Photo by: Griffin Quinn / Northwestern Athletics
Former Walk-on Carmine Bastone Carries on Northwestern’s No. 1 Jersey Tradition
8/20/2025 4:03:00 PM | Football
Carmine Bastone was the last player to leave Wrigley Field following Northwestern's season-ending loss to Illinois last November.
The 6-foot-2, 300-pound defensive tackle wasn't soaking in the waning moments of a whirlwind redshirt junior campaign. Instead, Bastone and Dan and Susan Jones Family Head Football Coach David Braun engaged in a forward-looking discussion, plotting the necessary steps to turn the Wildcat football program around in 2025.
"We've looked at a lot of things and made some really hard decisions on 'Maybe we should change this, even though we've been doing [it] for so long,'" said Bastone, who emphasized an enhanced sense of accountability in this year's roster.
Bastone, who has amassed 38 total tackles, five tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks in 26 career games, entered rarified territory this past Saturday when he received Northwestern's No. 1 jersey.
Considered one of the highest honors in the program, the jersey has been awarded annually since 2011 to the player who "embodies what it means to be a Wildcat, both on and off the field." Bastone is the fifth defensive lineman and seventh former walk-on to receive the honor.
"I was pretty surprised just because of how many other great people there are on this team," Bastone said. "I've put in a lot of work and invested a lot of time into this team, so earning that was really important to me."
Just over four years ago, he joined Northwestern as a preferred walk-on. Bastone originally committed to Cornell because of the school's engineering program, but several of the Midwest's most prominent squads offered Bastone a chance to crack their roster.
Ultimately, Bastone narrowed his decision down to Notre Dame and the Wildcats. For the St. Charles, Ill., native, the academic prestige of Northwestern and opportunity to play less than 50 miles from home was far too golden to pass up.
With nothing guaranteed, Bastone battled for every repetition he could earn from the moment he took the field at fall camp in 2021. Just as he'd done throughout his career at St. Charles North High School, Bastone wouldn't let anybody outwork him.
"He is a normal kid that turned extraordinary through grit, perseverance and determination," said Bryce Biel, who began training Bastone when the defensive tackle was an eighth grader. "This has been so common for this young man to break barriers down and showcase what he's developed into."
By the 2023 season, Braun's first at the helm, Bastone earned a full scholarship. That year, he racked up 26 tackles, 3.5 sacks, a pass breakup and a forced fumble as the Wildcats went 8-5 and won the Las Vegas Bowl.
"Carmine is amazing," graduate student offensive lineman Caleb Tiernan said. "A couple weeks back, they did those throwback pictures, and seeing how I looked, how Carmine looked… my entire class, we came in extremely close. Seeing someone from our class, a walk-on that earned everything, just makes us extremely proud."
In the wake of a breakout redshirt sophomore year, 2024 had all the makings of a banner season for Bastone. But just hours after his teammates voted him a team captain in fall camp, Bastone sustained a knee injury that caused him to miss the season's opening five games.
He marked an emphatic return with a strip sack in a 37-10 victory over Maryland, but Bastone never felt fully healthy throughout the campaign. Although he broke his thumb at Iowa, the defensive tackle battled through the pain to appear in the Wildcats' final seven games.
Now with a clean bill of health, Bastone has relished the opportunity to lead both on and off the field.
"It's been good to just be around everybody and still voice my word and show it on the field as well," Bastone said. "I feel like sometimes when you're hurt, you don't have that credibility to show that. Being out there and being able to show what a good rep looks like and talk through different reps is really important because you can't really lead if you're not out there personally."
For Braun, Bastone's journey from walk-on to one of the team's cornerstone players embodies the best of college football.
In the new era of collegiate athletics, Braun sees Bastone's story as one that can't be lost within the game's rapid shifts.
"Carmine just embodies everything that this program is about, everything that college football should be about," Braun said. "A guy that made the decision to trust himself, believe in himself, come here as a walk-on, earned a scholarship [and] became one of the most critical pieces of our defensive line. [He] earned all of that. Nothing was given."
While Braun and the Northwestern staff reckoned with much of their approach as they reflected on the 2024 campaign, he feels one priority must remain unchanged: finding diamonds in the rough who blossom into essential Saturday contributors.
It's a blueprint laid by Bastone's relentless drive — one which makes the defensive lineman a regular topic of conversation in Robert Pomazak's St. Charles North football locker room. It's what makes Bastone one of the most trusted voices in the defensive line room and the defensive unit as a whole.
"Even in the new landscape, we need to continue to find guys like Carmine Bastone that are tough, resilient, love football, want to be coached hard, maybe just haven't blossomed as early as others and turn themselves into really, really good Big Ten football players," Braun said. "That's exactly what Carmine has done."
