Northwestern will look to follow up their highly successful 7-2 campaign a year ago with a Week 1 matchup against the Michigan State Spartans. Repeating last year’s success story may prove difficult for a team that returns only nine total starters. Still, this is a very well-coached team under head coach Pat Fitzgerald that plays sound football.
They’ll welcome Hunter Johnson at quarterback, who was last seen in 2019, completing only 46.3% of his passes and averaging 4.0 yards per attempt. Standout running back Cam Porter, who had 301 yards on 73 carries over the final three games of 2020, was lost for the season with a leg injury in mid-August.