Northwestern is that rarest of American universities: a school with Ivy League standards on and off the football field. The problem is, of course, that it plays a schedule of teams whose student athletes tend to major in weight training, a course load that requires reading any number of playbooks and box scores. We’re exaggerating here, folks, but you get the idea.
How bad was Northwestern? It holds a record for consecutive losses-34 straight. Loyal fans would content themselves with tossing marshmallows into the tubas of the marching band, or cheer mightily: That’s all right, that’s OK, you’re gonna work for us some day!
Things have changed in Evanston. It’s easier to find a drink in the famously dry town than a ticket to grand if weather-worn Dyche Stadium. Northwestern, ranked 79th by Sports Illustrated before the season, has thrashed old tormentors like Notre Dame and Michigan. Against Penn State, the Wildcats graciously let time run out rather than roll up the score. Saturday’s $1-20 win followed 21 straight losses to Iowa. Invitations haven’t been sent, but fifth-ranked Northwestern has locked up its first bowl berth since the Truman administration. And droll brooder Gary Barnett, 49, may be the safest bet for college coach of the year since Amos Alonzo Stagg presided over another athletic power, the University of Chicago.
Barnett built his 9-1 team on “High Hopes” (players sing the song in practice) and sober parables. He arrived four years ago from Colorado, where he’d helped Bill McCartney turn another doormat into a national champion. Barnett recruited a blitzing defense, and then an opportunistic offense. Talent improved, though not one of his players came from the major high-school All-America lists. Even more remarkably, Barnett has also improved his team’s smarts. Before its game with Minnesota (team SAT average: 839), a Minneapolis columnist speculated that Northwestern (average: 1037) had lowered its standards to recruit players. Not so. This year’s SAT average is 31 points higher than that of the recruits Barnett inherited, and trails only Stanford (1051) in NCAA Division I.
More important, Barnett has graduated every player who didn’t transfer to another school. “The kids who come here are so responsible,” he says. “If I have to chase three of them to class, it’s a burden.” The message that you can win while earning what Northwestern calls a life-changing diploma is getting through. So far, 2,000 high-school standouts have inundated Barnett with videotapes of their game play. In Evanston this year, anything seems possible, even getting into Northwestern.
