Last August, Pat Fitzgerald made the decision to hand his offense over to a quarterback who had never played a down of college football. That might have seemed like a recipe for disaster if taken at face value, but when Clayton Thorson trotted onto the field for Northwestern’s season opener, he had spent well over a year in Evanston preparing for that moment. Thorson, a member of Fitzgerald’s 2014 class, went on to start all 13 games in his redshirt freshman season. He struggled, as many players do in their introduction to Big Ten football, but made enough plays to help Northwestern reach 10 wins.
Redshirt freshmen who will make an impact in 2016
