No ‘embrace the suck’ this year from Northwestern

IOWA CITY - Northwestern Coach Pat Fitzgerald didn't offer up a catch phrase Monday, but you can bet it was on his mind.

Last year when Northwestern suffered a humiliating 48-7 defeat at Iowa, Fitzgerald had strong words for his players. The next day, his 8-year-old son said, 'Dad, we got spanked.” By Monday, Fitzgerald announced, 'Sometimes you have to embrace the suck.”

Fitzgerald avoided those words in response to the No. 20 Wildcats' 38-0 pounding at Michigan on Saturday. Northwestern (5-1, 1-1 Big Ten) entered the day as the nation's best scoring defense, giving up 35 points and only three touchdowns in five games. The Wolverines scored three touchdowns in the first quarter.

Still ranked No. 20 in national polls entering a Big Ten West Division showdown with No. 17 Iowa (6-0, 2-0), Fitzgerald kept his rhetoric positive rather than dismissive.

'You've got to get up off the mat,” Fitzgerald said. 'You get knocked down and you don't have the game that you're capable of having, you've got to get up. There's no other choice. I like the way the guys were this morning. They came with a great attitude, coached the you-know-what out of them and put the game to bed pretty quick.”

The week's match-up features teams that boast similar statistics. Both sit in the top 20 nationally in scoring defense and top 25 in total defense. Northwestern running back Justin Jackson leads the nation in carries with 150. Iowa RB Jordan Canzeri - who set the school's single-game carries record against Illinois on Saturday with 43 - is sixth with 132. Among Big Ten players, Canzeri and Jackson rank third and fourth, respectively, in both yards per game and total rushing yards.

Both are even dealing with significant injuries. Iowa star defensive end Drew Ott appears out for the season with a knee injury. Northwestern top cornerback Matthew Harris is out after fracturing several bones in his face Saturday. Northwestern wide receiver Austin Carr was left off the depth chart, as was Iowa wide receiver Tevaun Smith.

Iowa also provides Northwestern with an annual incentive because of past slights dating to when Fitzgerald played linebacker with the Wildcats from 1993-96. In 1995, Northwestern was on its way to the most Cinderella of college football seasons. After nearly 50 years of bowl absences, the moribund Wildcats were 8-1 and facing Iowa, a team that had beaten them 21 years in a row.

In Coach Gary Barnett's first three games against the Hawkeyes - two of which included Fitzgerald - Northwestern was outscored 128-46. After a 49-13 Iowa beatdown in 1994, Hawkeyes Coach Hayden Fry apparently offered a condescending gesture to the Wildcats in a postgame handshake with Barnett, which fueled a yearlong motivation.

'This team wants Iowa so much, I can't put it into words,” Barnett said before the 1995 game. 'We've waited 12 months for this.”

A war of words engulfed players of both teams, from Northwestern senior captain Rob Johnson saying, 'I want to hurt Iowa” to future Iowa All-American Tim Dwight responding, 'They're playing good football, but you have to respect a team that's beaten you the last 21 years.” Even Fry couldn't hold back, saying, 'After 21 straight, they've still got to show me that they can whip us.”

Northwestern won that game 31-20. Iowa led 14-3 in the first half, but allowed a fumble return and punt return for touchdowns to end the now-infamous 20-game win streak.

Saturday's game involves players who either weren't born or were in diapers when that feud forged into today's rare non-trophy rivalry. The more relevant motivators come from Iowa in recent years. In 2009, Iowa was ranked No. 4 with a 9-0 record and led Northwestern 10-0 in the first quarter. Then quarterback Ricky Stanzi was sacked, fumbled and suffered a leg injury in the end zone that changed the game in a 17-10 Wildcats upset. In 2010 at Evanston, Iowa was tied atop the Big Ten standings and led Northwestern 17-7 in the fourth quarter. The Wildcats then rallied with two touchdowns for a 21-17 victory.

But for Fitzgerald, last year's game stands out like Iowa's clubbings stung from his playing days. It was humiliating to him and his team, and it often was referenced during the summer.

'Some people say, sometimes you have those games. It happens,” Northwestern cornerback Nick VanHoose said. 'Obviously it shouldn't happen. If you're prepared and you want to play and you want to go, you should at least put up a fight.”

Adding even more spice to a sizzling match-up, Fitzgerald named Barnett as his honorary captain and running back Darnell Autry will serve as grand marshal for the homecoming parade. The school will honor its 1995 Big Ten title team and wear a 20th anniversary Rose Bowl patch in the middle of a collar on its throwback uniform from ... 1995.

'We'll prepare and play with that type of vigor and passion that the team that I had to privilege to play with - and for - did,” Fitzgerald said.

l Comments: (319) 339-3169; scott.dochterman@thegazette.com