The 2009 Northwestern Wildcats football team represented Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

 in the Big Ten during the 2009–2010 college football

College football

College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

 season. Pat Fitzgerald

Pat Fitzgerald

-External links:*...

, in his fourth season at Northwestern, was the team's head coach. The Wildcats home games were played at Ryan Field in Evanston, Illinois

Evanston, Illinois

Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...

. The Wildcats finished the season 8–5, 5–3 in Big Ten

2009 Big Ten Conference football season

The 2009 Big Ten Conference football season was the 114th for the conference, and saw Ohio State conclude the regular season as Big Ten Conference champion for the 5th consecutive time, their 34th Big Ten title. This earned them the conference's automatic selection to a Bowl Championship Series...

 play and lost in the Outback Bowl

2010 Outback Bowl

The 2010 Outback Bowl was the 24th edition of the college football bowl game, and was played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. The game started at 11 AM US EST on Friday, January 1, 2010. The game was telecast on ESPN and matched Auburn University against Northwestern University...

 35–38 in overtime against Auburn

2009 Auburn Tigers football team

The 2009 Auburn Tigers football team represented Auburn University during the 2009 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Tigers were led by first year head coach Gene Chizik...

.

Schedule

Towson

It was apparent that Towson didn't stand a chance from the get-go. Northwestern raced out to a 30-0 lead before putting in the reserves out of mercy. To Towson's credit, they did go toe-to-toe with Northwestern's second and third stringers, which is no small feat, given that Northwestern is a somewhat prestigious FBS school and Towson is a mostly unheralded FCS school. The game allowed both teams to get some experience for the future and the final 35 minutes gave Northwestern's younger players some good game experience. This would prove to be one of Northwestern's few blowout wins of the 2009 season.

Overall Record	Last Meeting	Result
0-0	First Meeting	N/A

Eastern Michigan

Northwestern seemed poised to cruise to another dominating blowout victory when they raced out to a 21-3 halftime lead and still held a fairly comfortable 21-10 lead after three quarters and widened the lead to 24-10 early in the 4th. Northwestern eventually found themselves only ahead 24-17 and soon the game was tied at 24-24. To avoid the game going into overtime, the Wildcats finished off the stubborn Eagles with a field goal.

Overall Record	Last Meeting	Result
2-0	2007	NU, 26-14

Syracuse

Fresh off of a closeer than expected win over Eastern Michigan, Northwestern went to the Carrier Dome to face a Syracuse team that had played Minnesota down to the wire in week one before being obliterated by a Penn State team that didn't allow a single Orange point until the reserves were all subbed in. This game would go Syracuse's way, however as the up and down Orange, who would later secure a win over a talented Rutgers team (but in blowout fashion 31-13), engaged in a shootout with Northwestern, finally kicking the all important field goal to win the game as time expired. This put Syracuse at 1-2 and Northwestern at 2-1.

Overall Record	Last Meeting	Result
4-4	2008	NU, 30-10

Minnesota

Going toe-to-toe with a Gophers team that had beaten the same Syracuse team that the Wildcats had lost to, Northwestern plays a close game with Minnesota, even leading 24-21 going into the final quarter before Minnesota takes momentum back to win the game 35-24, putting the Wildcats at 2-2. But still, no blowout losses.

Overall Record	Last Meeting	Result
30-49-5	2008	NU, 24-17

Purdue

The Boilermakers race out to a 14-3 first quarter lead and still hold a 21-16 halftime lead, but the Wildcats steal one from the stubborn and better than their record Boilermakers (who would later on upset the Buckeyes) with a second half rally. Still trailing 21-19 after three, the final Northwestern touchdown puts them ahead 27-21 for the win.

Overall Record	Last Meeting	Result
26-49-1	2008	NU, 48-26

Miami (OH)

Unlike the game with Eastern Michigan, this one wouldn't come down to theatrics, Northwestern led 10-0 after one and scored six more in the third quarter to take a commanding 16-0 lead. Poised for the shutout, Miami got on the board late in the fourth quarter, but Northwestern denied them the two point conversion to make it a game.

