EVANSTON, Ill. — When Paddy Fisher was home in Katy, Texas, over a break last year, he and Travis Whillock, the Northwestern defensive back who attended high school with the linebacker, put on a tape of their youth football highlights. Whillock was suited up at quarterback. Fisher, who now stands 6’4” and weighs 246 pounds, was in at running back. “He was [throwing] touchdown passes,” Fisher says. “I was running around people, which never happens. I don't know when the last time was I ran around someone."
The best linebacker in the Big Ten is veering toward self-deprecating, laughing at the incongruity between that kid, already big for his age and about to be ill-suited to run the ball, and the figure he cuts now: the biggest player at his position on Northwestern’s roster by a margin of two inches and 11 pounds, one of the tallest linebackers in the Big Ten.