Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

48° Evanston, IL
Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Cats overcome shaky offense to defeat RedHawks

OXFORD, Ohio – Pat Fitzgerald stepped to the post-game microphone Thursday night, finally ready to speak.

He had just handed Tammy Walker, wife of late Northwestern football coach Randy Walker, the game ball.

He had just coached his first 60 football minutes, turning first-game jitters into first-game passion.

And he had just seen his team pass its first, most grueling test. Two months after Walker’s untimely death, the Wildcats opened the season with a 21-3 win over – of all teams – Walker’s alma mater, Miami (Ohio).

“Words cannot describe how proud I am of our football family,” Fitzgerald said after NU (1-0) dispatched the RedHawks fairly easily in their season opener.

Fitzgerald insisted his team had a single focus leading up to the game, which was, quite simply, focus.

And for the most part, NU did. Despite some shaky offensive play in a 0-0 first half, the focus shone through on the second part of that score: zero points allowed, a far cry from the 33.9 points the Cats allowed per game last season while finishing last in the nation in total defense.

Behind a frequently used 3-4 scheme, the Cats showed an uncharacteristically prolific pass rush, sacking RedHawks quarterback Mike Kokal five times for 29 yards. Last season, the Cats recorded just 12 sacks all season.

“We’ve got a little bit of an attitude,” Fitzgerald, a former linebackers coach, said. “We have something to prove on defense.”

But the team had more to prove on this night. It had to prove it could overcome the death of a coach who, for the first time in modern history, guided the Cats to three straight six-win seasons.

And it had to prove it against the same school Walker played for from 1973 to 1975, and the same school where Walker became the all-time winningest coach, amassing a 59-35-5 record.

The game also came on the same night Walker was inducted into the vaunted “Cradle of Coaches,” alongside such ex-Miami coaching legends as former NU and Notre Dame coach Ara Parseghian and former Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, whom Walker frequently referenced in interviews.

“To do it here, to do it where he played,” senior fullback Erryn Cobb said, “I think was fitting.”

Cobb played a big part in the win, blocking a punt three minutes into the third quarter and returning it eight yards for a touchdown, breaking the scoreless tie.

The play seemed to open up the game. The RedHawks immediately marched 77 yards downfield for their only score, a 22-yard field goal by Nathan Parseghian, great grand-nephew of the former coach.

Cobb’s touchdown also seemed to open up NU’s offense, which was led by redshirt freshman Mike Kafka. After a shaky start, Kafka led consecutive touchdown drives late in the third and early in the fourth to put the game out of reach.

After the game, Fitzgerald said, a feeling of relief filled the locker room.

“I think a lot of emotion was spent all game long,” Fitzgerald said. “And to go in there, it’s almost like when you commit to a school as a recruit. You kind of get the weight of the world off your shoulders, and you can just go forward and move on and don’t look back at maybe what you were thinking before the game.”

But along with relief came a feeling of satisfaction, when Fitzgerald presented Tammy Walker with a small token of gratitude for all her husband did, both at Miami and NU.

“(Presenting the game ball) may be the most rewarding thing that has happened,” Fitzgerald said.

Added sophomore running back Tyrell Sutton: “It was the best feeling ever.”

Reach Patrick Dorsey at [email protected].

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Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881
Cats overcome shaky offense to defeat RedHawks