The 6-foot-2, 300-pound defensive tackle wasn't soaking in the waning moments of a whirlwind redshirt junior campaign. Instead, Bastone and Dan and Susan Jones Family Head Football Coach David Braun engaged in a forward-looking discussion, plotting the necessary steps to turn the Wildcat football program around in 2025.
"We've looked at a lot of things and made some really hard decisions on 'Maybe we should change this, even though we've been doing [it] for so long,'" said Bastone, who emphasized an enhanced sense of accountability in this year's roster.
Bastone, who has amassed 38 total tackles, five tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks in 26 career games, entered rarified territory this past Saturday when he received Northwestern's No. 1 jersey.
Voted on by his teammates, the player who embodies what it means to be a Wildcat.
— Northwestern Football (@NUFBFamily) August 16, 2025
No. 1?? will be worn by Carmine Bastone. pic.twitter.com/Vlyy7iZiPx
Considered one of the highest honors in the program, the jersey has been awarded annually since 2011 to the player who "embodies what it means to be a Wildcat, both on and off the field." Bastone is the fifth defensive lineman and seventh former walk-on to receive the honor.
"I was pretty surprised just because of how many other great people there are on this team," Bastone said. "I've put in a lot of work and invested a lot of time into this team, so earning that was really important to me."
Just over four years ago, he joined Northwestern as a preferred walk-on. Bastone originally committed to Cornell because of the school's engineering program, but several of the Midwest's most prominent squads offered Bastone a chance to crack their roster.
Ultimately, Bastone narrowed his decision down to Notre Dame and the Wildcats. For the St. Charles, Ill., native, the academic prestige of Northwestern and opportunity to play less than 50 miles from home was far too golden to pass up.
With nothing guaranteed, Bastone battled for every repetition he could earn from the moment he took the field at fall camp in 2021. Just as he'd done throughout his career at St. Charles North High School, Bastone wouldn't let anybody outwork him.
"He is a normal kid that turned extraordinary through grit, perseverance and determination," said Bryce Biel, who began training Bastone when the defensive tackle was an eighth grader. "This has been so common for this young man to break barriers down and showcase what he's developed into."
Ultimate honor in our program ??
— Northwestern Football (@NUFBFamily) August 16, 2025
The moment Carmine Bastone received #??1?? pic.twitter.com/NyIYanNzv7
By the 2023 season, Braun's first at the helm, Bastone earned a full scholarship. That year, he racked up 26 tackles, 3.5 sacks, a pass breakup and a forced fumble as the Wildcats went 8-5 and won the Las Vegas Bowl.
"Carmine is amazing," graduate student offensive lineman Caleb Tiernan said. "A couple weeks back, they did those throwback pictures, and seeing how I looked, how Carmine looked… my entire class, we came in extremely close. Seeing someone from our class, a walk-on that earned everything, just makes us extremely proud."
In the wake of a breakout redshirt sophomore year, 2024 had all the makings of a banner season for Bastone. But just hours after his teammates voted him a team captain in fall camp, Bastone sustained a knee injury that caused him to miss the season's opening five games.
He marked an emphatic return with a strip sack in a 37-10 victory over Maryland, but Bastone never felt fully healthy throughout the campaign. Although he broke his thumb at Iowa, the defensive tackle battled through the pain to appear in the Wildcats' final seven games.
Now with a clean bill of health, Bastone has relished the opportunity to lead both on and off the field.
"It's been good to just be around everybody and still voice my word and show it on the field as well," Bastone said. "I feel like sometimes when you're hurt, you don't have that credibility to show that. Being out there and being able to show what a good rep looks like and talk through different reps is really important because you can't really lead if you're not out there personally."
For Braun, Bastone's journey from walk-on to one of the team's cornerstone players embodies the best of college football.
In the new era of collegiate athletics, Braun sees Bastone's story as one that can't be lost within the game's rapid shifts.
"Carmine just embodies everything that this program is about, everything that college football should be about," Braun said. "A guy that made the decision to trust himself, believe in himself, come here as a walk-on, earned a scholarship [and] became one of the most critical pieces of our defensive line. [He] earned all of that. Nothing was given."
While Braun and the Northwestern staff reckoned with much of their approach as they reflected on the 2024 campaign, he feels one priority must remain unchanged: finding diamonds in the rough who blossom into essential Saturday contributors.
It's a blueprint laid by Bastone's relentless drive — one which makes the defensive lineman a regular topic of conversation in Robert Pomazak's St. Charles North football locker room. It's what makes Bastone one of the most trusted voices in the defensive line room and the defensive unit as a whole.
"Even in the new landscape, we need to continue to find guys like Carmine Bastone that are tough, resilient, love football, want to be coached hard, maybe just haven't blossomed as early as others and turn themselves into really, really good Big Ten football players," Braun said. "That's exactly what Carmine has done."
Players Mentioned
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