Northwestern’s going bowling for a third straight season — this time off to Dallas for the TicketCity Bowl. Follow North by Northwestern writer and Northwestern defensive end Jake Gregus as he and our Wildcats football team attempt to win their eighth game of the season and first postseason game since 1949 here on NBN’s TicketCity Bowl Blog.
“I am SO tired…I really don’t want to leave my room right now…There had better be free pizzas at this thing — otherwise, what’s the point in showing up to this meeting?” These thoughts, among others, were running through my head as I got up, grabbed my coat, locked my door in Allison Hall and headed downstairs to depart for Ryan Field in eager anticipation of where our next bowl game would be.
As a sophomore defensive end, this would be my second experience preparing for a bowl game. It is something my dad never got to do at the University of Illinois, where he was a scholarship football player for four years and an Academic All-American three years in a row. It is what I dreamed of doing when I was told I would have a roster spot at Northwestern as a walk-on instead of accepting a football scholarship from a Division II school. While I study for my Medill classes, buy my books and pay off my student loans like everyone else, I get to be with my teammates over Christmas break as we work toward the second bowl game win in the history of the Northwestern Wildcats’ program.
Even though I had a long day and a tough morning practice, I was excited to find out where we were going for the bowl. Since our season didn’t end exactly how we wanted it to, my teammates and I were almost certain prior to our meeting that we would be going to Dallas, Texas, to play in the TicketCity Bowl on Jan. 1, 2011. Still, I had some doubts. First, Illinois recently lost to Fresno State, giving them a 6-6 record on the year and our 7-5 team a chance to jump them in the bowl standings and go to the Texas Bowl in Houston. However, the Texas Bowl is played on Dec. 29, which means I wouldn’t get to go home for Christmas. As I was pondering all of these scenarios in my head, Coach Fitzgerald stood in front of our team and made his announcement: It would be the TicketCity Bowl on New Year’s Day against the Red Raiders of Texas Tech University.
It should have been a more jubilant moment, but something was missing. Maybe it was just me, but the announcement for this Jan. 1 bowl was not as joyous and celebratory as the one a year ago. Last year, we defeated Illinois and Wisconsin in addition to Iowa, which allowed us to jump Wisconsin and go to the Outback Bowl. This year, however, we lost our last two games to Illinois and Wisconsin while our starting quarterback, Dan Persa, sat on the bench with a ruptured Achilles tendon. In addition, there were no pizzas waiting for us after the meeting, and when someone asked Coach Fitzgerald about the bowl gifts we might receive, he answered, “No gifts until we win the bowl game.”
Most people would consider this a fair statement, considering we haven’t won a bowl game since 1949. To us players, however, it came off as a strict ultimatum: win the bowl game, or it won’t be a Happy New Year. Even though we will get gifts and perks like every other bowl-bound team, they won’t mean anything if we don’t win. There are some guys on the team who will be competing in their third straight bowl game. Hopefully the third time’s the charm for my teammates while we second-year players try to avoid a “sophomore slump.”