Not too many people outside of Evanston would like to admit it, but Northwestern has had as much success in the Big Ten as anyone since 1995.
Three Big Ten titles, two stunning seasons and one Rose Bowl appearance.
But no victory over Ohio State.
The Wildcats are now a major reason why people consider the conference to be less than great. After all, if NU is good, the league must be bad, right?
Well, not necessarily. Sure, the Big Ten is down – way down. But NU has been good enough in the last six years to justify their continued presence near the top of the standings, even when every other team is having better years. Good enough, that is, except for one thing.
No victory over Ohio State.
Not since 1971 have the Cats managed to beat the Buckeyes, a streak covering 21 of the ugliest pigskin performances ever imagined. In all three recent Big Ten title years, the Cats haven’t had to face the scarlet and gray.
Thirty years after that last victory, the Cats have a chance to cross the one divide that has caused so many lingering bad memories. And what a chance it is.
Topping the Buckeyes in Columbus, Ohio, before 102,000 hostile fans at night on national television could do wonders for the Cats.
Not everything is in their favor. They don’t have the advantage of playing at Ryan Field. More accurately, they don’t have the advantage of not playing at the Horseshoe.
But so what? The Cats are ranked. The Buckeyes are not. The Cats play a style that gets significantly easier to handle the second time around. The Buckeyes have never seen it before.
The Cats’ defense has been better as of late. The Buckeyes’ offense has been worse. The Cats have an abundance of big-name talent. The Buckeyes, for the first time in quite a while, do not.
The Cats – in all their futility of the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s – managed to leave a number of sizable hurdles between themselves and any modicum of respectability.
They didn’t beat Michigan from 1965 to 1995. They didn’t beat Iowa from 1973 to 1995. They didn’t beat Wisconsin from 1971 to 1985. They didn’t beat Minnesota from 1984 to 1994.
All those streaks are now distant memories, and now the Cats can walk into a stadium with any Big Ten team believing victory is easily attainable. Except for Ohio State.
Like it or not, the current Cats are still tied to their awful ancestors. But a win over the Buckeyes would be a gigantic step toward making all of that go away. Florida State was a laughingstock for years, but you wouldn’t know it now. NU has a shot to be known as a good college football program, not a surprise team trying to shed a troubled past.
And here before them stands their best chance yet to do just that.
Want to be recognized as a top-flight team in the conference? Want to gain the public’s respect – real respect, not just an occasional kind word? Want to smash the final remnant of decades of futility?
It’s easy. And it’s on the doorstep right now.
One victory over Ohio State.
