Northwestern answering the bell in weight room

CHICAGO-In Northwestern’s weight room at the Nicolet Center, players ring a purple bell when they set a personal record for weight lifting.

If they reach a new PR for the bench press, squats, power clean, you name it, they give the bell a ring.

Some guys just walk up to the bell, give it a single strike and it’s over, according to head coach Pat Fitzgerald. Other guys will ring it to a beat and his entire position group will start dancing and hollering.

The Wildcats have rung the bell so often this year -- they set more than 400 personal records over the summer, boasted Fitzgerald at Big Ten Media Days -- that it is no longer purple. The paint has chipped off of it.

“That damn thing was purple when we started the offseason and now we’ve got to repaint it, they hit it so much,” said Fitzgerald.

That’s the kind of repair the football program is all too happy to make.

“This may be the strongest football team we’ve had,” Fitzgerald said at the dais on Monday. “I just got an updated text message from our strength coach, and Justin (Jackson) and Matthew (Harris) set two PRs last night, so we’re over 400 personal records in the weight room thoughout the course of the summer. Our guys have been doing a terrific job working with our strength coach, Jay Hooten, to improve an area we feel we really need to get better in.

“Our three losses a year ago, we got dominated on the line of scrimmage and we’ve got to improve our strength up front to take the next step to where we want to go and put ourselves in position to compete to get to Indianapolis and be in that type of conversation.”

Northwestern was on the fringes of that conversation last season, when they went 10-3 and recorded double-digit wins for just the fourth time in school history. But in those three losses, the Wildcats’ lack of power was obvious.

Fitzgerald said that they were pushed around in the trenches and the scoreboard reflected it: Michigan beat them 38-0, Iowa 40-10 and Tennessee 45-6 in the Outback Bowl on New Year’s Day. Furthermore, the Wildcats were outrushed by a count of 201-38, 294-51 and 226-132, respectively, in those three setbacks, numbers that show that the other team had their way up front.

While those three losses served as motivators, the truth is that Northwestern has been focusing on improving its team strength for quite some time, says Fitzgerald.

“Two years ago we made a decision that for us to take the next step, we have to get stronger,” he said to a small knot of reporters outside of the main ballroom. “Not that we’re sacrificing explosiveness and top-end speed and all those other things. This is a line-of-scrimmage league, just like all of the Power Fives, and for us not to win three games a year ago and to truly have that happen because we didn’t win the line of scrimmage, is one hell of a motivator, let me put it to you that way.”

Those lopsided scores, plus the losses of two starters on both the offensive and defensive lines, has lit a fire under his charges and contributed to team chemistry that he says is the best he’s seen in his decade at the helm.

Fitzgerald is hopeful that the extra work his players demonstrated on the rubber floor of the weight room will pay off on the grass of stadiums across the Big Ten this fall.

“Hopefully, we’ll see the return on that investment, but the guys have been busting their butts. It’s been fun… The credit goes to the players.”

Fitzgerald is still young for a head coach and doesn’t like waxing about “the good old days.” He is still just 41 years old and last played for the Wildcats just 20 years ago. Still, he notices just how different conditioning is for players today compared to just a couple decades ago.

“Summertime used to be, for me, Cubs games and Sox games and I won’t tell you the other things,” said Fitzgerald. “Now these guys are grinding. But they love it.”

He continued, “You used to have to get in shape in camp. Now they’re never out of shape. They literally never get out of shape, cardio-wise. You have to be careful. You can lose them, mentally, physically, emotionally.”

Hopefully, little things like ringing the bell and tweeting out personal records keeps the players engaged.

As for repainting the bell, maybe they can find some money in Hooten’s budget to buy an extra can of paint.