Fitz states his case

CHICAGO-Normally, it's doubtful whether Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald would have answered a reporter's question about his team's case for a New Year's Six bowl game with more than a few comments about how it's not up to him and he can't control it, so he's not going to worry about it.

That would have been the typical coach-speak response.

But in the bowels of Soldier Field after his Wildcats had beaten Illinois 24-14 to claim its 10th win in 12 games, as well as the Land of Lincoln Trophy, Fitzgerald was feeling good, perhaps even a little vindicated.

So he obliged and let the media know in no uncertain terms that this team -- just the fourth in school history to win 10 games with a shot of becoming the first to win 11 -- deserves an invitation to one of the coveted six bowls after the College Football Playoff takes the top four. And he also let them know how he feels about Stanford being ranked higher than his Wildcats.

To Fitzgerald, his team's bowl worthiness isn't about style points. It's about wins, period.

"Well, I would say look at the resume," he said, staring with a non-conference schedule much stronger than many teams that are up for one of those coveted spots. "…We not only played a Pac-12 team (Stanford), we also played an ACC team down on the road (Duke). We played an FCS playoff team (Eastern Illinois).

"And then you look at our two losses (Michigan and Iowa)… If my numbers are correct, (they're) 21-3, the two teams that we lost to. That's (not an) excuse, we shouldn't have lost, but those are two pretty darn good teams. And the rest of the games, we won.

"We've got the highest graduate rate in the country, if that means anything. It means our guys are about the right things, not only on the field but off the field. And they went out on the field and won.

"The eyeball test is wins. The rest of the stuff is great for SportsCenter and BTN and for you guys to write about, but we won the games that put us in position to be in the conversation.

"And I would ask the committee to take a look at the film, to watch the tape."

Fitzgerald then steered his comments toward Stanford -- and the mere mention of that game showed that the subject is still sticking in the coach's craw. The Wildcats, of course, beat the Cardinal 16-6 in the season opener. Despite having identical records, Stanford was ranked ninth in last week's CFP rankings, while Northwestern was 16th.

"I saw a team ranked X amount (seven spots) ahead of us that we beat," he said with disdain. "I just don't get it. I mean, pop on the tape and watch the film. Our kids dominated that game and I don't think they're getting credit."

The media's reasoning behind the ranking discrepancy seems to hinge on the 11 a.m. kickoff in Chicago, which was 9 a.m. Pacific time and, in their eyes, too early for Stanford to play its best football.

As far as Fitzgerald is concerned, that argument holds as much water as an eyedropper.

"I'm tired of hearing about that it was early in the morning, you know, I'm tired of it," he said. "I'm tired of it not for me, I'm tired of it for those kids that have been through a lot, and I just feel like they're getting disrespected. Pop on the video. We dominated the line of scrimmage, we dominated that football game.

"Obviously, we let two get away and that's our fault. We deserve to be where we would be because of that. But I'm tired of hearing about winning five games two years in a row, and I'm tired of hearing about that game was at 9.

Then he summed up his closing argument like he was an attorney. "It's a 10-win football team," he said simply.

Fitzgerald is proud of this team and for good reason. He had a prolific offensive team in 2012 that went 10-3, but this is one is cut more in his image.

The Wildcats play hard-nosed defense (they allowed seven points to Illinois), run the ball all day long with Justin Jackson (a career-high 37 carries for 172 yards and a touchdown) and "find a way to win," according to senior superback Dan Vitale -- who, by the way, said this 2015 unit would beat that 2012 team he played with as a true freshman.

That tried-and-true, though antiquated formula is very similar to one that a certain Northwestern team used to win 10 regular-season games 20 years ago. You know, the one that featured a middle linebacker named Fitzgerald and played in the Rose Bowl.

"We are a Chicago football team. We're kind of old school, '95 neck roll, four yards and a cloud of dust," said Fitzgerald. "To a lot of people, I think that's boring. I could care less what they think. I call it winning.

"That's who we are right now. I'd love to put up the Baylor numbers and I'd love to put up some of the numbers that these other teams are offensively, but they can't shake a stick at our defense.

"We know who we are and we have to play to who we are."

And who they are, says Fitzgerald, is a team worthy of a New Year's bowl game.

"I think our performance, our resume speaks for itself."