Notebook: Komolafe cleared to return, Braun recaps Purdue decision-making
EVANSTON-Northwestern fans breathed a sigh of relief when head coach David Braun confirmed on Monday that running back Caleb Komolafe should be good to go for this week’s game at Nebraska.
“Yes, he’ll practice today,” Braun said.
Komolafe left Saturday’s win over Purdue in the third quarter with an upper-body injury and didn’t return. He appeared to clutch his left shoulder as he walked off the field.
Nicknamed “The Beast” by his teammates, Komolafe has been crucial to Northwestern’s ground game since Cam Porter suffered a season-ending injury Week 2 against Western Illinois. Komolafe leads the Wildcats with 107 carries for 483 yards and five touchdowns this season.
Braun breaks down fake-punt decision
Braun has a reputation as a conservative coach who is focused on time of possession, strong defense and complementary offense. And that bore out for much of the team’s 19-0 evisceration of Purdue.
Except for one glaring exception: a fake punt.
Not just any fake punt. A fake punt on fourth-and-10, up 13-0, just short of midfield, with 1:36 left in the half, with Purdue still holding all three timeouts and starting the second half with the ball. In short, he gave the Boilers a chance to score twice and take the lead before the Wildcat offense took the field again.
The direct snap to tight end Lawson Albright went for just four yards after Purdue’s gunner, cornerback Tony Grimes, kept his eyes in the backfield and made a tackle well short of first down.
Purdue went three-and-out on their next possession and punted it away, but the Wildcats dodged a bullet. Braun ruefully recapped the decision making.
“I was really upset at myself afterwards based on the result,” he said. “I think it’s a reflection of how much I trust this football team overall. To call that in that situation, I think the former version of me wouldn’t have been willing to call that.
“I think it shows the trust I have in our defense. And their response wasn’t, ‘What are we doing?’ No, it was, ‘It’s our job to go out there and get a stop,’ which they did.”
Braun added he thought the team had “a really good look” against Purdue, a team that brings pressure in punt block. It’s just that Grimes was able to make the read, and then the tackle.
Braun disclosed an interesting detail when he referenced his “former version” that wouldn’t have had the confidence to make the call. How far back did this former version go? Not very far, it turns out.
“That’s not a decision I’d make last year,” Braun said. “What I’ve done a better job of in fall camp is really stating philosophically to our entire program, and all our players: this is how we’re going to operate. No more sitting on our heels and let our opponents stress us.
“We’re going to find ways to stress our opponent and we have a group that’s mature enough in their preparation to handle that.”
The fake punt didn’t work this time, but in the big picture Braun had no remorse. He’s looking to continue to ramp up his team’s risk taking to create and press their advantage.
The decision to bring in Boe
Another head scratcher in retrospect from the Purdue game was the choice to bring in backup quarterback Ryan Boe on a third-and-4 from the Purdue 9, after Northwestern just ran a direct snap to Joseph Himon II in Wildcat formation for four yards on second down.
Starting quarterback Preston Stone, who has some scrambling ability but is typically classified as a pocket passer, had led a 12-play, 62-yard drive before Himon and then Boe got the ball. Boe kept the ball on a read-option for no gain, and the Wildcats had to settle for a 27-yard field goal for Jack Olsen.
Boe has two carries for two yards this season against Big Ten opponents after an electrifying 58-yard touchdown against Western Illinois in Week 2. He is just 1-for-2 passing for seven yards.
“Hindsight is 20-20 and the result of that play was not good,” Braun said about Boe’s carry. “It got us out of our rhythm, for sure… [In the red zone], as the field spacing gets condensed, where it becomes harder to throw, boxes get loaded against the run game. Having an element where you can run the quarterback is critical to success down there, and we have to find ways for that to be part of our game plan.
“You can also argue that taking the ball out of Preston Stone’s hands right now is a very debatable [decision] and got us out of rhythm on that drive. We have to do a better job of executing the call that’s made, and if we do, I think we have a really good play with Ryan.”
Similar to the fake punt, Braun was rueful but remorseless. We can’t be sure when and where, but Boe’s package of plays will almost certainly reappear this season.
Braun raising the team’s goals
One of Braun’s best quotes in his speech to his team after their landmark 22-21 win at Penn State was, “Where is it on our list of goals is it to beat Penn State?”
It was a rhetorical question. It doesn’t. Braun laid out the foundational trio of goals for Northwestern football during Big Ten Media Days in July: earn a Northwestern degree, win the Big Ten Championship, make the College Football Playoff.
They used to be: win the West, win the Big Ten, win Our Bowl Game, the goals established by previous head coach Pat Fitzgerald. But the dissolution of the West required a change, and Braun used the opportunity to set the program’s sites a little higher, as well as introduce an academic element.
That all set the stage for Braun’s ambitious and jarring response on Monday morning when asked about blocking out outside noise since the Wildcats are one win away from a bowl berth.
“We have to do a good job of isolating and understand that nowhere on our list of goals does it say, ‘Make a bowl game,'” Braun said. “Nowhere does it say, ‘Beat Purdue.’
“Ultimately, this team has set out to do something really special this year. They have done an incredible job of really isolating focus on the task at hand.”
Northwestern has an extremely tough road ahead with challenging road games at Nebraska and USC, then home games at Wrigley Field against No. 25 Michigan and Minnesota, before the season finale at No. 23 Illinois.
In order to achieve either of Braun’s goals for the program, a Big Ten title or a CFP berth, they would need to win out, and do it in style. It would be a Herculean task for the Wildcats to make the Big Ten title game with Ohio State, Indiana and Oregon all currently residing in the top 7 of the AP poll, and the Ducks already holding a tiebreaker over them. The first CFP rankings haven’t been released yet, but it would be just as daunting to muscle into their Top 12 by the end of the season.
The point is that those three goals represent an extraordinarily bold standard for a program where a bowl game has been the benchmark of success since the turn of the century. But if anyone has to have the confidence to strive for more, it’s the head coach.
