Can Northwestern football handle pressure, expectations heading into 2017? No choice but to

David Pierce’s first season in charge of the Northwestern Trojans football team ended with an unexpected thud.

The Trojans’ “reward” for winning Region 4-5A was a first round game against Gaffney, one that quickly went south when Shrine Bowl and college-bound QB Gage Moloney left with an injury. The Indians, plenty motivated by a 45-2 midseason thrashing by the Trojans, pulled out a win at District Three Stadium and the 2016 Trojans were finished.

With seven college football players graduated, the 2017 Trojans are in mid-rebuild mode. Like most teams headed into the first week of the season, Northwestern is an intriguing but unfinished article. As always, future college players abound, including a few new ones to the local scene. It’ll just take a while to fit everyone into the right place.

Will Trojan supporters and casual observers give Pierce and the Trojans the time to do that, given last year’s early playoff exit? That’s not clear yet.

“There’s no pressure on y’all,” Pierce told his team before the season started. “They’re gonna hang every loss around my neck. I lost every game for y’all, for whatever reason. And I’m gonna praise y’all for every win. So get out here and work. The work ethic is what should make this team. There shouldn’t be any pressure on you.”

As Pierce mentioned in The Herald’s 2017 high school football preview, there were similar questions when Pat and Jeff Burris and Johnathan Joseph and Cordarrelle Patterson graduated from Northwestern: who would replace them? The Trojans always found new stars.

Pressure is ever-present for the school’s football players, with the Aug. 18 season-opener against South Pointe carrying a healthy extra portion. They all have their different ways of dealing with it, though.

“Just don’t think about it,” said senior offensive lineman Josiah Ivey, one of the team’s top students. “Don’t put your focus on that, put your focus on practice, on the game. Don’t think about the other team or who you’re facing. The rivalry, that’s for people before us, people after us. All you can do is play the game.”

Dealing with Friday night’s environment is a test for two teams that will have to handle expectations all year. Senior defensive end Christian Steele had this advice for the Trojans that will face South Pointe for the first time: “Don’t get into the hype. The hype is the most crazy thing into it. All the fans gonna be screaming, the lights will be on, you’ve just always got to stay laser-focused.”

Pierce thinks the timing of the South Pointe game is what increases the pressure on Friday night’s matchup. Besides smack talk and hype swirling and building among players and fans for seven-plus months, it’s the first game of the season.

“We’re playing on August 18th. Most Division I schools are playing a game in three weeks, two weeks. We’re starting in two days. So the pressure to get ready, the time spent in the summer creates pressure,” said Pierce. “But I don’t think this game is really any different pressure-wise than games three, four or five. But, you know, when you’re in Football City USA, high standards create great expectations I guess.”

This story was originally published August 17, 2017 at 2:39 PM with the headline "Can Northwestern football handle pressure, expectations heading into 2017? No choice but to."