Nov. 11--Linebacker Collin Ellis has become the third Northwestern player to retire from football due to injury, joining cornerbacks Dan Jones (knee) and Dwight White, who bruised his lone kidney.
Ellis, a team captain, suffered multiple concussions this season that kept him out of five games.
NU coach Pat Fitzgerald called it "absolutely the correct decision ... he has had a wonderful career and has done a great job passing on his passion, love and knowledge to our linebacking corps."
Asked if the fiery Ellis might go into coaching, Fitzgerald replied: "He'd be incredible, but I think he's smarter than that. He can be pretty special in Fortune 500 America."
Other takeaways from Fitzgerald's Monday news conference:
-- Receiver Miles Shuler will sit out Saturday's game at Notre Dame and possibly beyond because of a wrist/hand injury.
-- Poor offensive line play doomed the Wildcats in their 10-9 loss to Michigan, with Fitzgerald saying: "It has to get better, it has to improve. We got pushed back at tackle all day."
-- Fitzgerald said that Notre Dame's Everett Golson might be the most "complete" quarterback the team has faced: "He has a great grasp of their offense; he is a true dual-threat quarterback. He can run very well, has great escapability and has an arm that can make all the throws."
-- Fitzgerald copped to growing up a Notre Dame fan, saying: "Yeah, I'm Catholic from the South Side. Didn't have a choice."
Asked about returning to Notre Dame Stadium, where Northwestern shocked Lou Holtz's Irish in the 1995 season opener, Fitzgerald replied: "I really don't have a whole lot of time for nostalgia now. We have a lot of things to fix. We have to find a way to make two more points, you know?"
-- Michigan players and coach Brady Hoke crowed that they knew what the Wildcats' play-call on the failed two-point conversion attempt that effectively ended the game.
Fitzgerald said he "chuckled" at those remarks because the play was not a pass to the flat, as they suspected. The design called for superback (tight end) Dan Vitale to fall after the snap, get up and then work his way to the left. Michigan's Frank Clark blew up the play by flying past right tackle Jack Konopka and tailback Justin Jackson, leading to a slip by quarterback Trevor Siemian.
"I chuckled because they didn't know," Fitzgerald said. "A-ha! Great, they overplayed it to the (short) field. We know they'll have somebody on him, but I'll take Dan Vitale on a linebacker. That is a good matchup for us. We have executed that play pretty well in practice for about a month. Like I told the team this morning: 'I'm not sorry for going for it. I'm sorry it didn't work.'"
