Saturday morning Northwestern’s football team practiced
outside for the first time since spring practice started on March 7. The
Wildcats held a scrimmage that actually wasn’t without drama. Superback Brett
Nagel suffered a serious injury to his left arm late in the scrimmage. He was
taken off the field on a golf cart and an air cast was placed on the arm. Long
snapper Pat Hickey is banged up, as is receiver Jeremy Ebert and superback
Drake Dunsmore.
But aside from Nagel’s injury, coach Pat Fitzgerald was happy
with his team’s overall performance and thought the defense started fast and
the offense responded well.
Quarterbacks Evan Watkins, Kain Colter and Trevor Siemian
also played with a bit more confidence.
“I thought they were fine. They are a work in progress,”
Fitzgerald said. “I want to see more leadership out of them and I thought I saw
it coming on, but its hard. We tried to make the reps even today. It’s hard to
get some momentum going. They are where we thought they’d be.”
Fitzgerald downplayed rumors from the players as to whether
or not he would name a No. 1 quarterback before spring football ends April 16
with the annual scrimmage at Ryan Field at noon.
“That’s why they’re called players and I’m called the
coach,” Fitzgerald said. “Maybe someone will separate themselves, but that has
not happened yet.”
