After being leapfrogged by Iowa for a spot in last year’s Outback Bowl, the Northwestern Wildcats returned the favor, albeit to Wisconsin, jumping the Badgers for an Outback Bowl invitation.
On Sunday, Northwestern Athletics Director Jim Phillips and Outback Bowl President/CEO Jim McVay announced that the ‘Cats will face Southeastern Conference opponent Auburn in Tampa, Fla. on January 1, 2010.
“It’s just a tremendous opportunity…not only for our football program, but for our entire university,” said Phillips.
The bowl berth will be Northwestern’s first appearance in a much-coveted New Year’s Day bowl since the ‘Cats fell 48-28 to Tennessee in 1997.
Head coach Pat Fitzgerald especially appreciated the significance of a New Year’s Day bowl for his seniors. “This is their last opportunity to put on the purple and white, and to do it on January 1, I don’t know if you could write a better script for a finale,” said Fitzgerald.
“New Year’s Day is always a great day to play a bowl game,” said senior safety Brendan Smith. “It’s something that you always shoot for.” Smith, who in addition to playing in the Alamo Bowl last season played in the 2005 Sun Bowl, will become the first Wildcat to play in three bowl games.
With Northwestern’s second consecutive bowl appearance, following last year’s 30-23 overtime thriller loss to Missouri, the ‘Cats (8-4) will have a chance to end their 61-year streak without a bowl win.
“That would make things complete,” said Smith. “It would make my five years at Northwestern really successful, and I’d be very proud to be one of the four captains to lead the team to a bowl victory and to do something that this program hasn’t seen in a long time.”
To do so, Northwestern will have to defeat a tough Auburn team that features the powerful running of senior running back Ben Tate. Tate was a semifinalist for the Doak Walker Award, given to the top college running back, and averaged 104 yards per game on the ground. Auburn finished its regular season with a 7-5 overall record, good enough for a tie for fifth in the SEC.
Perhaps key to getting the Outback Bowl nod over Wisconsin was the demonstrated willingness of Northwestern fans to travel to bowl games. At last year’s Alamo Bowl, Northwestern sold out all of its allotted tickets and 7.2 million people watched the game.
“To see the purple in the crowd, I think says a lot,” said Phillips. According to Phillips, the ‘Cats also pitched that there are nearly 18,000 Northwestern alums in the Florida area.
Both Auburn and Northwestern will enter the Outback Bowl on the heels of key performances. Northwestern went 3-0 in November, including upset victories over ranked opponents Iowa and Wisconsin.
“We’re definitely playing our best football of the year right now,” said Fitzgerald. “We’re going to have to keep our edge.”
“[The Outback Bowl was] rewarding a team,” said Phillips, “that had really earned it on the field and was playing [its] best football, and certainly had rewarded a university that has been waiting for this kind of opportunity for a little while.”
Auburn, though coming off a loss, battled national championship contender Alabama down to the wire. The Tigers held a 21-20 lead with less than two minutes remaining, before surrendering their lead to the Crimson Tide in a 26-21 final.
Fitzgerald said he watched Auburn’s fierce fight with Alabama, though not with the eye of a scouting coach. He said he planned to watch tape of the Tigers over the next few days to design a game plan.