2012 Program Preview - Northwestern

It seems like the classic mountain-shaped coaching stint. The new coach comes in, recruits guys to fit his system and begins racking up wins in unprecedented fashion. That was the case for head coach Pat Fitzgerald who turned a 4-win team from his first season into a 9-win team that appeared to be on the verge of competing in the Big Ten every year. Mountains have backsides though.

Since that 2008 season, Northwestern has gotten progressively worse in the standings by a game each year. Now on the wrong side of .500, Fitzgerald is being asked to stem the tide. While the arrow’s pointing in the wrong direction in the record books, there are marks on the timeline in the future that should excite fans of the Wildcats.

Fitzgerald is now the second-most tenured head coach in the conference after Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz. He’s under contract into 2020. The school is finally getting serious about approaching the idea of updating their outdated practice facilities. Those factors combined have helped NU improve on the recruiting front, assembling a solid 2011 class and punctuating the 2012 class with blue-chop OLB/DE Ifeadi Odenigbo. It’s led to a 2013 QB commitment that could signal the rebirth of the ascendance of Northwestern. Without a winning season though, that commitment could we ll disappear.

What happens on the field matters most.

After the jump, the prospects worth noting as well as some games and matchups to pencil into your calendar.

Sippin’ On Purple (SB Nation Northwestern community), Off Tackle Empire (SB Nation conference community), SB Nation Chicago, official team site, Bill Connelly’s preview for SBN

There are plenty of teams who would love to be in Northwestern’s shoes -- in the Big Ten having reached a bowl game each of the last four years. The question comes down to how much you believe is flukish luck and how much is Fitzish pluck.

Pretty sure that’s the dumbest sentence I’ve ever written.

Northwestern’s first three games of the season are non-conference battles that could go either way. With South Dakota and Indiana up the next two weeks, getting out of these three with two wins would be a huge success. One would be acceptable, but a bit tough to stomach. Go winless, and 2012 might not be a fun time in the Chi for NU fans.

If the introduction deserved mentioning here, the coda likely does too. This could be a crucial game for both teams, obviously given its timing. And let us not forget, the winning team, overcome with joy, will hold aloft the Sweet Sioux Toma...what? Oh yeah, I forgot. No more tomahawks here. Just a hat. I guess if you want to try to bury any offense you may have caused with your bygone Native American-based relics, you can go with the most boring trophy ever in the history of trophies. A hat. Yup.

Here’s an interesting battle between a seasoned senior in Ward who has started the last two seasons and Barnes, the talented RS freshman. Ward’s never really lived up to his rating as a recruit, but some players need the time to mature. If Ward’s senior season is going to show an elevation beyond what we’ve seen from his this far, he’ll need to demonstrate a technical superiority over guys like Barnes who have the physical tools but don’t have the tutelage as yet to compete with more seasoned blockers.

Speaking of youngsters, this is a battle I’m eager to check out. Odenigbo is Northwestern’s best overall recruit in a long time. He’s got a frame to grow into and is touted as one of the better pass rushers in this year’s true freshman class. Scherff on the other hand played QB, TE and DE in high school...in other words, a true Iowa OT.