No one expected it, but the impossible happened: The 2000 Northwestern football team, pegged by most for a four-win season at best, charged through its schedule to finish 8-3 and earned its first trip to a bowl game in four years.
Last year’s team was inconsistent at best, treating its fans to the greatest games in NU history and dropping other contests in crushing fashion.
The Cats won three games few fans will ever forget, tossing in a Hail Mary and a nationally televised soap opera of a football game for good measure.
But they also got embarrassed by Texas Christian, Iowa and Nebraska, all games in which NU didn’t bother to bring much of anything into the stadium.
Still, the lows associated with last season couldn’t negate the thrills for a team that had returned to prominence, a team with a flair for the dramatic – a team that shows immeasurable promise for the future.
