Big Ten Power Rankings Week 2: Does Anybody Belong at No. 1?
Saturday Blitz Big Ten Power Rankings Week 2
14. Northwestern Wildcats 0-2 (0-0), Lost to Northern Illinois 23-15 Last Week
Who saw this coming in Northwestern? Pat Fitzgerald’s Wildcats were supposed to take a step back into relevance this year, but now they’re in serious trouble.
Losing to California at home in the opener is bad enough. Losing to a MAC team in your second game is worse. The Wildcats have struggled on defense and could have a bit of a quarterback controversy soon if things don’t change. An 0-2 start is not good for this team.
Now, with Penn State, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Michigan, Iowa, and Nebraska still on the schedule, it appears very unlikely Northwestern will make a bowl game this year. The one stroke of good fortune is three of those teams looked flat out pathetic on Saturday. But so did Northwestern, and the Wildcats are significantly below the other teams from a talent perspective. Starting the year 0-2 is disastrous for this team.
Fitzgerald’s hot seat is on fire. It will be hard for him to get off of that too if things don’t change in a hurry.