By Paul M. Banks
Just moments ago, Northwestern beat Illinois 21-16 to become the first ever owners of the Land of Lincoln trophy. The intrastate rivalry has a new trophy this year, and NU became the first of the two teams to win it. The first video below shows team captain Brendan Smith holding the trophy, as teammates Corey Wootton and others celebrate and sing the school fight song on their way to the visitors locker room at Memorial Stadium.
The second video, this next one below is of Wildcats’ Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald, and his post-game press conference. I trimmed it down to two minutes. By the way, I’m the reporter asking the question about his 2nd half adjustments to shut down Illinois’ ground game.