Ranking the Top 131 College Football Programs of the Last 40 Years: 67. Northwestern
Pat Fitzgerald University
Pat Fitzgerald university. Since taking over in 2006, Fitzgerald has led Northwestern to 10 of their 16 ever bowl appearances, and is the school’s all-time winningest coach with a record of 119-90. The next closest is Pappy Waldorf, at just 49-45-7. It’s Fitzgerald and nothing. I’m overlooking Gary Barnett a little bit, the head man from 1992-98. Barnett led Northwestern to 2 of their best ever seasons in ‘95 and ‘96, finishing in the top 15 both years. Northwestern was one of the worst all-time Power 5 teams until those 2 coaches showed up, not winning a single conference title from 1937-94 and going just 44-203-4 from 1972-94.
Best Seasons and Highlights
+------+--------------+------+--------------+--------+
| rank | team | year | resume score | record |
+------+--------------+------+--------------+--------+
| 7 | Northwestern | 1995 | 35.629 | 10-2 |
| 17 | Northwestern | 2017 | 23.37 | 10-3 |
| 22 | Northwestern | 2015 | 22.638 | 10-3 |
| 19 | Northwestern | 2012 | 20.789 | 10-3 |
| 19 | Northwestern | 2020 | 20.469 | 7-2 |
| 18 | Northwestern | 1996 | 18.758 | 9-3 |
| 28 | Northwestern | 2018 | 14.028 | 9-5 |
| 33 | Northwestern | 2000 | 11.315 | 8-4 |
| 38 | Northwestern | 2008 | 9.564 | 9-4 |
| 43 | Northwestern | 2009 | 4.579 | 8-5 |
| 48 | Northwestern | 2016 | 2.805 | 7-6 |
| 39 | Northwestern | 2005 | 2.301 | 7-5 |
| 53 | Northwestern | 2004 | -7.983 | 6-6 |
| 69 | Northwestern | 2014 | -10.666 | 5-7 |
| 66 | Northwestern | 2010 | -10.792 | 7-6 |
| 68 | Northwestern | 2003 | -12.302 | 6-7 |
| 60 | Northwestern | 1997 | -12.448 | 5-7 |
| 68 | Northwestern | 2007 | -12.519 | 6-6 |
| 74 | Northwestern | 2011 | -13.052 | 6-7 |
| 79 | Northwestern | 2013 | -15.109 | 5-7 |
| 75 | Northwestern | 1986 | -22.724 | 4-7 |
| 77 | Northwestern | 1994 | -23.463 | 3-7-1 |
| 84 | Northwestern | 2001 | -24.935 | 4-7 |
| 90 | Northwestern | 2006 | -29.311 | 4-8 |
| 87 | Northwestern | 1992 | -29.942 | 3-8 |
| 94 | Northwestern | 1999 | -31.016 | 3-8 |
| 85 | Northwestern | 1991 | -31.644 | 3-8 |
| 107 | Northwestern | 2019 | -32.646 | 3-9 |
| 89 | Northwestern | 1993 | -34.086 | 2-9 |
| 88 | Northwestern | 1987 | -35.464 | 2-8-1 |
| 94 | Northwestern | 1998 | -37.518 | 3-9 |
| 89 | Northwestern | 1988 | -38.006 | 2-8-1 |
| 92 | Northwestern | 1985 | -39.097 | 3-8 |
| 111 | Northwestern | 2021 | -40.192 | 3-9 |
| 99 | Northwestern | 2002 | -40.788 | 3-9 |
| 95 | Northwestern | 1984 | -43.82 | 2-9 |
| 96 | Northwestern | 1990 | -45.717 | 2-9 |
| 99 | Northwestern | 1983 | -48.817 | 2-9 |
| 124 | Northwestern | 2022 | -51.566 | 1-11 |
| 104 | Northwestern | 1989 | -65.337 | 0-11 |
+------+--------------+------+--------------+--------+
Overall Score: 14186 (67th)202-269-3 record
3 conference titles
5-10 bowl record
5 consensus All-Americans
58 NFL players drafted
Northwestern has just 13 winning seasons here, but 9 have come since Fitzgerald took over. Surprisingly though, all 3 conference titles came before him, with Gary Barnett winning in 1995 and 1996, and Randy Walker winning in 2000. ‘96 and ‘00 were shared, but ‘95 was outright and the Cats made the Rose Bowl. Bowls have been a trouble spot for Northwestern, going 0-9 in bowls from 1995-2011, tied for the longest all-time bowl losing streak. The consensus All-Americans we won’t discuss below are RB Damien Anderson (2000), who finished 5th in Heisman voting, rushing for 2000+ yards, and OL Peter Skoronski (2022), a rare bright spot in Northwestern’s 1-11 year. Notable NFL players include QB Otto Graham, OT Chris Hinton, and recent 1st round picks OT Rashawn Slater, OT Peter Skoronski, and CB Greg Newsome II.
