Northwestern football remembered its history by paying homage to it on Homecoming today. Today was a day that honored the 20th anniversary of the 1995 Rose Bowl team. It’s the kind of history that the program would like to repeat. However, this year’s team is looking a lot more like the 2010 and 2013 editions.
Many power five college football teams start off really fast and then come crashing back to Earth in mid-to-late October. It’s quite common and most of the time it’s simply a matter of scheduling. Power 5s often feast off mid-majors and low-majors in the non-conference, then have an in-conference weakling or two on the schedule once league play begins.
Voila! A very shaky 5-0 or 6-0 team is easily made (see the 2011 Illinois Fighting Illini as a classic example).
Northwestern in 2015, is ANYTHING but the type of team described above.
“As you move up the mountain, the air gets thinner and thinner, that’s Big Ten football,” said Northwestern football Coach Pat Fitzgerald after his team was utterly obliterated by the #17 Iowa Hawkeyes 40-10 today.
“We’ve played as competitive a schedule as anybody in the country…a lot of work to do, but a lot of ball ahead of us.”
Fitzgerald is completely right about how good his schedule has been. The 16-6 opening week win over now #15 Stanford has aged like a fine Sonoma Valley Chardonnay. The Bay Area college football powerhouse has hung 40+ on four of the five teams they have faced since NU. The Cardinal have scored at least 31.
Northwestern’s win over Duke is holding up too. In their five games not against the Wildcats, Duke has a +142 point differential.
So Northwestern football was a very legitimate 5-0 entering week six of this season. The Wildcats had outscored their opponents 108-25 at home entering today’s brutally ugly debacle.
So what went wrong? Well, a ton of dropped passes. It’s hard to develop a young quarterback when your veteran receivers can’t make easy catches. Even the dependable, sure-handed senior Christian Jones had a drop. Fitzgerald was asked what changed for Clayton Thorson and the offense?
“It seemed like guys caught the ball for him,” Fitzgerald responded sarcastically.
“Pretty good for the receivers and the quarterback when the receivers catch the ball.” he continued in a snarky fashion.
“I despise losing with a passion, I’ll just leave it at that.”
Through the first five games of the season, Northwestern averaged just seven points per game against. In the last two games, they have surrendered 78. Excellent beginnings degenerating into mediocre finishes is nothing new to Northwestern football.
The 2010 team started 5-0, earned an AP top 25 ranking, but lost to a hapless Purdue team at home in week six. The regular season winded down with a brutal 48-27 loss to Illinois in the infamous Wrigley Field “not enough wall space so both teams will drive in the same direction” game.
Or as Illini fans know it, the “Mikel Leshoure ran for 330 yards” game.
The Wildcats followed that up with a 70-23 loss at Wisconsin which was even uglier than it sounds. Northwestern finished 7-6, 3-5 in league play that season.
The 2013 edition was the most eagerly anticipated Northwestern football team in recent memory. They began the year ranked #22, and started 4-0. NU then rose to #16 in the polls before hosting ESPN College Gameday and #4 Ohio State. The Wildcats held a fourth quarter lead on a Buckeyes team riding a very long winning streak.
Northwestern blew their golden opportunity, and went on to finish 5-7 on the season. For the first time since 2007, they were home for the holidays. So what does Fitzgerald and the rest of the Northwestern football coaching staff do now to prevent recent history from repeating again?
“I’m gonna yell at them a lot, from a motivational standpoint,” he said today about what this week’s practice will be like.
“I believe in the guys in the locker room… but we got to get better.”
Yelling is a good start. As any one of my Twitter followers will tell you, I enjoy the chance to YELL from time to time. Because right now, Northwestern football is indeed at an ALL CAPS!!!! type of crossroads in their season.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. The website is also featured on News Now.
Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye. He also appears regularly on numerous talk shows all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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