Northwestern football: Wildcats are Big Ten’s sneaky-good squad

2018 may not be the ideal season for Northwestern football to compete for a Big Ten title appearance, but they enough have talent to challenge Wisconsin.

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There were a lot of strange developments in the 2017 college football season. From Georgia’s jump into the limelight, to UCF’s undefeated run there are plenty of surprising things to talk about from the past year. The most surprising result, however, was one that you may not even remember (I certainly didn’t). Northwestern won 10 games in 2017.

After starting the season as poorly as they could’ve imagined, with losses to Duke, Wisconsin and Penn State within the first five weeks, Northwestern turned it all around. After that blowout loss to Penn State, the Wildcats didn’t lose another game, dominating the rest of the conference slate and winning a bowl game.

The Wildcats, despite that awful start, were roughly nine points away from representing the West in the Big Ten title game. Had they pulled off the upset over Wisconsin in week four, rather than losing 33-24, it would’ve been Northwestern playing Ohio State in December. Despite not being able to get that far, it was still a super impressive turnaround. Pat Fitzgerald is becoming very good at that.

When Fitzgerald was hired 13 years ago, he was tasked with picking up where the late Randy Walker had left off. Walker, before dying of a heart attack in 2006, had pulled Northwestern up out of mediocrity, and had built quite a bit of momentum. His untimely and tragic death could’ve derailed and destroyed all that progress. Fitzgerald didn’t let that happen.

Just ten years after finishing his playing career in Evanston, the 30-year-old Fitzgerald struggled in year one, winning just four games. Positive steps forward in the next two years gave Northwestern their best season since 1995. Since that nine win season in 2008, Fitz hasn’t looked back, and Northwestern is in a better place than ever.

With 14 starters returning in 2018, it could be another huge year for the Wildcats. While Wisconsin will still be a huge obstacle, can this be the year Northwestern makes it to the Big Ten Championship?