Northwestern couldn’t get the job done in its final contest of a lost season.
It was freezing at Wrigley Field on Saturday – the kind of cold where you can’t feel your face and your jacket isn’t solving anything. The temperature read somewhere around 20 degrees, but that felt like a bold-faced lie from the weather people. They clearly need to recalibrate their thermometers. And that was the theme of the day and this season of Northwestern football: recalibration.
The ‘Cats lost again on Saturday, this time to rival Illinois, falling to 4-8 on the season and 2-7 in Big Ten play. They also lost the Hat, but that’s really just too painful to mention any further. The loss concluded a season in which fans were forced to slowly recalibrate their expectations of a team that clearly wasn’t as good as last year’s bowl squad. It also kicks off a crucial offseason in which David Braun needs to recalibrate his team and look to the future.
“At the end of the day, if we’re going to talk about playing in the college football playoff, then everything in our program needs to align with those goals,” Braun said.
Playoffs? We’re talkin’ bout playoffs? Braun is glad that’s your reaction. He said as much in his postgame presser. Among a litany of negative things you could say about Braun himself and this year’s Northwestern team, a lack of accountability is not one of them. The Wildcats know this wasn’t quite good enough.
“We’re all frustrated…. At the end of the day, as the season continued to go along, the results are far from what we’re looking for,” Braun said.
The season as a whole wasn’t satisfactory, and neither was the Wildcat’s performance on Saturday. They gave up 172 yards to Aidan Laughery, many of which came on his three explosive runs for touchdowns. The NU defense couldn’t stop the chunk plays from happening, and the offense couldn’t get six in the Red Zone. It was a losing formula.
And it was a game the players desperately wanted to have, to defend the Hat, finish on a high note and, most importantly, win for the seniors. The message was displayed all over Wrigley Field as you were walking in and on the old-school scoreboard. The ‘Cats wanted this one for the Bryce Kirtzs, the A.J. Hennings and the Coco Azemas.
Braun lauded the seniors in his postgame presser, calling them an “incredible group of young men.”
“The Braun boys were be-bopping around the facility last night,” Braun said. “As a dad, there’s nobody I’d want my kids to look up to more than [these seniors].”
The underclassmen, too, wanted this win for their senior teammates.
“The biggest thing was get a win for the seniors. We’re not playing for ourselves…. We’re looking at it as a team to play for our brothers,” defensive back Devin Turner said.
Turner did his part in that effort, picking off Illinois quarterback Luke Altmyer twice including a beautiful diving grab and a pick-six. He kept the ‘Cats in the game in the first half. Jack Lausch deserves some credit for that too. Rotating with freshman QB Ryan Boe, Lausch was clearly more effective and was able to push the ball down the field. He just couldn’t get it in the end zone, a problem that Zach Lujan and the offense have had all season long.
Looking ahead, Lausch’s future role with the team is clearly in question. The young signal-caller was never impressive enough to secure his future as the starter. The tough part is, he was better than the transfer Northwestern brought in for this season. Will he be better than whoever it acquires this go around? You’d like to think not. But maybe.
Braun made it clear that they’ll need to evaluate everything to figure out how to reach their goals. He might have made some questionable in-game decisions this year, but he is an intelligent guy. He knows how important the quarterback position is. He knows that’s a crucial thing to figure out moving forward. Most importantly, he seemed excited about marching onward.
“It’s either happening to you or happening for you,” Braun said of the difficult season. “You’re at this pivotal point in college football with everything going on, and we have an opportunity to evaluate it holistically at Northwestern and say ‘how can we do this best?’”
As fans look to the future and try to put this lost season behind them, they must not lose sight of some of the joy this group brought. A lot of these seniors were crucial components of last year’s successful team. Bryce Kirtz was a fantastic Wildcat. A.J. Henning, who had 119 yards against Illinois, was a stud. Xander Mueller was great. Coco Azema deserves mentioning.
There’s an argument that this season was a strong failure. But you could always still see the fight of a Braun-coached team. Nobody gives up. Nobody stops playing. That’s Braun’s strength as a head coach. The question is, can he win football games with an improved roster? He has to create that roster first, but he deserves a chance. The future isn’t necessarily bright, but it’s objectively intriguing.