For Pat Fitzgerald, two moments define why Northwestern’s football team has become the sports story of the year.
First, there was a series of torturous climbs up a steep hill in stifling summer heat. Then, in the season opener, against Notre Dame, a bone-crushing, game-clinching tackle set the tone for the campaign that produced the Wildcats’ first Rose Bowl appearance in 47 years and first Big Ten football title in 59 years.
A broken leg, sustained in the next-to-last game against Iowa, will keep Fitzgerald out of the Rose Bowl game against Southern Cal. For 10 games, however, the Wildcats linebacker was the leading tackler and spiritual leader of the defense that limited opponents to 12.7 points per game, No. 1 in the nation.
“When we came together through fire as a team,” Fitzgerald said, occurred on the steep slope of a south Evanston hill nicknamed “Mt. Trashmore” because it was built over a one-time garbage dump.
“The heat index that day was 114,” said Fitzgerald. “There were about 35 of us, more than half of us defensive guys. Our strength-and-conditioning coach, Larry Lilja, had us run six times up Mt. Trashmore. Guys were dropping and puking. It was one of the worst experiences in my life. It was brutal. But we kept running.
“Later we somehow managed to drive down to (Lake Michigan) and just lay in the water for half an hour to try to cool off. Right then and there, though, I realized we were committed to having a good team and a good defense. We came together as a team that day.”
Why did more than 50 volunteers punish themselves most days during last summer’s heat wave that killed more than 500 in the Chicago area?
“Because we believed when Lilja told us, `Fight through this, and you can fight through anything,’ ” said Fitzgerald. “He said, `Survive this, and the season will be nothing.’ “
That advice proved prophetic, Fitzgerald said.
“We were in better condition than anybody we played,” he said. “We only gave up, what, 21 points in the second half of our last nine games.”
Their toughness never was needed more than on Notre Dame’s final offensive play in the 17-15 upset that shocked the college-football world.
Irish running back Randy Kinder needed 2 yards on fourth down at the Notre Dame 44 with 3 minutes 57 seconds to play. He gained 1.
“Notre Dame tried to jam the ball right down our throat, right in the house that Knute Rockne built,” said Fitzgerald. “When Matt Rice made that tackle, I knew we had a defense. From that moment on, I believed.”
Defensive tackle Rice wasn’t sure how he tackled Kinder.
“It all happened so fast,” he said.
Yet, a few moments before that tackle, he sensed what was coming.
“I realized we, not Notre Dame, had the better depth,” said Rice. “We alternated eight or nine at the four D-line positions. Notre Dame played the same offensive linemen. Their tongues were hanging out late in the game.”
This came as a shocking revelation to long-suffering Wildcats fans. When coaches Ara Parseghian and Alex Agase directed winning teams in the 1960s and early ’70s, they often faltered late in the seasons or in games when opponents’ depth took a toll. Now the roles were reversed.
The Wildcats also had an offense and special teams to go with the defense. Punt-return star Brian Musso, punter Paul Burton and placekicker Sam Valenzisi provided the Wildcats with an edge in the vital kicking games.
On offense, center Rob Johnson, guard Ryan Padgett, tackle Brian Kardos and their fellow linemates blocked so well that Darnell Autry set school records of 14 touchdowns, 1,675 yards rushing and 152.3 rushing yards per game. And the line gave quarterback Steve Schnur such excellent protection he was sacked only seven times all season. (Wildcats defensive end Casey Dailey had six sacks himself.)
Still, the season’s accomplishments weren’t without adversity. The Wildcats could have folded after their heart-breaking 30-28 loss to Miami of Ohio in the second game.
They blew a 28-7 fourth-quarter lead. The game turned on poor punt snaps by senior defensive tackle Larry Curry, who was called on when regular long snapper Paul Janus was injured.
Johnson passionately argued after the loss that no one player could be blamed.
“There are 95 of us,” Johnson said, striking the “We, not me” credo of the season. “Every one of us share this loss.”
The Wildcats game plan thwarted the passing of regular Redskins quarterback Neil Dougherty, but it couldn’t check the scrambling of Sam Ricketts after Dougherty was hurt.