Top 5 Seasons
Worst Season: 1989 (0-11 overall, 0-8 Big Ten)
They weren’t that bad to begin with, but had some real stinkers toward the end. The first half of the season included an 18-20 loss to Minnesota and 31-35 to Wisconsin. The last 3 games were brutal: 15-46 to 3-8 Purdue, 14-76 to Michigan State, and 14-63 to Illinois. Even some of those first half games I mentioned weren’t actually that great, losses included to 2-7-2 Rutgers and Wisconsin was 2-9. Michigan State’s 76 points was a school record against FBS competition. Overall, the Cats gave up 45.2 PPG, 2nd worst in the nation. The offense wasn’t terrible, WR Richard Buchanan led the B1G in catches (94) and receiving yards (1115), earning 1st Team All-Big Ten.
5. 2020 (7-2 overall, 6-1 Big Ten)
Bookended by 3-9 seasons, this was a classic Pat Fitzgerald year. Suck the previous year, shock everyone the present year, then go back to sucking the following year. Northwestern, like the rest of the B1G during the covid shortened season, started play in late October, much later than some other conferences. Led by one of the top defenses in the country, Northwestern ranked 5th in the nation allowing just 15.9 PPG. A 5-0 start included a 43-3 win over Maryland and 17-7 win over #10 Wisconsin, and the Cats got all the way up to #8 before losing to Michigan State. A win over Illinois clinched a spot in the title game, and #14 Northwestern had a decent shot at #4 Ohio State. NU’s defense absolutely shut down Justin Fields, holding him to 44% completions for 114 yards and 2 INT, but forgot about RB Trey Sermon, who ran for 331 yards in a 22-10 OSU win. A nice 35-19 win over Auburn in the Citrus Bowl ended the year at #10, their 2nd highest finish since 1948.
From the defense, the LB trio dubbed the “Irish Law Firm” of Paddy Fisher, Blake Gallagher, and Chris Bergin combined for 248 tackles, all ranking in the top 5 in the Big Ten in tackles. Had this been a regular 12 game season, all 3 were on pace for 100+ tackles. Fisher, Gallagher, and Bergin rank 4th, 15th, and 10th respectively in Big Ten career tackles. S Brandon Joseph was a consensus All-American, leading the nation in INTs with 6. SP+ ranked the defense 3rd in the nation.
4. 2012 (10-3 overall, 5-3 Big Ten)
Once again, another NU season bookended by losing seasons (2011 and ‘13). A 5-0 start against seemingly soft competition got Northwestern into the top 25. I say “seemingly” because Syracuse and Vanderbilt would go on to be a combined 17-9 in 2012. Northwestern would go on to lose 3 of their next 5 despite having a double-digit lead in all 3 losses. A 3-0 finish included wins over Michigan State, Illinois, and Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl. Northwestern won 10 games despite alternating QBs all year long with Trevor Siemian and Kain Colter. Siemian threw for 1312 yards 6 TD 3 INT, and would go on to have a much better NFL career. Colter was the running QB, throwing for 872 yards 8 TD 4 INT while rushing for 894 yards and 12 TD. He was one of the best athletes on the team, and even had 16 catches for 169 yards! Colter is also the player who famously led the effort for Northwestern players to be represented by a union. RB Venric Mark was 2nd Team All-Big Ten, rushing for 1366 yards and 10 TD, and was a 1st Team All-American PR with 18.7 yards per return and 2 TD. Kicker Jeff Budzien was one of the best in the country, going 19/20 on FGs and is 7th in NCAA history in FG%.
3. 2015 (10-3 overall, 6-2 Big Ten)
The year opened with a 16-6 upset over #21 Stanford, holding eventual Heisman runner-up Christian McCaffrey to just 66 rushing yards. A 5-0 start included wins over eventual bowl teams like 19-10 over Duke and a 27-0 shutout of Minnesota. That set up a huge game between #13 Northwestern and #18 Michigan in Jim Harbaugh’s first year, but he had the Wolverines ready, winning 38-0. Northwestern further fell to 5-2 after a blowout loss to unbeaten Iowa. From then on, Northwestern’s defense took over, giving up just 16.8 PPG in the final 5 games, beating Nebraska, Penn State, and #25 Wisconsin to finish 2nd in the Big Ten West. Northwestern had their highest rank of the season at #13 before getting worked 6-45 by Tennessee in the bowl, falling all the way to #23 to end the year. NU got a double digit win season on the backs of their defense, ranking 12th in the country with 18.6 PPG allowed, while the offense scored just 19.5 PPG. 1st Team All-Big Ten LB Anthony Walker was the leader in the clubhouse, finishing top 5 in the conference in tackles (120) and total TFL (19).
