Amidst a season of ups and downs, Northwestern football finished its year on the right foot

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It’s easy to toss around the term “up and down season” when looking at just about any schedule in sports, but Northwestern football truly exemplified the phrase this past season.

The ‘Cats truly did have their fair share of moments of despair and glory. Amidst a year complete with season-ending injuries to key contributors, losing and winning streaks and unfathomable upsets and crushing losses, NU comes out on the other side looking, well, good.

At a glance, head coach David Braun’s season was a good one, not a great one. After Friday’s win over Central Michigan in the GameAbove Sports Bowl in Detroit, the Wildcats finish 7-6 and a middle-of-the-pack 4-5 in Big Ten conference play. But just taking a walk down memory lane to the beginning of the season, it might feel like a shock for many that NU even got to .500.

After some optimism headed into the season amidst the buzz in Evanston about Preston Stone, the heralded transfer quarterback out of SMU who was expected to turn the program around, lofty expectations came crashing down quick in Week 1. A romping at Tulane was enough to set NU fans all the way back and put some doubt into the Stone Age of Wildcats football.

A 1-2 start, though, was followed by a relatively shocking four-game winning streak, highlighted by a teeth-grinding victory over Penn State in Happy Valley that not only shocked the CFB world, but eventually got former head coach James Franklin fired. Sitting at 5-2, ‘Cats fans suddenly felt on top of the world, even for a moment.

Of course, all good things must come to an end. Another three-game losing streak, all games in which any Wildcat fan will say “Northwestern shoulda-woulda-coulda won,” Braun’s squad was right back in the danger zone of missing a bowl game, sitting at 5-5 with two regular season games to go.

And, in the fashion of the entire year, Northwestern balanced a ridiculous 15-point comeback over Minnesota to clinch bowl eligibilty with an upsetting loss to rival Illinois in which Stone threw three interceptions to just one touchdown.

Suffice to say, the way in which the Wildcats were going to end their year would dictate in many ways how the fanbase might view this season overall — as a success or a failure. From an outsider’s perspective, this bowl game might have felt like a “meaningless” one: a 6-6 B1G team facing off against a 7-5 MAC team the day after Christmas…who cares?

But for Northwestern’s team and fanbase alike, it was more than that. It was a representation of what this team was really capable of. Would it wrap its year up the right way, getting a win for the seniors and finishing above .500 for the second time in three years? Or would the ‘Cats let distractions get to their head, make unforced mistakes and let a Chippewas team that, on paper, is inferior to them hang around for too long?

It’s safe to say, Braun and Co. answered the bell.

Northwestern opened the game in quite an abysmal way, however. Going four-and-out on the very first possession, the ‘Cats offense gave great field position to CMU right away. But the defense held and even forced a missed field goal to keep things at zero. The ensuing possessions throughout the opening quarter weren’t much prettier for either side, with five consecutive punts coming from both teams in what was shaping up to be an underwhelming defensive battle.

But all it took was a spark. On the Chips’ first drive of the second quarter, second-string quarterback Angel Flores was pressured and forced to throw what appeared to be a throwaway ball at the legs of his intended receiver. But DB Braden Turner flew out of nowhere for NU, snagging an impossible interception in what eventually sparked a purple avalanche. Just three plays later, the ‘Cats would get on the board with a gutsy third down playcall, where Stone would find his trusty wideout Griffin Wilde in the “Northwestern-Lions” end zone for his first score of the day.

From there on out, the momentum had shifted for good. The common phrase “defense to offense” couldn’t have been more prevalent in the rest of the second quarter, as back-to-back fumbles on the first offensive plays of CMU’s next two possessions gave NU great field position three drives in a row. And the offense capitalized all three times. A Komolafe rushing score and Lawson Albright snag put the ‘Cats up 21-0 in the blink of an eye; just three minutes earlier, it was still 0-0 and anyone’s ballgame.

Once the ’Cats had established control with that dominant second quarter sequence, it was hard to stop them. The momentum carried into the second half, where Northwestern tacked on another two scores before finally giving up its first points of the game with just 6:11 to go in the fourth quarter.

In a game that was quite clearly defined by momentum swings, it appears Northwestern’s bowl game win was a microcosm of the season as a whole. When NU wasn’t playing right, things looked bad and at times, in despair. But when it was good, it was real good. For the ‘Cats, finishing the year off on top not only puts the mentality of this team in a positive direction moving into the offseason, but is living proof of what this Braun-led group was, is and will be capable of.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Braun said postgame. “But we are progressing in the right direction.”

The third-year head coach stressed his own role in ensuring that the standard of Northwestern’s program was at the level he wished it to be. While admitting to some shortcomings throughout the course of this season, Braun remained adamant that NU was moving the right way not just this season, but long-term, even using recent examples of Indiana and Vanderbilt as proof that his desired trajectory for NU was possible.

This season, the gold-star standard of a CFP appearance, Big Ten championship and even national championship remained far from reality for this team. But entering his fourth season, Braun knew how important winning this bowl game was for his players, his coaches, his fans and himself moving forward. And that sustained growth will be the key to getting Northwestern to the heights it knows and believes it can reach.

“Ultimately, we went out the right way,” Braun said.

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