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

Defense

While the offense should be very good this season, that has never been Fitzgerald’s calling card in Evanston. When Northwestern has been good during his tenure, it’s been because of excellent defense, and this year should be no exception. Seven starters are back from a top 25 defense in 2017.

That returning experience, however, is almost entirely in the front seven. Six of last year’s starting front seven is back, including all three linebackers. Up front, Samdup Miller, Jordan Thompson and Joe Gaziano lead what should be an awesome group. It won’t be easy to replace Tyler Lancaster, but that won’t make or break this group.

The defensive line has eight returning players that saw at least some playing time last season, and just like it was last year, should be one of Northwestern’s biggest strengths. The linebackers, somehow, might be even better. Paddy Walker was awesome as a freshman last year and could be one of the best in the conference this year.

Beside him, Nate Hall is a great outside linebacker, and despite not starting last year, Blake Gallagher did pick up experience, and should be fine. With this front seven, it’ll be very difficult to run the ball on Northwestern. Unfortunately, teams may have success passing on them, because the backfield is in a far worse place.

Montre Hartage will serve as a more than capable top cornerback, but behind him, both literally and metaphorically, there’s a ton of uncertainty. Both safeties, Godwin Igwebuike and Kyle Quiero, are gone. Cornerbacks Moe Almasri and Marcus McShepard are also gone. The cupboard isn’t empty, and there’s plenty of talent still in the backfield, but this could be a bit of a transition year.

Who steps up in the backfield?

With three openings in the backfield, there’s plenty of space for new faces to prove themselves. However, the answers at those three spots seem pretty obvious, because of the rotations that Northwestern used last year. Trae Williams is the obvious choice for the second cornerback position and was solid last year in limited time. The depth behind him is flimsy, but if he and Hartage stay healthy the defensive backfield should be okay.

At safety, JR Pace and Jared McGee are both wildcards. They didn’t play, much last year, and having two question marks at safety is a really risky situation. I think they’ll both be solid, but there is a chance that Northwestern takes a pretty big step back in pass defense because of inexperience in the backfield.