CHICAGO — At times, it wasn't aesthetically pleasing. It certainly wasn't perfect. But if 12 games and 10 wins have told us anything about the 2015 Northwestern Wildcats, it's that that's exactly how they like it. Ugly. Scrappy. Gritty... Beautiful.
To the 2015 Northwestern Wildcats, ugly, scrappy and gritty are synonymous with beautiful. And, well, that's exactly how their coach likes it too.
"We know who we are," Pat Fitzgerald said repeatedly after topping off a remarkable season with a 24-14 win over Illinois at Soldier Field. "And we've embraced that here through Big Ten play. And some games it's been better than others, but we know exactly who we are, and we've stuck to that formula.