Northwestern University head football coach Pat Fitzgerald announced today that sophomore running back Arby Fields, the team’s leading rusher in 2009, is leaving the Wildcat program. In two seasons, Fields played in 23 career games and totaled 480 rushing yards (3.3 ypc), 21 receptions (5.0 ypr) and six rushing TD’s. Fields, who started seven games, rushed for a career-high 96 yards versus Illinois State on Sept. 11, 2010.
However, the rest of his 2010 was pretty dreadful as his tendency to run east-west a heck of a lot more than north-south led to his falling way down the depth chart. Also, Mike Trumpy established himself as the Wildcats starting tailback late in the season, meaning there will be few carries for Fields in the future.
By Paul M. Banks
Since Illinois and Northwestern played going east-west instead of north-south (of course, in the end it was just everybody going west) in the Wrigleyville Classic, I thought that NU should run Fields about 45 times in that game. He is after all, one of the most prolific east-west runners in college football.
Fields also was a starting center fielder for the Wildcat baseball team, batting .292 with 27 RBI and 8 stolen bases. So again, he might have done pretty well in Wrigley Field