LINCOLN — For the first time since 1992, Northwestern football has begun the season 1-4.
That’s a 27-year streak, during which they have started 1-3 four times and begun multiple runs of conference play 0-3, like they did this year. It dates all the way back to the season immediately prior to the arrival of a certain fresh-faced linebacker who would, in three short years, lead NU to a Rose Bowl berth.
In fairness, 1992 was a different kind of 1-4. The ‘Cats lost to Boston College 49-0. They fell to Indiana 28-3. The season, overall, served as one of the final iterations of an entirely separate era of Northwestern football.