For Pat Fitzgerald, the last four weeks of his first season as Northwestern’s head football coach present a chance to erase some of the bad memories of the first eight.
They also offer the biggest challenges of the season, beginning with Saturday’s trip to No. 2 Michigan. Top-ranked Ohio State comes to Evanston on Nov. 11.
The Wildcats will pack for Ann Arbor as they emotionally dig their way out of their historic loss Saturday, when they let Michigan State pull off the biggest comeback in Division I-A history, erasing a 35-point third-quarter deficit to win 41-38.
“If we sit around and feel sorry for ourselves, we’ll get destroyed by anyone we play,” senior receiver Shaun Herbert said Monday. “We had a chance to put it behind us after we watched film Sunday and now we have to find a way to beat Michigan.”
The Wildcats (2-6, 0-4 Big Ten) have lost five straight games for the first time since 2002. Their last six-game skid was in 2001, when they lost their final six.
The last thing Fitzgerald wants is to leave the taste of losing in his team’s mouth as the season winds down and his first recruiting season as head coach hits high gear.
“I want a win, that’s first and foremost, win as many games as we can,” Fitzgerald said. “If we win out, we’re bowl eligible. We need to win one at a time, and I’d love to send seniors out in the right fashion.”
The Wildcats’ other shots at Big Ten wins are Nov. 4 at Iowa and the traditional finale Nov. 18 against Illinois in Evanston.
The Michigan State game showed the Northwestern team that will be on the field for the last one-third of the season could be vastly different than the one that played the first seven games.
Fitzgerald said sophomore C.J. Bacher will remain the starting quarterback after his three-touchdown-pass performance in his first college start Saturday. Bacher’s 5-yard TD pass to Ross Lane in the first quarter was the Wildcats’ first TD throw since the season opener.
“He knew, I knew, his mom and dad knew and everyone in the stadium knew he was about to get his lips knocked off,” Fitzgerald said. “He made a little sidestep, bought a half-second and made a nice shot in to Ross, who made a nice catch.”
Bacher gave Northwestern a legitimate passing offense for the first time this season. And it was no coincidence that Tyrell Sutton had his first 100-yard rushing game of the season, getting 172.
“With the ability to move the ball, we got the 6 inches we needed to get Tyrell going,” Fitzgerald said.
Bacher wasn’t medically cleared to practice after recovering from a fractured fibula until Sept. 25. A healthy Bacher might well have won the competition for the starting job in the first place.
“He played well, he made good decisions, threw on time and played within the framework of the offense,” Fitzgerald said. “He runs well enough to run our offense, there’s no doubt about that–and he looks as healthy as he’s been all year.”
Bacher came close to a fourth touchdown pass in the second half on one of many plays that cost Northwestern the game. A receiver ran a wrong route, bringing a Spartan with him, and a possible scoring pass to Sutton became an interception.
“If we don’t bring another guy to the party, it’s a touchdown,” Fitzgerald said. “We made a mental error.”
Bacher has won the confidence of his receivers.
“C.J. was out there finding the open guy and getting us the ball, and the offense was moving up and down the field the way the Northwestern offense does,” Herbert said.
“It was fun, exciting, but the bottom line is we have to finish,” Bacher said. “The fact we didn’t finish is disappointing. It’s fun to put up those yards, but we have to come out with a `W.'”
As for the trip to Michigan, which has its eyes on the Nov. 18 showdown with Ohio State and a run at a national title, Fitzgerald made a promise: “We’ll get ’em there on time.”
Meanwhile, Northwestern will dig through the negatives to find a positive.
“We lost by three points; that was the closest we’ve been to winning a football game in about four weeks,” Fitzgerald said. “If we continue to play like we did in the first half, we have a chance to beat anyone we play.”
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tabannon@tribune.com
