The Northwestern football team is set to play Bowling Green at the Motor City Bowl on Dec. 26 in Detroit in the Wildcats’ fifth bowl game ever.
NU (6-6, 4-4 Big Ten) accepted the bid to the bowl reserved for the seventh place Big Ten team Sunday night, after the final Bowl Championship Series rankings sent Michigan to the Rose Bowl and Ohio State to the Fiesta Bowl. Their placements allowed the Cats to slide into the bowl picture and give the conference an eighth bowl game.
And at a press conference Sunday night, coach Randy Walker’s engine was revving.
“I couldn’t be more happy for our players,” said Walker,sitting next to senior captains Jason Wright and Pat Durr.
Walker said the invitation speaks to “mounting concern” about the school’s program and brings NU “back to the direction we want to go.” He added that the extra practices before the game would be an opportunity to work with younger players who don’t get as much attention during the regular season grind.
“Guys who aren’t part of the game plan get left behind,” Walker said. “We have a lot of time now that we don’t get during the season to work with them.”
The team will hold at least 10 practices in Evanston as soon as Finals Week concludes, plus spend a few days preparing at Ford Field, the new domed home of the Detroit Lions.
Linebacker Durr said Motor City means one more chance to play with his teammates. Star running back Wright said he’s just glad he doesn’t have to worry about it anymore so he can get back to finals.
“It’s kind of been haunting me,” said Wright, who added that he spent Sunday writing one word of his sociology final — due Monday — and then envision various bowl scenarios.
Wright, who has 1,151 rushing and 250 passing yards for 21 total touchdowns on the season, said he would be “100 percent” for the bowl after struggling with an ankle injury in the last games of the Cats’ season.
The Cats garnered bowl eligibility with its 37-20 win Nov. 22 against rival Illinois. Walker commended his players for the .500 season, which included games against eight bowl-eligible teams.
Bowling Green (10-3) heads to Motown after winning the Mid-American Conference’s West division, then falling to Miami (Ohio) in the MAC championship last week. The Falcons finished the season 24th in the BCS standings.
The team is led by standout senior quarterback Josh Harris, who boasts 248 passes for 3,427 yards and 12 TDs on the year. Not to mention coach Gregg Brandon, who set an NCAA record this year for the most wins by a first-year coach.
Brandon also has NU roots, having served as the Cats’ receivers and recruiting coordinator for seven seasons, including during their 1995 and ’96 seasons in which the Cats found their way to the Rose and Citrus bowls.
Bowling Green isn’t new to Big Ten-style football either, having played Ohio State and Purdue this season. They upset Purdue 27-26 back in September.
“We’re going to have to play very well,” Walker said at the press conference, adding that the Cats will have been out of uniform for a month heading into the game. But he said the NU is used to preparing for tough teams and will be ready.
On top of preparing his team, Walker might also find himself training three new assistants. It was announced last week that NU position coaches Howard Feggins and Jay Peterson will leave NU to become offensive and defensive coordinators, respectively, for Eastern Michigan. They will coach under Jeff Genyk, another current NU assistant.
Walker wished the three well Sunday and said he was unsure whether they would coach under Walker for the bowl game or other assistants yet to be named would step in.
NU has made five bowl appearances, most recently in the 2000 Alamo Bowl. Four of those berths have come in the last nine seasons, but the Cats have failed to win a bowl game since its 1949 appearance in the Rose Bowl.
The Motor City Bowl will make the sixth bowl appearance for Bowling Green and its first since 1992, when it won the inaugural Las Vegas Bowl.
NU and Bowling Green will meet for just the second time – the first being Nov. 17, 2001, when the teams played because of a schedule adjustment made after the attacks of Sept. 11. The Falcons edged out the Cats 43-42 with a coming-out performance by then-sophomore Harris, who had 493 total yards in the game and six touchdowns (three passing, two rushing and one receiving) and earned national player of the week honors.
The Motor City Bowl is slated for 5 p.m. Dec. 26 and will be shown on ESPN. Tickets are available beginning noon Monday. They can be purchased online at NUsports.com, in person at the Ryan Field ticket office or by application, which is available on the Web site.
NU Director of Athletics Mark Murphy said the school was considering busing options for students and other packages for the bowl. He guessed that those would be announced some time this week.
Check back at www.dailynorthwestern.com for ticket updates.
