EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern returns from its bye week to host Colorado on Saturday, September 19, at 6:30 p.m. CT, in the final game at Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium before the Wildcats move to the New Ryan Field.
“Coming off the South Dakota State game, going into a Week 2 bye, was an opportunity for us as a program to really reflect and then attack the opportunity that was in front of us,” Dan and Susan Jones Family Head Football Coach David Braun said. “We are far from a finished product. We have a ton to work on.”
The game will air on FOX, with Noah Reed doing play-by-play, Devin Gardner as the analyst and Josh Sims reporting on the sidelines. It can be heard on WGN Radio 720 or Sirius XM Channels 123 or 248 with The Voice of the Wildcats, Dave Eanet, who is in his 37th season calling Northwestern football, and 33rd-year analyst Ted Albrecht.
Stay tuned to Northwestern football's X and Instagram channels for live highlights, photos, and reactions throughout the Wildcats' season opener.
LAST TIME OUT
Northwestern secured a 34-18 victory over South Dakota State in its 2026 season opener. The Wildcats never trailed in the matchup. With the result, Braun improved to 4-0 in home openers, becoming the sixth head coach in program history and the first since Pappy Waldorf (1935-1986) to win his first four home openers.
#0QB
Aidan Chiles
Fourth-year quarterback Aidan Chiles led the Northwestern offense to its most points in a season opener since 2020 by completing 14-of-24 passes for 273 yards and a touchdown, while adding a score on the ground.
Fourth-year wide receiver Griffin Wilde hauled in three catches for team-high 104 yards.
On the ground, the Wildcats totaled 224 rushing yards, with fifth-year running back Joseph Himon II registering 87 yards and a touchdown, fifth-year running back Gavin Sawchuk accumulating 69 yards and fourth-year running back Caleb Komolafe logging 46 yards and a touchdown. Northwestern finished with 497 total yards, averaging 9.0 yards per play. The figure marked the program’s highest yardage per play since averaging 9.16 yards per play against Bowling Green on Sept. 16, 2017.
The Wildcats’ defense stifled the Jackrabbits when it mattered most, allowing just one touchdown on five red zone trips from the opposing offense. Fifth-year defensive back Robert Fitzgerald led the way with 14 tackles and a pass breakup. Fifth-year linebacker Kobie McKinzie posted nine tackles in his first game at Northwestern, while fellow fifth-year linebacker Braydon Brus added seven tackles, a sack and a pass breakup.
Fourth-year defensive back Damon Walters registered nine tackles, two pass breakups and an interception in his first fully healthy game since the 2024 campaign. Led by three pass breakups by fourth-year defensive back Josh Fussell, the Wildcats recorded 13 pass breakups, the program’s most in a game since at least 2004.
NUMBERS TO KNOW
NUFB at the Lake12
This will be the 12th and final game at Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium. Northwestern is 7-4 on the Lakefill and has won four consecutive games there. The Wildcats have not won five-straight home games at the same venue since 2012-13 (Oct. 27, 2012 - Sept. 21, 2013).
Robert Fitzgerald Solo Tackles78
The number of solo tackles Robert Fitzgerald has totaled over the past two seasons, which leads the Big Ten. Fitzgerald’s 70 solo tackles led the Big Ten last year, and he’s looking to become the first player to lead the conference in solo tackles in two consecutive seasons since Illinois’ Jeremy Leman in 2006 and 2007.
Wilde Receiving Yards984
The number of receiving yards Griffin Wilde has recorded at Northwestern. With 16 yards on Saturday, he will reach 1,000 yards in just 15 games, making him the fastest Northwestern receiver to reach the 1,000 receiving-yard threshold since the program’s leader in career receiving yards D’Wayne Bates did it in 13 games in 1995 and 1996.
Start the Season Strong6
The number of seasons it’s been since Northwestern last started a season 2-0. That 2020 team finished the season with a 7-2 record as Big Ten West champions and winners of the Citrus Bowl.
First Starts10
The number of players who made their first start for Northwestern in the Wildcats’ season-opener against South Dakota State. Here are the players who tallied their first start in the season opener, alongside their former school if applicable.
DL Callen Campbell, QB Aidan Chiles (Michigan State), OL Idrys Cotton, TE Luke Dehnicke (Minnesota Duluth), DL Tyler Gant, TE Alex Honig (UConn), DL Jamaal Johnson (UCF), LB Kobie McKinzie (Oklahoma), OL Dennis Rahouski and OL Grant Seagren (Oklahoma State)
PLAYERS TO WATCH
#27Gavin Sawchuk
RB6-0205Graduate Student
#2Kobie McKinzie
LB6-2235Graduate Student
#13Josh Fussell
DB6-0180First-Year
#74Grant Seagren
OL6-7320Redshirt Junior
#54Tyler Gant
DL6-3280First-Year
1. Gavin Sawchuk: The fifth-year running back made his Wildcat debut against the Jackrabbits, taking eight carries for 69 yards. His 8.6 yards per carry marked the third-highest mark in his 36-game career, while his 69 rushing yards mark the most by a Northwestern newcomer in a season opener since September 3, 2005, when Tyrell Sutton ran for 104 yards against Ohio. The Littleton, Colorado native (just over 37 miles from Boulder) was named Gatorade Colorado Player of the Year in 2020 and 2021 and the 2021 MaxPreps Colorado High School Football Player of the Year.
2. Kobie McKinzie: A fifth-year linebacker, McKinzie recorded a career-high with nine tackles in Week 1 against South Dakota State. He also tabbed a pass breakup and a quarterback hit. After spending his first four seasons at Oklahoma, McKinzie registered the most tackles by a Wildcat newcomer in a season opener since 2012, when Nick Vanhoose had nine stops versus Syracuse.
