This isn’t just the most surprising Big Ten champion ever. It’s arguably the greatest resurrection of a forlorn college football program ever achieved, rivaled only by Bill Snyder at Kansas State. Understand that Northwestern hadn’t just been bad but historically noncompetitive. The Wildcats had not been to a bowl – any bowl – since 1948. From 1978-80, they had endured a 1-31-1 stretch under Rick Venturi, a man who would progress to a lengthy and respected career as an NFL assistant. Dennis Green, who would go on to be one of the NFL’s most successful head coaches in the 1990s, went 10-45 at Northwestern through five seasons in the early 1980s.
The 10 most surprising Big Ten football champions of the last 50 years
