Northwestern football coach Gary Barnett is a very resilient guy.
Thus, before many hours had passed after Saturday’s 43-21 loss to Penn State, Barnett had shaken some of the sting of his Wildcats’ eighth straight Big 10 loss and their disappointing 2-9 season.
Barnett was already preparing the State of the Wildcats Address he will deliver to his coaches and players in meetings and to the public at Tuesday night’s annual football dinner.
Barnett’s message will be upbeat. It will reflect the confidence of a coach who knows his team improved, its record notwithstanding, and who next season will welcome back 19 of 24 starting players-nine on offense, eight on defense and two kickers.
Barnett is likely to stress that, even though they finished 0-8 in the Big 10, the 1993 Wildcats proved they could play competitively with five teams in the conference: Illinois, Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota and Purdue.
Numbers can be juggled to prove almost anything, but NU lost to four of these schools by a total of only 15 points and did not play 0-8 Purdue. Against the Illini, Hawkeyes, Spartans and Gophers, the Wildcats averaged 21.8 points and yielded 25.5. Scores were 20-13, 23-19, 28-26 and 31-29.
Juggling of stats can’t produce much confidence about upcoming games against the league’s elite. NU didn’t play Michigan this year. The other three outscored the Wildcats an average of 49 points to 12.6. Scores: Ohio State 51-3, Wisconsin 53-14, Penn State 43-21.
And much-improved Indiana whitewashed the Wildcats 24-0.
Nevertheless, Barnett is convinced that this gap can be closed by improvement from the 19 returning starters and another recruiting class or two with the talent of the ’93 freshmen.
The two losses on offense are huge: all-time passing leader Len Williams and receiver and kick-return star Lee Gissendaner.
Defensively, the Cats lose tackle John Hellebusch and two superior linebackers, Steve Shine and Steve Ostrowski. However, linebackers formed a strength of the ’93 recruiting class.
“I know how far we’ve come,” Barnett said. “This team has improved a lot over last year, especially on defense.”