3. Josh Fussell: Last season, Fussell ranked fifth in the Big Ten with nine pass breakups. In Week 1 of the 2026 campaign, the fourth-year defensive back showed no signs of slowing down, posting five tackles and three pass breakups. He became the first Wildcat to register those numbers in a contest since 2024, when Theran Johnson did so against Maryland.
4. Grant Seagren: Filling into the left tackle void vacated by now-Minnesota Viking Caleb Tiernan, the Oklahoma State transfer and fourth-year offensive lineman thrived in his Northwestern debut. Seagren allowed no quarterback hurries or sacks, and he has now played 805 career snaps without ever allowing a sack. His Week 1 69.1 PFF grade marked his best grade since October 18, 2025, when the Cowboys took on Cincinnati.
5. Tyler Gant: The fourth-year defensive lineman made his first career start against the Jackrabbits and had a career-high four tackles, matching his total from the entire 2025 season. Gant’s 51 snaps blew out his previous career-high of 22, as he is set to play a key role for the Wildcat interior defensive line this season after it lost both Carmine Bastone and Najee Story to graduation.
WHAT BRAUN’S SAYING
On the benefits of a Week 2 bye…
- “Right now, I’m not worried about the 11 straight [games]. [I’m] worried about being a great situation for Colorado. I think it provided us an opportunity to be tested by a really quality opponent in South Dakota State, an opportunity to reflect, and then it provides this incredible opportunity for us to shore those things up and focus on those things. Sometimes, when you’re so quick to go onto the next opponent, if you’re not careful, you can sweep some of those issues under the rug. A bye week provided an opportunity to ensure we didn’t do that. [It] also provides an opportunity for guys that maybe weren’t available against South Dakota State to get healthy. I told our team and I told our staff, ‘This is perfect timing because it’s the timing that we have, and we got to utilize it to our advantage.’ We shifted. It was not a typical bye week for us. We rethought it because of its timing, but I think as a program, we executed on that plan really well.”
On Aidan Chiles’ Week 1 performance…
- “I was impressed with his composure. Obviously, we got off to a fast start. [He] did a good job of making sound decisions in terms of checking the ball down — a couple of big plays to Caleb [Komolafe] and Joe [Himon]. I think the thing that’s most exciting about Aidan and Coach [Chip] Kelly and Coach [Jerry] Neuheisel is all three of those guys came back, watched the tape and knew there’s room for a ton of improvement. And that‘s what you want. You don’t want a coaching staff or an individual or a team that’s just satisfied with, ‘We won.’ Well, no, let’s objectively look at this and identify the areas we need to play better. I think Aidan clearly knows and understands that he did a good job of leading the offense, commanding the offense, staying in the fight. You could see it really break through in the fourth quarter.”
On the importance of Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium amid its final game…
- “I can’t overstate it. It’s been amazing, starting with the experience for our student-athletes, their families, the fact that it’s been on campus. It was the perfect bridge to the New Ryan Field, an opportunity for our students to truly engage on game day. The other options just wouldn’t have provided that same opportunity. So many people [were] responsible for making it happen here on the lakefront, and [I] can’t thank everyone enough for that. It’s been something that we’ll always remember for knowing it was the right way to handle it. Only at Northwestern could we have pulled something off like this.”
SCOUTING COLORADO
The Buffaloes come to Evanston with a 2-0 record for the first time under Coach Deion Sanders, whose tenure began in 2023. Though Colorado is coming off a 3-9 season in 2025, Sanders’ squad went 9-4 in 2024 and finished the season ranked as the No. 25 team nationally.
In Week 1, Colorado defeated Georgia Tech, 14-13, with the help of a last-second blocked kick. The Buffaloes followed that up with a 52-21 pummeling of Weber State.
Colorado quarterback Julian Lewis ranks top 50 nationally in both passing yards (490) and passing touchdowns (5). He is coming off a week in which he threw for 366 yards and four touchdowns.
Defensively, the Buffaloes have been very effective at getting to the quarterback and forcing turnovers. Lamont Lester Jr. ranks tied for second in the nation with four sacks on the season, and Colorado’s three forced turnovers rank 46th nationally.
“We have a great football program, a great football team coming into Northwestern this weekend with Colorado,” Braun said. “Coach [Deion] Sanders, since arriving in Boulder, has done an incredible job building that program. I think he and his staff did a really good job with their roster construction this offseason. You can see it tangibly showing up on tape — two new coordinators that are doing an outstanding job. I think where it really shows up is at the line of scrimmage for these guys with their offensive line and defensive line.”
SERIES HISTORY
Saturday’s contest against the Buffaloes will be Northwestern’s third-ever matchup with Colorado and first since 1978. The previous meeting came on September 30, 1978, at Folsom Field, with No. 16 Colorado defeating the Wildcats, 55-7. The Wildcats won the first matchup in 1951, 35-14, in Evanston.
This will be the third time that Northwestern has ever hosted a Big 12 team, having previously welcomed Kansas in 2004 (W, 20-17) and Oklahoma in 1997 (W, 24-0). The Wildcats last faced a Big 12 team on December 31, 2011, in the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas, falling to Texas A&M. Northwestern, which is 3-4 all-time against Big 12 competition, is seeking its first victory over a Big 12 school since the 2004 victory over Kansas.
UP NEXT
The Wildcats have a short week following the contest against Colorado, as they will travel to Bloomington, Indiana, for a Friday night contest against the reigning national champions, No. 4 Indiana. Kickoff for the September 25 matchup is set for 7 p.m. CT televised nationally on FOX.