By Woodrow Carroll
Northwestern University head football coach Pat Fitzgerald’s Wildcats will play at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., August 31, to kick off this season. It will mark Fitzgerald’s 14th season as the school’s head coach. In 2006, when Fitzgerald at age 32 took over after the unexpected death of head coach Randy Walker, he was the youthful newcomer to the college coaching ranks. He had been the Northwestern linebacker coach for five years.
Not since Ara Parseghian, 1956-1963, worked the sidelines has a Northwestern coach finished with a winning record at the school. Parseghian’s record was 36-35 at Northwestern before moving on to Hall of Fame status at Notre Dame. Fitzgerald’s record is 87-65.
In the Big Ten coaching fraternity, Fitzgerald is second in seniority, only to Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, in his 21st season with the Hawkeyes.
The Wildcats were 9-5 in 2018. Northwestern losses were to Duke, Akron, and Notre Dame in non-conference, and Michigan in the Big Ten Conference, and Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game.
Big Ten teams play nine-game conference schedules with five of the Wildcats’ league matches at home this year. The Northwestern-Ohio State game will be a Friday night special, October 18. The Wildcats are being given a modicum of respect. Northwestern’s six of its first seven games will be against teams ranked in the top 25 preseason polls. Clemson is rated No. 1.
Redshirt sophomore linebacker Paddy Fisher, 6-4 and 246, is, arguably, the Wildcat player most-often mentioned for postseason awards and national honors. He was third team all-America last season.
Clemson quarterback transfer, Hunter Johnson, redshirt sophomore, 6-2 and 210, is viewed as the likely replacement for four-year starter Clayton Thorson, who was a fifth-round draft pick by Philadelphia. Thorson played at Wheaton North High School.
Northwestern closed the 2018 season by defeating Utah of the Pac-12 Conference, 31-20, in the Holiday Bowl, San Diego, Calif.. The victory was Northwestern’s fourth in its last five bowl games.