C.J. Bacher interview

By Paul M. Banks

Northwestern senior C.J. Bacher is the Wildcats’ starting quarterback and one of 26 QBs nationally named to the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award Watch List. The Academic All-America candidate was named The Sporting News’ Big Ten’s “Best Player Under Pressure” after a season in which he set NU’s single-season passing mark with 3,656 yards (seventh-most in Big Ten history). If he stays healthy, he’s on pace to break many of the school’s major passing records.

I spoke with Bacher on Saturday after he just moved into fifth place on NU’s career list for total offense. His 5,589 career yards passed up Sandy Schwab and Steve Schnur (Any day with a Steve Schnur reference is a good day!). Bachér remains seventh on NU’s career passing yardage list with 5,512 yards. Heading into the season, C.J. had a Rex Grossman like reputation with a gun-slinger mentality. Whether accurate or not, his high numbers of both TDs and INTs seem to accommodate this theory. Notice his answer to the last question, which talks about his development into a “game-manager” type of quarterback. That style play, is of course synonymous with the game of the Chicago Bears other QB, Kyle Orton.
On this season’s different approach and offensive philosophy, and how it is derived from scrimmaging against their improved defense…

CJ: Not much different from what I normally do. I think we’re attacking more and having more fun. It’s a lot more fun attacking than opposed to sitting back and waiting for things to happen….I think the biggest thing is that we’re really attacking and making plays and keeping everything in front of us.

On how to improve the team’s red zone offense…

CJ: I think in the first two games we did a pretty decent job of that, but we weren’t very good at converting 3rd downs. I think in this game we did a better job of converting 3rd downs, but not so good a job in the red zone. So we need to go back and be more consistent. We have been relying on our explosion plays the last few weeks, but if we get more consistent I think we can be the best offense in the country.

 
On the defense playing better a lot better than in 2007, and how that is altering C.J.’s goals, philosophy and objectives to each game…

CJ: I’m kind of taking a different approach into the games this season where I’ve just go to manage the game and distribute the ball, make sure we keep the ball in our possession, it’s been huge having that defense behind us. When we do punt, we feel confident about getting the ball back in good field position on the next drive.

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