Time for Wildcats to step up and grow up
NMU looks to end two losing streaks this weekend
MARQUETTE — The storyline for the Northern Michigan University football team right now is streaks. Particularly losing streaks.
The Wildcats are currently on a four-game skid thanks to Saturday’s home loss to Wayne State, and now they’ll head to Michigan Tech to face a program that they’ve lost to for the last nine years.
If there was a time for NMU (1-4) to step up and make a good statement, Saturday would be perfect.
However, Northern head coach Kyle Nystrom said it won’t be easy to take down the Huskies (2-2) and he feels that they’re much better than last season.
“This is the best team I’ve seen them … put together,” he said. “They’ve done a nice job. They’ve got a lot of veterans. They’re stocked. They’re really good.
“Coach (Dan) Mettlach has got J’s coached up because the offensive line is pretty good. So Dan has a nice job with them. They’ve got a group of receivers that are very good and have been playing a long time.
“They’re really good. They’re not just OK, they’re very good and they’re impressive to watch. And they’ve been there a long time.
“Jacob Wenzlick is a legit player and he’s as good as anybody in the league. He makes a ton of plays for them. I know them by numbers, I don’t know what all their names (are), obviously. No. 5, this (Ben) Hartley kid, he’s a good player. You know what they share in common is that they’re both seniors and I think Jacob’s back for his sixth year. He’s a graduate student. They’ve been around a long time and they know a lot of football.
“(No.) 81 plays a lot for them, (Jordan) Janssen, he does a good job. The quarterback (Will Ark) is much improved. Dan must’ve had him stay up there last summer because he’s vastly improved from last year. He was good last year, but right now, he looks like Baker Mayfield of the GLIAC out there.
“He can run and nobody can tackle him. He makes everybody miss and he keeps plays alive. He extends plays and then bad things happen. He makes scramble rolls and he gets the ball where it’s got to go. So they’re very good.
“We’re going to have to be very good. We’re going to have to get rid of all our mistakes and our blunders. I’ve told the team that it’s time to grow up. It’s kind of a reoccurring thing from week to week, but that’s OK. That’s who we are right now, but in order for us to match how good they are, we’ve got to be really good.
“So we’ve got to eliminate our blunders that shoot ourselves in the foot. Whether it be miscommunication and assignment busts and technique problems and the penalties. That stuff has got to go away to give us a good chance. So we need to match how good they’ve become and we’ve got to become that good this week.”
Obviously, the stat that is being talked about the most this week is NMU’s losing streak to the Huskies. Nystrom is well aware of the frustration surrounding that long string of defeats.
“It’s very irritable,” he said. “Extremely. So you either fix it, or you take it.
“I don’t play. My players play. So they’re the ones that have to take care of business. We have to prepare them to do it. We’ve got to get all the moving parts nailed down for them as far as the schemes go. All the practice and all the techniques.
“At the same time, you can’t be out of control. You can’t get yourselves all flurried up that you can’t concentrate and do what you’re supposed to.
“(Former NMU hockey coach) Walt Kyle talked to our team in camp over the summer and he gave a great lesson for our players. Great players play with a controlled rage. That’s the key. Controlled. If you’re a younger person trying to play this game and you’re just in a rage. And you can’t concentrate on what you have to do and you’re out of control out there, you hurt us. So we can’t have that.”
Another thing the Wildcats need to avoid are missed opportunities. Last weekend was another chance for Northern to step up and it did, at least through one quarter. The Wildcats held a 14-7 advantage going into the second quarter with the help of a 99-yard kickoff-return touchdown by GLIAC Special Teams Player of the Week Tyquan Cox, and were tied at 14-14 at one point.
Soon after, however, NMU fumbled away the ball on the Warriors’ 4-yard line and from that point on, it was all WSU. As painful as that turnover was, the most telling stat from the defeat was with rushing yards as the Wildcats were outgained 358-38.
When asked what the reason was for that huge rushing disparity, Nystrom said there were many factors, but the biggest was tackling the Warriors trio of running backs — Deiontae Nicholas, King Sanders and James Hill.
“We really struggled to get them down on the first contact and we had some bad fits,” he said. “We did some things uncharacteristic of our run fit game with the linebackers. We didn’t play good at linebacker. Monday was real hard for the linebackers and we’ve got to play better with the front and the safeties, too.
“We’ve got to tackle better. The backs ran through us and they ran around us and we couldn’t get them down on first hits. So that’s basically what that came down to. So we did a nice tackle circuit (Monday) night for practice to start it off. We were good at practice (Monday) night. They were good. That’s as much as you can say. You’ve got to move on and you’ve got to get ready.
“You’ve got to move forward and you’ve got to progress and you’ve got to grow. You’ve got to improve to give yourself a good chance. That’s where we’re at. That’s where that disparity was. We didn’t get off the field on third down and we didn’t move the ball and control the ball on offense. So there’s more than just one or two factors that led into that. There’s a few variables that contributed.”
NMU will try to fix those things before kicking off against the Huskies in Houghton at 1 p.m. Saturday at Kearly Stadium. The game will be televised by WLUC-TV6.
Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.