Tag: Northwestern Wildcats Football

For insights on Northwestern football in the coming decade, I turned to Philip Rossman-Reich, who has blogged about Northwestern sports at multiple sites over several years. You can find him at @RiseNU. Philip produces an excellent Orlando Magic blog if you’re into NBA basketball. The site is Orlando Magic Daily, with Philip offering commentary at @philiprr_omd.

Here is Philip Rossman-Reich on Northwestern football in the 2020s:

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Northwestern’s history is not something anyone should celebrate. The “Dark Ages” still leave an imprint on the national perception of the Wildcats and are a constant reminder of how close the team is always to doom. The difficulties of recruiting to an academic-minded school in a power conference are always evident. Winning is the most difficult thing Northwestern has ever had to do.

Somehow, in the last 10 years, Pat Fitzgerald has turned Northwestern into a fairly consistent winner. Nine bowl games since he took over in 2006. Four bowl games wins (including their last three). A Big Ten West championship in 2018. He is the team’s all-time winningest coach. Not to mention helping build the “Fitz Mahal” on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Northwestern is far from the “Dark Ages.” They expect to win. They expect to be in a bowl game. They expect to win bowl games. They expect to win championships.

The only problem is the consistency. They went 3-9 following their Big Ten West Championship season, proving they are both on the verge of competing for championships and hitting rock bottom. For the first time in more than a decade, the Wildcats have hired a new offensive coordinator and have a new voice guiding the team.

Fitzgerald has remade the team in his image. They are strong defensively and can run the ball far better than a team with its size and recruiting limitations probably should. Fitzgerald has always found to get the most of his teams, squeezing out close games to turn six-win seasons into 10-win seasons regularly.

Of course, that is not the life Northwestern wants to live. The Wildcats do not want to go year to year wondering if this is the year they scramble to make a bowl game or the year they win the Big Ten championship.

Where the Wildcats want to be is somewhere different. Somewhere consistent. And so the biggest question for the 2020s for Northwestern is how the Wildcats get their piece of the pie and settle into a place where a bowl game is not only the expectation, but a virtual given and competing for the Big Ten title is more than  a rare thing.

That is the part of the program building Fitzgerald will have to figure out. It started with recognizing (perhaps a few years too late) that the offensive schemes he was running with Mick McCall were not working. Northwestern will have to adjust to a new offense and offensive coordinator for the first time. All the while trying to get themselves back into bowl contention.

From there, the Wildcats have to build. They have to continue building upon the defensive foundation they have built for the last few seasons and turn that into consistent winning. And yes, it means changing the perceptions of the program and stepping up on the big stage with marquee wins over the big schools — namely, Ohio State and Michigan when they come on the schedule.

Northwestern is no longer in the “Dark Ages.” The Wildcats have not been a doormat in the league for the entirety of Fitzgerald’s tenure and really since Randy Walker took the team to a Big Ten title in 2000. They have reached a level where they are competitive every year.

Now the Wildcats need to reach a championship level. A level where they are competing for the title in the division every year and those days of Northwestern being a joke of any kind are long in the past.

— Philip Rossman-Reich