Barry Cofield and Tim McGarigle were perplexed.

It was August, and one of their teammates recently had announced he would transfer.

Another had been suspended.

Then, on the last day of practice at Northwestern’s summer camp in Kenosha, Wis., a torn knee ligament ended the season of starting safety Bryan Heinz – the third player lost at camp and the fifth NU had lost since the end of the 2004 season.

“A couple times we – looked at each other and thought, ‘Where is everybody going?'” said Cofield, a defensive tackle. “Guys were dropping like flies.”

But for the seniors, something happened on the way to letting their final season slip away with a whimper and another bowl-free December.

They refused to let it happen.

With leadership and ability gained through years of experience, both good and bad, NU football’s class of 2006 has taken a team seemingly destined for disaster and turned it into a bowl-eligible surprise.

Behind these seniors the Wildcats are 6-4 and 4-3 in conference, and already have clinched a winning regular season. They also are one win away from their second-straight 5-3 Big Ten record and reached the top 25 for the first time since 2001.

“This senior group is top-drawer,” offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar said. “I hate to say the best, but this is one of the top-drawer senior groups in regard to leadership on and off the field.”

Going into the season, these seniors could afford to be nothing less, as the loss of Heinz was just a hint of NU’s offseason misfortune.

Senior defensive end Loren Howard, the most highly touted recruit of head coach Randy Walker’s tenure, announced during camp that he would undergo season-ending knee surgery and subsequently transfer to Arizona State, near his native Scottsdale, Ariz. Also in camp, senior wide receiver Brandon Horn was suspended for the year for violating team rules.

Two months earlier, NU announced two-year starting center Trevor Rees was suspended for academic reasons. Rees later withdrew from NU. On the same day, popular senior starting cornerback Jeff Backes announced he would leave the program because of a lingering shoulder injury.

“It was getting frustrating losing guys, losing guys and losing guys,” senior offensive tackle Zach Strief said. “You start saying, ‘Who’s going to play?'”

That’s when the leaders – particularly Cofield, Strief, linebacker McGarigle, quarterback Brett Basanez and wide receiver Mark Philmore – stepped in. They continued to improve their own games while they searched for players to fill the unexpected holes.

“We knew this was our last go-around,” Cofield said. “We didn’t want to be known as the team that was killed by injuries and went out there and laid an egg.”

taking charge

Before the summer, before Backes and Howard left the program, several seniors met to discuss off-season workouts, which by NCAA rule cannot be overseen by coaches.

They knew their tasks – find players and build a team. Nine starters had graduated from the previous year’s 6-6 club, and the futures of the oft-injured Howard and Backes were uncertain.

So they devised a new system, one they said stressed teamwork and accountability – and set a foundation for the season’s success.

“When you lose guys who are in key roles, you need to make sure other guys are ready to step up,” Basanez said. “That’s why summer workouts were huge for everyone.”

The five seniors divided the team into groups of four, mostly by position. They laid down one rule: If any player misses a workout, his entire group must make it up.

“It was pretty much a no-exception rule,” Strief said. “Some guys said they had to do stuff, and we said that’s fine. It’s not a punishment. It’s just a makeup, (to) make sure you’re doing all the work.”

This, Cofield said, gave players an extra incentive to show up, when in previous years they may have been tempted to skip.

And even if a player didn’t show up, the story wasn’t over.

Philmore said seniors often drove to players’ homes and coaxed them into attending. Sometimes even freshmen would call absent seniors, Basanez added.

While attendance wasn’t perfect, the seniors said more players showed up than ever before.

“Brett, Zach, Tim and I were all sitting in the locker room saying – ‘Man, everybody’s coming to all the workouts,'” Philmore said. “We had nothing but promise because everybody was doing what they were supposed to be doing.”

clawing back

49-0.

Sitting in a locker room in State College, Pa., the score of that 2002 loss to Penn State stung NU players like the hardest hit absorbed in the blowout loss.

At that moment, Walker made a statement.

“Coach Walker told us that we had to make a decision right now,” said Strief, a redshirt freshman in 2002. “Do you want to be like this for the rest of your career, or do you guys want to change and do something about it?”

Years later, Walker and the seniors say they look at that moment as more than a low point for a program just two years removed from sharing the Big Ten title.

Though the team went just 1-3 the rest of the season and finished 3-9, the game often is cited as a turning point for several NU freshmen, who took their lumps early but emerged with experience and maturity.

During the 2002 season, Basanez started nine times as a redshirt freshman. McGarigle and Strief each started late in the season, while Philmore finished third on the team in receptions and Cofield saw significant time on the defensive line.

NU coach Pat Fitzgerald said because they played so early, this class displayed its maturity quicker.

“We said it when they were sophomores,” Fitzgerald said. “This is a group that has a bunch of difference makers.”

They still had their troubles on the field.

Though NU went 6-6 during the 2003 regular season and earned a trip to the Motor City Bowl, Basanez threw just four touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

Philmore injured his knee and missed the final three games of the season. He finished with 23 catches and no touchdowns.

In the final game of 2004, with their bowl hopes on the line, the Cats fell 49-41 at Hawaii. Basanez threw a last-minute interception to end the game.

Struggles and all, Cofield said, he and his classmates constantly watched and learned from a host of upperclassmen, who instilled a “will to win” in the younger Cats.

Fitzgerald said it shows through the seniors’ work ethic. Some often come in before classes to watch film, then watch film and practice in the afternoon and evening. Some even DVDs of game film home.

Now, Walker said, with the hours of work and years of experience, the seniors are too invested in the program to give up.

“If you go all-in, you aren’t walking away,” Walker said. “You’re going to play the hand out, right? And these kids have gone all-in. They’ve shoved all the chips in the middle and they can’t walk away from the table now.”

leaving their legacies

With only a trip to 2-8 Illinois remaining, the bowl-eligible Cats are looking to win seven games for just the fifth time since NU’s 1948 Rose Bowl-winning season – also the last time they won a bowl game.

They also have won six games for a third-straight year, a first in the modern era.

While the Cats have had their share of tough losses, including last week’s 48-7 drubbing at Ohio State, NU players and coaches often credit all the seniors – from Basanez and McGarigle to emerging seniors like safeties Herschel Henderson and Frederic Tarver, wide receiver Jonathan Fields and offensive tackle Vince Clarke – for helping the team recover.

“They keep us focused,” freshman running back Tyrell Sutton said. “It means a lot to see the dedication, the motivation and the focus they (have). It rubs off on everybody.”

As they finish their NU careers, several seniors said they not only are focusing on their final two games, but on their legacy.

McGarigle will finish his career as NU’s
all-time leading tackler. Basanez is the school’s wins and passing leader.

But they want to be remembered for more than just numbers and a few big games, they said.

“We want to be remembered as winners,” McGarigle said. “We want (people to) think that these guys never quit, no matter what the circumstances.”

Added Philmore: “It’s been a long road to get where we’re at now – We’ve just been able to slowly-but-surely get to a place in our careers where it’s something that we can look back on and be proud.”

Reach Patrick Dorsey at [email protected].