Northwestern Football Ranked for First Time Since 2021

Northwestern football has crashed the national rankings.

After a blazing start to the season, the Wildcats (4-1, 1-1 Big Ten) have made the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since the end of the 2020 season.

Northwestern checks in at No. 25 in Sunday's poll.

NU's only loss this season was a nail-biter 29-23 loss at No. 5 Indiana, who remain undefeated after escaping an upset at Nebraska.

The Cats got help from then-No. 25 Pitt’s loss to North Carolina, and then-No. 16 Florida’s loss at The Swamp to South Carolina. Both teams fell out of the rankings.

Northwestern finished the 2020 season ranked No. 10 in the AP Poll, which came out on Jan. 11, 2021. The Wildcats finished at No. 14 in the College Football Playoff rankings, and No. 13 in the USA Today Coaches Poll.

The Pat Fitzgerald-led team went 7-2 during the pandemic-shortened season. The team rolled to a 5-0 start before falling to Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game. The Cats then defeated Auburn in the Citrus Bowl.

NU celebrated its 115th homecoming game with a 45-14 throttling of Ball State Saturday. Braun had a blunt message for his team leading up to the game; by and large, they succeeded.

He alluded to a “stupor” in the second quarter – a level of complacency that allowed Ball State to score 14 points.

“You walk in that locker room, and there's almost this sense of we need to do better,” Braun said. “And the thing that I love about this group is, they're right. We do need to do better. But I have to challenge this team to you know enjoy a win, and that's really important. Winning college football games is hard, and when you earn the right to expect victory, and then you deliver on that and finish with the win, that's something that for 24 hours as a football program you should enjoy.

“And then there's a unique ability to enjoy that, and then also be really objective and constructive and hard on yourself for where we need to be better. And there's so many areas for us where we need to be better moving forward.”

Plenty to button up before the Cats travel to Michigan State and Fitzgerald, the longest-tenured and winningest head coach in NU football history. The Wildcats and Spartans are set to kick off Saturday at 11 a.m. CT on Peacock.

“I appreciate the thirst for growth that this this team has, and that needs to continue,” Braun said.