Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Spring Into Action
3/30/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
March 30, 2005
EVANSTON, Ill. -- When Randy Walker was hired as the Wildcats' head football coach in 1999, one of his priorities for the program was to field a competitive Big Ten program each year.
Like most Division I-A programs, Northwestern aspires annually to win a conference title and compete for a national championship. But those are lofty expectations for even the most tradition-rich programs, and with the current landscape of college football, that can be unattainable in certain years.
One thing Walker felt was attainable each year, however, was a six-win season and an ensuing bowl trip. The past two years, Northwestern has notched six regular-season victories and earned a postseason invite. Last year, a 12-game schedule that was punctuated with a tough-to-swallow loss at Hawaii, kept NU from going bowling for a second straight year.
"There are several factors that dictate how successful you can be," says Walker, "but I've always felt that getting to a bowl game is something that our program can shoot for on a regular basis. The past two years, we've been playing for something in November, and that's what has pleased me the most, especially after our very challenging 2001 and 2002 seasons.
"I see no reason why we can't put ourselves in that position again. We've had another strong winter conditioning program and our players are doing the things you expect from a successful team. We certainly have some holes to fill, but what encourages me is that we have experienced players returning at every position group, led by a four-year starting quarterback."
Perhaps the most impressive accomplishment by Northwestern the past two years is that they have not relied on a soft nonconference schedule to load up on victories. The Wildcats have posted a 9-7 mark in their last 16 Big Ten games, which includes a fourth-place finish (5-3) in 2004.
This is the first in a series of three features that will highlight Northwestern's offense, defense and special teams. Recaps of practice will begin when the Wildcats don pads on Saturday.
