Christ almighty, Mildcats, get over it already!
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post...he-big-time-northwestern-fighting-to-get-back
Once on the brink of the big time, Northwestern fighting to get back
CHICAGO -- The signs all along pointed to a potential tipping point for Northwestern.
The buzz had reached a fever pitch on campus with the Wildcats unbeaten and ranked No. 16 in the nation heading into October of 2013. College GameDay was coming to campus to set the scene ahead of a showdown against No. 4 Ohio State that marked one of the biggest home games in recent history for the program. And with a win, Pat Fitzgerald's club would not only claim a signature victory, at a minimum it could have stamped itself as a legitimate threat to capture a Big Ten crown -- and it was well on its way to doing so in the fourth quarter on a rainy night at Ryan Field.
In heartbreaking fashion for the Wildcats, it all slipped away from them down the stretch. Even worse for Northwestern, that loss did go down as a turning point for the program, just not the kind it envisioned and one that in some ways it is still trying to recover from nearly two years later.
"Ohio State was a huge game and after we lost, it basically just took the wind out of our sails," senior
Nick VanHoose said. "It hurt. You can tell from watching our next game against Wisconsin [in a 35-6 loss], I mean it looked like we didn't even show up.
"We tried to be us, but I felt like a little bit of a piece of us, who we are, was kind of lost after that game. Players start having doubts about the season, having doubts about play calling and coaches, and once you get any of that into your locker room, it becomes a cancer and it spreads from player to player. It was bad."
Cont'd ...