Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/413403
GAME PREVIEW: NORTHWESTERN BY LOU SOMOGYI THE FITZGERALD FACTOR The last time Northwestern played Notre Dame, it emerged with a stun- ning 17-15 victory in South Bend that at the time made it seem like the apoc- alypse was befalling the Irish. That occurred in the 1995 opener un- der 10th-year head coach Lou Holtz, whose Notre Dame team was installed as a 27-point favorite against a North- western team that had lost 42-15 to the Irish the year prior and had not expe- rienced a winning season in 24 years. As that 1995 year progressed, it turned out to one of the greatest Cin- derella seasons in college football his- tory, with the 10-1 Wildcats sharing the Big Ten title with Ohio State and earning the nod to the Rose Bowl, where it would lose to USC. Headlining that campaign was con- sensus All-American linebacker Pat Fitzgerald, who recorded 11 tackles against Notre Dame and was the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in both 1995 and 1996, when the Wildcats repeated as co-Big Ten champions and finished 9-3 overall. In 2006 at age 31, Fitzgerald was thrust into the head coaching position at his alma mater when Randy Walker, the head coach from 1999-2005, died suddenly that summer. He was the youngest head coach in Division I-A by five years. Beginning in 2008, Fitzgerald led Northwestern on its greatest five-year football stretch since Ara Parseghian did the same from 1958-62 with a 27- 18 (.600 winning percentage) record, highlighted by an Associated Press No. 16 finish in both 1959 and 1962. From 2008-12, Fitzgerald guided Northwestern to a 40-25 ledger (.616), highlighted by its second-ever post- TOP STOrylineS Pat Fitzgerald's 58 career wins entering the week- end of Nov. 8 are already the most in school history. PHOTO BY STEPHEN CARRERA/NORTHWESTERN ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS