Previewing the 2021 Northwestern Wildcats

Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty ImagesThe notion that it’s merely sufficient to recruit well to be successful dies when it comes to the Northwestern Wildcats. Despite constantly pulling in some of the lowest recruiting rankings in the Big Ten, Pat Fitzgerald’s teams deliver on the field, winning the Big Ten’s west division title two out of the last three seasons. To me, it illustrates that the most important element of success in college football is coaching and development. Schools with great recruiting (i.e. Texas, Southern Cal) underperform due to poor coaching, while schools with great coaching, such as Northwestern, exceed the expectations from their recruiting. The Holy Grail, of course, are those programs like Alabama and Clemson that combine both.

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