VRBO CITRUS BOWL: AUBURN VS NORTHWESTERN

December 30, 2020

Mike Bajakian

Camping World Stadium

Northwestern Wildcats

Q. When you look at the defense that you're preparing to face this Friday afternoon, what keys jump out at you in your kind of initial evaluation?

MIKE BAJAKIAN: I think they are an outstanding defense, especially, well, they have that all over the field, but up front I think they are really stout with their defensive front and their linebacker core. And they are athletic. They do a great job of running the football and playing team defense and playing with high energy and high effort.

Q. Obviously your first season and it's been obviously a whirlwind from when you got here, but from when you were first hired to now, how much of your offensive style do you think you've initiated into this offense and how much more do you still want to do?

MIKE BAJAKIAN: We were somewhat fortunate at the beginning. We were able to get eight practices entering spring football and that's as many or more than anyone else in the country. Typically in eight practices, you'll get as much as 70 to 80 percent of your offensive scheme in. We got a bulk of it in during the spring.

Then the time we had during the lockdown, the shutdown, to meet with our players on Zoom and rehash all of it and reinstall all of it and go into even greater detail was very valuable. And in doing so, you know, it allowed us to -- having eight practices of spring ball allowed us to show video evidence of them executing our scheme.

And then after we got through all that, we still had more time to continue with what we called post-spring install. I said to the offensive staff after we were done with all of it, I said, listen, we just installed absolutely everything. There's no way we're going to call all of that in the course of a season. Some of it is you install it in the spring or even in training camp with the goal that if you need to pull it up, three or four, against a certain opponent, there's some familiarity, it's not the first time they are hearing it and they do have some invested reps back in the spring.

But the meat and potatoes of the offense was in the spring and post-spring we were able to execute on that in training camp.

Q. You and Coach Hank obviously are on opposite sides of the ball, but what has that relationship been like, offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator, and what have you learned from him in the past year about coaching?

MIKE BAJAKIAN: Well, I tell you, it's been an unbelievable blessing for me to have this opportunity to coach with him for one year. There's so many, so many great things about being here at Northwestern and when I accepted the job, I'll be honest, it wasn't in my mind that I would have the opportunity to coach with him.

But in having this year, the thing that stood out to me the most about Coach Hank is No. 1, his emphasis on fundamentals and technique. It always comes back to the basics, the basics that you teach everybody, whether it be at the high school level, college level, NFL level. He stresses those as much as anyone I've ever been around and that's what wins football games. It's not about schemes and X's and O's. It's about execution and technique and fundamentals. Boy, he places such an important emphasis on that and that's the main thing I pulled away from being with him.

A great guy, extremely humble in his approach and very detailed in his approach and you can see it in how he studies video, the points he makes about the offensive tendencies that they are facing. He truly is a pro in every sense of the world.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Ramaud. Can you characterize what he brings to your team, for maybe those who don't watch a lot of Northwestern football --

MIKE BAJAKIAN: He's a pain in the butt to coach -- no, he's sitting right next to me. I just wanted to jab him a little bit.

I tell you what, Ramaud has been a pleasure in so many ways. You know, he and Peyton have developed a rapport with one another that goes back to Day One of Peyton getting on campus, and Ramaud is playing some outstanding football.

But beyond that, the things you don't see when you're watching him on the football field is how he approaches practice on a daily basis. He works every snap that he's in. And even beyond that, he's constantly coaching his teammates up, the young guys, the other players. He is looking, not only looking at himself in the mirror but he's leading his teammates to be the best they can be.

Again, unless you're around him on a daily basis and seeing him go through that, and he does it very subtly, you have to pay attention, but he definitely gets the most out of the guys around him. That's been a huge part of our offensive success in general when Riley is making a play or any of the young guys are making plays, oftentimes the foundation has been laid during the week on either something Ramaud has done in practice or some little tidbit of a coaching point he's given his teammates.

Q. Obviously we got news over the last couple weeks of some guys who were with the team majority of the season but won't be playing in the Bowl game. When you look at the positions held by Kyric, Isaiah and Drake, are there guys you are looking to step up and maybe take bigger roles on Friday for them?

MIKE BAJAKIAN: Sure. I mean, you know, obviously those guys had a great contribution and we're thankful for what they contributed.

But the guys we have on our team, we have a lot of faith in their ability. Guys like Evan Hull are playing great football. Cam Porter has stepped up the last couple weeks on the perimeter. Bryce Kirtz has been making more and more plays and getting more and more experience as the season has gone on.

You know, I'm sure that guys will step up, but they have been doing so all year long. So nobody should be surprised.

Q. You mentioned Cam Porter right there. What did you see from him that sort of got him from a few reps at the end of the game with Maryland to starting against Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship game?

MIKE BAJAKIAN: You know, Cam is a very smart player, very tough player. He's learned very quickly but we just felt the need to kind of get his feet wet slowly. The more he could handle, the more we put on him, and you started to see that when we were doing the wildcat stuff before he was getting double-digit touches per game plan.

We had a lot of confidence in him. He runs hard. He breaks tackles and provides good ball security, which are the keys to the running back position. He's demonstrated that all year long and as he's -- I've often said, you feed the hot hand, and guys earn playing time. And Cam is a guy that has earn that had playing time and has been very productive in the time that he's gotten.