Overall Record	Last Meeting	Result
2-6	2006	NU, 21-3

Michigan State

Facing another better than their record Big Ten team, this time Northwestern wouldn't get so lucky. Leading 7-0 at halftime, they soon trailed 17-7 after three, and despite giving Michigan State all they could handle, the game was destined to go Sparty's way.

Overall Record	Last Meeting	Result
16-33	2008	MSU, 37-20

Indiana

If there is any team better than their record in 2009, it's Indiana. Despite blowout losses to Iowa (42-24) and Ohio State (33-14) which are understandable, the Hoosiers had one ugly blemish on their schedule, a 47-7 loss to a Virginia team that had no business keeping it competitive with Indiana, let alone winning like that. Indiana also suffered a 31-20 loss to Penn State that wasn't as close as the score. However, Indiana played like they were the heavy favorite going into this game taking a commanding 21-0 first quarter lead and still rolled it up to 28-7 early in the second before Northwestern cut it close to 28-17. Trailing 28-19 after a quiet third quarter that saw only a safety, the Wildcats would not be denied. Northwestern turned the game into a win by scoring ten fourth quarter points.

Overall Record	Last Meeting	Result
42-34-1	2008	IU, 21-19

Penn State

Handing Northwestern their only blowout loss of 2009, Penn State was shut down by Northwestern's offense for the first 40 minutes of the game until they finally got some momentum late in the third quarter, scoring three rapid fourth quarter touchdowns to give the game an appearance of being a much easier win for Penn State than it really was. However, Penn State's backups were in much of the fourth quarter, indicating that at the same time, it wasn't as close as the score. Regardless, this was Northwestern's only humiliating loss of what was a mostly positive 2009 season.

Overall Record	Last Meeting	Result
3-9	2006	PSU, 33-7

Iowa

Licking their wounds from the massacre at the hands of Penn State, the Wildcats traveled to Kinnick Stadium to take on a Hawkeyes team fresh off of a 42-24 blowout win over better than their record Indiana, who actually led 21-7 early on over Iowa and still led 24-14 deep in the game before Iowa took command in the second half. It looked early on like Iowa was poised to make mincemeat out of Northwestern as Penn State had done a week before. This game wouldn't go Iowa's way, however; the Hawkeyes would lose their star quarterback Ricki Stanzi in the second quarter and would never recover. Northwestern nabs their best win of 2009 by upsetting then #6 Iowa (who would finish #7 in the nation) 17-10 on the road.

Overall Record	Last Meeting	Result
21-46-3	2008	NU, 22-17

Illinois

Illinois was bowl ineligible and had little to play for except pride, which they played with in this game and had shown increasing amounts of since their 38-13 upset of Michigan. Northwestern controlled the game for three quarters before Illinois suddenly sprang to life, but the Wildcats hung on to beat the pesky Illini 21-16, and win the inaugural Land of Lincoln Trophy

Land of Lincoln Trophy

The Land of Lincoln Trophy is presented to the winner of the annual college football game between Illinois rivals Northwestern University, located in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, and the University of Illinois, located on the border between the central Illinois cities of Champaign and Urbana...

, which replaced the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk

Sweet Sioux Tomahawk

The Sweet Sioux Tomahawk was presented to the winner of the annual college football game between Illinois rivals Northwestern University, located in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, and the University of Illinois, located on the border between the central Illinois cities of Champaign and Urbana...

.

Overall Record	Last Meeting	Result
45-52-5	2008	NU, 27-10

Wisconsin

Northwestern managed to grab their second major upset of 2009, putting themselves as the #4 team in the conference with their only blowout loss being to Penn State, the Big Ten #3, and it would stay that way. It looked, however, like Wisconsin was going to get blown out as the Wildcats raced out to a 27-14 halftime lead, but Wisconsin fought back to make it 30-24 after three, but Northwestern hung on to pull off their second great upset of 2009, winning 33-31.

Overall Record	Last Meeting	Result
32-55-5	2006	UW, 41-9

Auburn

Overall Record	Last Meeting	Result
0-0	First Meeting	N/A

External links