Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/413403
GAME PREVIEW: NORTHWESTERN brace the suck" to find motivation. "That's what you have to do now, right? If you get your butt kicked, there's no point in pretending," Green- stein said. "It's not like they were a few plays away. Iowa dominated 90 percent of the plays. "By 'embrace the suck' I think he means to look at it, understand they got their butts kicked and try to use it as fuel. What else can you do other than try to use that to be angry or mo- tivate your play better?" The trip to South Bend might carry a little extra meaning for Fitzgerald, whose dislike of Notre Dame has been on the record during his coach- ing career. He was recruited by the Irish, but never offered a scholarship. In 1995, he played on the Northwest- ern squad that won in South Bend. "He took a visit to Notre Dame. I don't think it went particularly well," Greenstein said. "I've never been able to figure out why he didn't like it. I talked to his dad about it once — I think he left early. Something gave him a bad vibe and I don't think Notre Dame was going to offer him a schol- arship anyway. That's what it comes down to. In the mid-90s, Notre Dame really owned Chicago and Northwest- ern was able to beat them in '95, so I just think it's natural that he wouldn't really like Notre Dame. "I don't know if he has a relationship with any of the current coaches. It's kind of like with Iowa. Iowa was the team he broke his leg [against] and a team Northwestern really wanted to beat in the mid-'90s as a mark of im- provement for the program. He looks at these schools and also forces him- self to certainly want to stick it to these schools if he possibly can." Just like in 1995, Fitzgerald will have his opportunity, though not even he can predict which Northwestern squad will show up on game day. ✦ 2014 NORTHWESTERN SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Result/Time (ET) Aug. 30 California L, 31-24 Sept. 6 Northern Illinois L, 23-15 Sept. 20 Western Illinois W, 24-7 Sept. 27 at Penn State W, 29-6 Oct. 4 Wisconsin W, 20-14 Oct. 11 at Minnesota L, 24-17 Oct. 18 Nebraska L, 38-17 Nov. 1 at Iowa L, 48-7 Nov. 8 Michigan L, 10-9 Nov. 15 at Notre Dame (NBC) 3:30 p.m. Nov. 22 at Purdue TBA Nov. 29 Illinois TBA 2014 NOTRE DAME SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Result/Time (ET) Aug. 30 Rice W, 48-17 Sept. 6 Michigan W, 31-0 Sept. 13 vs. Purdue* W, 30-14 Sept. 27 vs. Syracuse^ W, 31-15 Oct. 4 Stanford W, 17-14 Oct. 11 North Carolina W, 50-43 Oct. 18 at Florida State L, 31-27 Nov. 1 vs. Navy+ W, 49-39 Nov. 8 at Arizona State L, 55-31 Nov. 15 Northwestern (NBC) 3:30 p.m. Nov. 22 Louisville (NBC) 3:30 p.m. Nov. 29 at USC TBA * at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis; ^ at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.; + at FedEx Field in Landover, Md.