Jan. 15, 2007

Final 2006 Notes/Statistics
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EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern's 2006 football season will long be remembered for the tragic loss of head coach Randy Walker just 34 days prior to the start of preseason practice.

It also will be remembered for a tight-knit group of coaches and players who stuck together through extreme adversity and willed their way to improve each week. That resolve helped Northwestern close the year with two wins in the final three weeks and provide the Wildcats with some much-needed momentum heading into the 2007 campaign.

"It was certainly a difficult year for all of us," said first-year coach Pat Fitzgerald, who was appointed Walker's successor on July 7, 2006. "He (Coach Walker) was the leader of this program. But I know his spirit was with all of our young men throughout the year -- through the ups and downs. You just have to trust in the plan, but first you have to trust in yourself. I'm so proud of our players. I know that they trust in themselves, I know that they trust in this program. I'm just really excited in the future. I think about Coach all the time."

Emotion fueled the Wildcats in the days leading up to the season opener at Miami (Ohio), the alma mater of Walker. On a special night in Oxford, Ohio, Northwestern received a solid effort from its offense, defense and special teams, and produced a 21-3 victory in honor of its former head coach.

With its first game in the books, the Wildcats moved on to their home opener against Division I-AA power New Hampshire. Northwestern, however, came out flat and appeared emotionally drained after the difficult opener with Miami. The Wildcats lost 34-17 and would face their most difficult stretch of football the following six weeks.

The Wildcats rebounded with a win over Eastern Michigan, but then dropped six successive games. During this period, redshirt freshman quarterback Mike Kafka, who began the year as the team's starting signal caller, was injured at Nevada. That vaulted another redshirt freshman, Andrew Brewer, into the QB spot as the Wildcats opened Big Ten play at Penn State and Wisconsin. By mid-October, redshirt sophomore C.J. Bachér was nearly 100 percent and able to compete again for the quarterback job. Less than 24 hours prior to the Oct. 21 kickoff with Michigan State, Fitzgerald and his staff decided to make the move to Bachér. While the game's outcome (41-38 loss) was one that every Northwestern fan has tried to forget, Bachér, with an extra year of experience under his belt, jump-started the offense and gave the team something to build upon in the final month.

Northwestern traveled to Michigan the next week and showed no signs of a team that had suffered an excruciating loss the previous week. The Wildcats fell to the second-ranked Wolverines 17-3 in Ann Arbor. The following Saturday, the Wildcats' hard work finally paid dividends as they went into Iowa's Kinnick Stadium and became just the third team in a 30-game home stretch to knock off the Hawkeyes, 21-7.

Northwestern rebounded from a home loss to top-ranked Ohio State and concluded the 2006 season on a positive note by beating its in-state rival, Illinois, 27-16, in the 100th meeting between the two schools. The victory helped the Wildcats to an eighth-place Big Ten finish (2-6), tied with Alamo Bowl-participant Iowa.

(For a complete set of season-ending game notes, download the PDF above.)

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