In his first 15 seasons as head coach, Pat Fitzgerald’s Wildcats were known for playing a disciplined, hard-nosed brand of football. Those well-coached teams won five bowl games, played in two Big Ten Championship games and won more than six games nine times.
In the two seasons since then, they’ve looked like an entirely different team. Northwestern has looked lost on the field in a combination of bad play-calling, poor scheming and lack of execution.
The ‘Cats have fallen into a five-game skid since their comeback victory in Dublin, which originally seemed to suggest a return to glory akin to the 2020 team, following a 3-9 season.