hawkeyes held the ball at their own 16-yard line and started moving it methodically down the field, using a heavy dose of star junior running back Shonn Greene.

That’s when junior safety Brad Phillips delivered one of his tailor-made punishing hits.
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Finding the end zone has been a futile task for Tyrell Sutton in recent weeks. The senior tailback had five rushing touchdowns and a receiving touchdown in the Wildcats’ first three games but has been shut out since.
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Line ’em up, run right through ’em, sit ’em down.

Four years of college football, and Northwestern junior safety Brendan Smith still preaches the technique behind a perfect tackle.

And it’s not just Smith. The entire Wildcats’ secondary has made a habit of staying true to form in the first half of the season.

Look no further than junior safety Brad Phillips’ exhilarating hit of Iowa running back Shonn Greene or redshirt freshman cornerback Jordan Mabin’s sideswipe of Ohio running back Chris Garrett.

“It’s a great feeling,” Smith said. “A perfect hit is when you don’t even feel it. You just run through him and cross-body him. You’re body feels real good.”

While tradition says the hardest hitter on a football team is the middle linebacker, senior Malcolm Arrington said it’s the secondary that has unloaded one bone-jarring hit after another.

“It definitely pumps you up,” Arrington said. “Safeties and corners are not known as big hitters, and you see a guy like that come down hill and hit someone like that, as big as Shonn Greene, it gets you pumped up. It’s almost like a challenge, you want to one-up him a little bit. It’s definitely a big motivator.”

Arrington said knowing the secondary is playing well behind him serves as an added confidence boost.

But before a big hit even happens, a lot has to go on, and it starts up front.

Last year, the Cats’ defensive philosophy under coordinator Greg Colby was built around reading what the opponent was doing first. Now, NU is focusing on the entire unit attacking.

Whereas the defensive line used to mirror-step an opponent’s offensive line, it now wreaks havoc in the backfield. With the front four getting off their blocks and the linebackers filling holes, opposing running backs are unable to get into open space, leaving a lane for the secondary to get momentum going downhill.

“When they’re in open space and you’re in open space, the opportunity for the kill shot isn’t there because of the open space,” Smith said.

“The approach then is not ‘kill,’ it’s just ‘bring them down.’ If someone is there to slow him down, and we swarm as a team, we can go for the ball or take the kill shot.”

Even if the front seven fits properly and fills its holes, the secondary still has to do its job — read and react to where the play is going, and pick a route to take to the ball carrier.

Once the defensive back picks his angle, he must run his feet, get his hips up, and run through the opposing player.

Each member of NU’s secondary agreed thinking is not an option while trying to make a tackle. But they agreed that there’s still a mental aspect to tackling.

“It’s a combination of both physical and mental,” Mabin said. “You have to want to hit, that’s all mental. You’re either born a hitter or not born a hitter. The physical aspect is just throwing your body at him, and that’s the fun of football. Hitting — that’s what football is about. That’s why we play defense, because we want to hit.”

It’s a good thing they want to hit. For three to four periods out of NU’s 18-period practices, the secondary spends time working on wrapping up and driving their feet.

The physical repetition builds muscle memory, allowing the unit to do what they’ve done best this season — make highlight reel tackles.

Those types of tackles have made a statistical impact. Through the first five games, NU ranks fourth in the Big Ten, giving up only 4.6 yards per play.

For Phillips, the team’s 180-degree turnaround from a season ago comes down to playing strong team defense.

“It’s been about the defensive swarm,” Phillips said. “Get as many people there as you can. It helps because if you have five guys on one, it doesn’t matter who it is, he’s not going to go anywhere.”

matthewforman2007@u.northwestern.edu

IOWA CITY, Iowa - “Momentum is a scary, scary word.”

Coach Pat Fitzgerald’s analysis held true in the Northwestern’s 22-17 defeat of Iowa on Saturday.

Clinging to a one-point advantage and holding the ball at its own 16-yard line, Iowa began a methodical drive to open the fourth quarter. The Hawkeyes provided a heavy dose of junior running back Shonn Greene as they moved the ball to the NU 36-yard line.

That’s when Brad Phillips turned the momentum the Cats’ way with a punishing hit.

“The way he came down hill kind of reminded me of the way the Iowa safeties used to play,” Fitzgerald said. “Just like when I used to be on the other side, watching (former Iowa safety) Bob Sanders come down knocking people’s lips off.”
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