2. 2017 (10-3 overall, 7-2 Big Ten)
This was the 4th and final year of legendary backfield tandem Clayton Thorson-Justin Jackson, who formed one of the most productive duos in Big Ten history. After just a 2-3 start, doubt started to creep in about the legacy of the two, but they’d respond in a big way. In the middle of the year, Northwestern became the first team in NCAA history to win 3 straight OT games, beating Iowa 17-10 in OT, #16 Michigan State 39-31 in 3OT, and Nebraska 31-24 in OT. That put 6-3 Northwestern in the top 25, and they knew they were hot. The final 3 regular season weeks saw a combined 104-20 beating of Purdue, Minnesota, and Illinois. In his final college game against Kentucky in the Music City Bowl, Justin Jackson ran for 157 yards and 2 TD in a 24-23 win, where Kentucky failed on a 2 point conversion pass with 37 seconds left. QB Clayton Thorson earned 3rd Team All-Big Ten, finishing his career as Northwestern’s all time leading passer with 10,731 yards 61 TD 45 INT. RB Justin Jackson earned 2nd Team, rushing for 1311 yards and 11 TD, and finished as the Big Ten’s 4th all time leading rusher with 5440 yards.
1. 1995 (10-2 overall, 8-0 Big Ten)
This is THE season in Northwestern lore. The unthinkable. They had gone just 57-211-4 the 25 years prior, and weren’t expected to be much better in 1995. The opening match was against #9 Notre Dame, who were 27 point favorites and had beaten the Cats 14 straight times. By the end of things, South Bend was in stunned silence, the victims of a 17-15 Wildcat victory. But old habits die hard: The very next week, Northwestern fell 28-30 to Miami (OH), a major letdown after one of the biggest wins in school history. Northwestern would need to continue fighting. Blowout wins over Air Force and Indiana gave some hope for the Cats’ first winning season in over 2 decades. Then came #7 Michigan in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines, similar to Notre Dame, had won 19 straight against Northwestern, and despite a solid opening to the year from the Cats, the streak was expected to go to 20. Tim Biakabutuka got his usual 205 yards against NU, but an opportunistic defense held Michigan to just 13 points, and All-American kicker Sam Valenzisi hit 4 FGs in a 19-13 Northwestern win.
It was really on now. Northwestern moved up to #14 in the rankings and the Big Ten was forced to take them seriously. A 27-17 win at 3-1 Minnesota was huge—like Miami (OH), that was a prime trap game, but Northwestern traversed the waters to improve to 5-1. Northwestern packed the house with 50,000 fans for their game against #24 Wisconsin, and the team responded in kind, forcing 7 turnovers in a 35-0 victory, maybe their best performance all year. There was a real shot at a Big Ten title now, ranked #8 with a 6-1 record. They even overcame a 14-0 deficit at Illinois, coming back to win 17-14 to go to 7-1. A sold out Evanston crowd attended #6 Northwestern vs #12 Penn State, a HUGE game for a Northwestern team trying to keep pace atop the B1G with unbeaten Ohio State. LB Pat Fitzgerald logged 20 tackles in a 21-10 win for NU, and it was clear: this was a really fucking good team. Just 2 more items to check off: Iowa and Purdue. Iowa had beaten Northwestern 22 straight times, but another sold out crowd in Evanston helped the #5 Wildcats break the curse 31-20. Purdue couldn’t play spoilermaker either, and Northwestern won 23-8. All that was left was Ohio State/Michigan—If the Buckeyes won, they’d head to the Rose Bowl. Michigan RB Tim Biakabutuka, who ran for 205 against the Wildcats, ran for 313 against OSU in a 31-23 Michigan win, and #3 Northwestern headed to the Rose Bowl. Without LB Pat Fitzgerald, #17 USC moved the ball NU’s defense better than anyone else had all year, and the Trojans won in an “upset” 41-32.
It was an incredible year for Northwestern. A 10-2 record, 8-0 in the Big Ten, a Big Ten title, Rose Bowl appearance, and #8 final ranking. Northwestern had the #1 defense in the country in the regular season, giving up just 12.7 PPG. Pat Fitzgerald took home practically every defensive award, earning consensus All-American, Big Ten Defensive POTY, the Chuck Bednarik Award, and the Bronko Nagurski Trophy. Fitzgerald would go on to repeat with a fantastic 1996 season, winning all those awards for the 2nd straight year but also notching the Jack Lambert Trophy. RB Darnell Autry was a star on offense, leading the nation in rushing attempts with 387 for 1785 yards and 17 TD, finishing 4th in Heisman voting above players like Peyton Manning, Keyshawn Johnson, Tim Biakabutuka, and Warrick Dunn. Kicker Sam Valenzisi was an All-American, nailing 15/16 FGs. Head coach Gary Barnett won practically every national Coach of the Year Award you can think of. Deservedly so.
5th Quarter
Do you remember that 1995 season, what made them so damn good? Agree with Northwestern’s rank in this list, and the rankings of their individual top 5 seasons? Who is the best Northwestern player at each position from the last 40 years? What would it take for Northwestern to repeat the success of 1995—it seemed like there was a chance in 2020. Is Pat Fitzgerald a top 10 defensive player in college football history, and a top 10 coach today? Northwestern fans, how’d I do researching and writing up your history? I spent a long time on this one, I feel like a fan now.
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