“We couldn’t adjust to the scrambling quarterback,” said safety William Bennett.
Johnson maintains that from the depth of that loss, the Wildcats found the resolve to win their next nine games.
“We were sick after that game,” said Johnson. “It hurt so much, nobody wanted that feeling in his belly again. We rebounded. That loss sent this team on a mission.”
The “mission” quickly produced two home victories, 30-6 over Air Force, the second of six favorites the Wildcats would upset, and 31-7 over Indiana. Fans still remained skeptical. Those games drew only 26,037 and 29,223 fans to 49,256-seat Dyche Stadium.
Then came the real shocker, a 19-13 victory over 16-point favorite Michigan before 104,642 fans in Ann Arbor. The Wildcats combined four field goals by Valenzisi, a 2-yard TD pass from Schnur to Matt Hartl and inspirational defense to snap a 19-game losing streak to the Wolverines.
The key moment came after Michigan scored to go ahead 13-6 in the third quarter. Northwestern fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and the Wolverines recovered at NU’s 23.
“A lot of people in Michigan’s `Big House’ thought we would fold there,” recalled offensive guard Justin Chabot. “I looked around, and I knew our defense would stop them. No one had to say anything to anybody. The defense stopped them. The offense capitalized on turnovers. I’d say that defined our season.”
Asked, amid the postgame locker-room celebration, what the Wildcats could do for an encore, Padgett grinned and said, “Win the next six and go to the Rose Bowl.”
That’s exactly what they did, knocking off three more favorites–Wisconsin, Illinois and Penn State–on the way.
The bandwagon continued to roll. The 35-0 victory over Wisconsin attracted the first Dyche sellout in a dozen years. Capacity crowds filled it for Penn State and Iowa as well.
“That’s the one thing the players who have gone on out of the program mentioned most when they talked to the current players,” coach Gary Barnett said. “They told them, `You’re experiencing what we never got to experience . . . playing before a full house in our own stadium.”‘
Barnett believes the program evolved into a winner over four years rather than turned in a stunning moment or two. For this he cites three reasons:
– The coaching staff has remained mostly intact for four years.
– Preseason camps were held the last three years at Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha.
– Except for several fifth-year seniors, the team is composed of players he and his staff recruited.
Eight of Barnett’s nine assistants have been with him since he arrived at Northwestern for the 1992 season: assistant head coach-defensive coordinator Ron Vanderlin, offensive coordinator Greg Meyer, wide receivers coach Gregg Brandon, offensive line coach Tom Brattan, quarterback coach Craig Johnson, linebackers coach Tom Kish, defensive line coach Vince Okruch and running backs coach John Wristen. Secondary coach Jerry Brown returned to his alma mater in 1993.
The Kenosha experience helped the team “appreciate and embrace cultural diversity,” according to Barnett.
“The first year, it was new for all of us,” he said. “Players were just trying to get through it. The last two years, we really used the opportunity to bond together.”
Having a team of his own recruits, Barnett explained, means the older players who have bought into his philosophy in turn sell it to younger players they helped recruit.
“Any time you inherit three classes that were recruited by somebody else, you have difficulty selling your ideas,” said Barnett. “To some, you won’t get through. This was true here, especially with some of the black players, because of (predecessor) Francis Peay.
“Francis is such an imposing person,” Barnett said. “There are so few black Division I coaches, and certainly some families wanted their sons here because of Francis. Now, Francis is gone–fired. It was understandably hard winning over some of those players.”
Despite the presence of three outstanding senior defensive backs–Bennett, Chris Martin and Rodney Ray–the backbone of the 1995 Wildcats comprises juniors, members of the first full class Barnett recruited.
Only three of the 22 players listed on the two-deep roster on offense are playing their last seasons of eligibility: Johnson, Padgett, and tight end Shane Graham. On defense, 15 of the 22 on the two-deep have eligibility remaining. The seven finishing their college careers are end Mike Warren, tackle Curry, linebackers Geoff Shein and Danny Sutter and defensive backs Martin, Ray and Bennett.
“One of the best things about it,” said All-Big Ten cornerback Martin, “is that we set a standard for the guys coming back . . . and they have a good team coming back.”
