By defeating #17 Wisconsin today, Northwestern football took out one of the two teams that everybody thought would decide the Big Ten West. They’ll get their crack at the other one (Nebraska Cornhuskers) at home two weeks from now. If Pat Fitzgerald can beat the Huskers, then a place in Indianapolis for the Big Ten title game is theirs for the taking.
With a win over the Badgers in hand, only the Huskers and themselves stand in the way of Northwestern football reaching Indy on December 6th.
Northwestern fans storming the field after upsetting #17 Wisconsin pic.twitter.com/FXJ3pzchOW
— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) October 5, 2014
“We get it. We understand. Every game counts. That’s the bottom line,” said Pat Fitzgerald on today’s result and it’s impact in the Big ten West race.
“It’s East and West, but they all count. Head to head is obviously critically important.”
He then gave a soundbite that sounded like it belongs on CNBC as much it belongs on ESPN
“The cornerstone of our program is investment, and they are investing in practice every week and seeing the fruits of their labor. They are buying into what we value.”
The B1G West is bad. We are not sugarcoating that. The division is awful. And NU is not what they were three weeks ago. In the first three weeks of the season, they did not look good. (Yes, the win over WIU was also ugly) The point is, they’re finding an identity and there’s no reason to think they won’t decide a place in the Big Ten championship game as much as anybody else.
“I think our identity is a work in progress. I really do. I think the reason why we have been successful now for a couple weeks is because the guys are really invested greatly during the week. They put in the time individually and collectively,” said Fitz.
That identity is a run based attack built around freshman sensation Justin Jackson. The four star recruit is getting better every week. It appears Northwestern football has now found life after Venric Mark at the tailback position.
“We have got a plan there at running back. I think we executed it pretty well. Great job by Justin. Everybody fulfilled their roll. His number was called. He has a really good feel for what we are trying to do,” said Fitz.
“I feel pretty crappy, but we won so that’s all that matters,” said Jackson about carrying the load today.
“I can’t say I was expecting (so many carries), I was expecting to come in here and do what the coaches wanted me to do. Whether it’s getting 10, 15, or 30 carries, I just go in there and do what I can to get in and try to help our team win.”
With Solomon Vault out with an injury, Jackson got a bigger than expected workload. Still, he is the future at tailback. And the present too.
It wouldn’t be a true college football Saturday unless Fitzgerald also closed the presser with his trademark “stats are for losers.”
Fitzgerald gave a full explanation of what “stats are for losers” means, but we’ll save that discussion for another time. Instead, we’ll just leave all the statistics out of this Northwestern football article. Like Fitz said at the end of the presser “enjoy your articles.”
And I don’t enjoy replaying, pausing and transcribing tape. So I’ll enjoy this by working off the quotes that have already been transcribed and posted.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and very often writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2