Northwestern Looking To Continue Winning Streak
Notre Dame might not play Northwestern until November, but it’s obvious the game against the Wildcats defines a trap game for the Irish.
The trip to Evanston (Ill.) will come a week after a game in San Diego against Navy and a week before Senior Day at Notre Dame Stadium against Florida State.
Northwestern enters 2018 holding the nation’s longest Power Five winning streak at eight games, but head coach Pat Fitzgerald knows his team will be challenged week one.
“Going into the opener obviously is going to be a huge challenge against Purdue. Also, our 27 wins over the last three years is our program's best.
“A lot of positive momentum obviously in the classroom and on the field, and excited for next Wednesday when we get together and get the season started.”
Despite finishing 10-3 in 2017, Northwestern started the year 2-3 with losses to at Duke, at Wisconsin and Penn State. Fitzgerald is hoping his team gets off to a better start this season as the Wildcats will face Duke, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Notre Dame and Wisconsin in the first ten weeks of the year.
“You look at everything in the offseason, especially when you've been at a place as long as I have,” explained Fitzgerald. “You look at the way you practice. You look at the way you train: 'Do we give our guys enough rest, do we feel like we're out of training camp going?' There's all the things that you overanalyze. But I think you hang your hat on your process, and you really talk at length with your players.
"You heighten the awareness of what we need to do, and obviously you have the challenge of the opener of going on the road, playing an incredibly well-coached team. Coach (Jeff) Brohm and his staff did an outstanding job last year. We already knew they were very talented at Purdue from the years we played them in the past. But that glue got all put together a year ago. And to have it in the opener will be a huge challenge for us on the road.
“But with a challenge comes an opportunity. I expect our guys to prepare properly in camp, and I don't really need to motivate them a whole lot. I think we know what the task is that is at hand.”
A large part of Northwestern’s success on offense in 2017 was due to running back Justin Jackson, who was drafted by San Diego in the 2018 NFL Draft.
It was a fantastic career for Jackson as he ran for over 1,000 yards each season.
2014: 1,187 yards
2015: 1,418 yards
2016: 1,524 yards
2017: 1,311 yards
It won’t be easy to replace 5,440 rushing yards and 41 career touchdowns, but Northwestern has some young running backs in the wings, and it starts with Jeremy Larkin, who ran for 503 yards and five touchdowns on just 84 carries as a redshirt freshman.
“It's now somebody's opportunity,” Fitzgerald said. “We saw a lot of Jeremy Larkin last year. I think his yards for carry might have been better than Saquon’s (Barkley). Maybe a little smaller body of work, but just as explosive. I thought the bowl game was a really good showing by him.
“Two years ago John Moten had a great campaign, battled through injuries. We've got more guys that as we move through camp, I think we've got great competitive depth there, and I expect that room to be very competitive from the standpoint of not only who is going to start but who is going to play. Not only in the backfield but a lot of different roles for our offense and our football team in the kicking game.”
On defense, it’s not a secret it starts and ends with redshirt sophomore linebacker Paddy Fisher. The 6-foot-3, 245-pounder recorded 111 tackles, 9.0 tackles for loss, four forced fumbles and one interception last fall.
“Paddy Fisher is an absolutely terrific football player,” Fitzgerald stated at Big 10 Media Day. “You look at his body of work from just one season, I think it speaks for itself.
“He's a big man. He's all, of course, 245 pounds. He can run, and he's obviously very physical. He's got a great football IQ. That comes from his pedigree in high school, one of the powerhouse programs in the country from Katy, Texas. Just so proud of him in year one and look forward to him to continue to grow and get better.”
When it comes to the personnel side of things, Fitzgerald is a big fan of one of college football’s most significant rule changes in recent years.
Players can now play up to four games a season and still preserve a year of eligibility.
“I'm fired up about that rule,” said Fitzgerald. “I think there's a lot of coaches in the country excited about it. First of all, it's great for players. I was one of those really below-average guys that played as a true freshman. I was the best of the worst. It was not a very good experience for our defense when I was out there. I would have been a lot better if I only played in four games, I promise you that.
“But you talk to any young man you recruit, they all want to play. The hardest year for any young player is the year that he sits out as he comes into college. So now that we have the opportunity to motivate them through the opportunity to play and then still have that redshirt in our place, the opportunity to go to graduate school at Northwestern, you know, it's still really sacred to me. So I'll make sure that I manage that the right way.
“As we get into really the meat of October and November, I think it gives us an opportunity when maybe we have some guys that are banged up the opportunity to maybe plug a guy in here or there to continue to have us have competitive depth, especially in a place like Northwestern. We've got 27 great young men that walk on, that group gets added to the mix, too, along with our scholarship players from the standpoint of an opportunity to hopefully bolster our special teams if not anything else. So I think it's great from a health and safety standpoint. Also obviously for us for the flexibility from a coaching standpoint, it's huge.”