The 3-2-1 heading into Bowl Season

Here are three things we learned about the Illinois game, two questions we have moving forward and one bold prediction about the future as the Wildcats prepare for their first bowl game since the 2020 season.

1. The Hat is coming home.

After a two-year vacation, the Land of Lincoln Trophy is returning to familiar surroundings at the Walter Athletics Center.

Since the trophy was introduced in 2009, Northwestern has a 10-3 record against their in-state rival, Illinois. The Wildcats won six in a row over the Illini before the bottom fell out the last two years and Illinois won by a combined score of 88-17.

The all-time series between the Wildcats and Fighting Illini now stands at 55-53-5 in favor of Illinois, but Northwestern has closed the gap by winning 14 of 20 matchups in the 21st Century.

Rivalry games like this matter almost as much off the field as they do on the field. For most of the 2010s Northwestern dominated their downstate counterparts on the recruiting trail when it came to talent from the state of Illinois. With the Illini trending up under new coach Bret Bielema and the Wildcats program struggling the last two years, that had started to change. None of NU's current class of 2024 commits picked Northwestern over an Illinois offer, while four-star defensive lineman Eddie Tuerk, a Wildcat legacy who visited NU eight times, chose the Illini over the Wildcats. The new head man in Evanston knows that Saturday was the first step to getting the Cats back on top in the Land of Lincoln, both on the field and the recruiting trail.

"There was certainly motivation to bring that Hat back to Evanston," he said. "Today was a great step up for us on the recruiting trail.

"We really put on display what this program has been, and what it's going to look like moving forward. End of the day, we recruit nationally but we have to be great in the Chicagoland area. We have to be great in the state of Illinois."

2. The Cats can win in multiple ways.

A lot of Northwestern's wins in 2023 had followed a familiar formula: a strong defense leads the way, while the NU offense does just enough to eke out a win.

The script was flipped in Champaign on Saturday. The burden was placed squarely on the Wildcat offense as Northwestern's defense just could not get a stop.

The Wildcat defense allowed 455 yards of offense on Saturday and only forced one punt. The typically strong defense evaporated and Illinois looked unstoppable.

That didn't matter, though, as the Northwestern offense played its best game in over three years. Senior quarterback Ben Bryant led Northwestern to a 38-point outburst (seven points were from a special teams touchdown) and 379 yards of total offense.

Bryant threw for 224 yards and a pair of touchdowns; he also added an eight-yard touchdown scramble in the fourth quarter. His top target was fellow sixth-year grad transfer Cam Johnson. The receiver grabbed seven passes for a season-high 124 yards and the game's opening touchdown. In total, Bryant connected with nine receivers as he spread the ball around against a banged-up Illinois secondary.

Northwestern took advantage of short fields all day, scoring 16 points off of Illinois turnovers. The most noticeable change in the Northwestern offense came at the end of the first half. After Bryant airmailed a sideline pass and Miles Scott returned it for a 55-yard pick-6, the Wildcats trailed 20-14.

NU got the ball back with 1:09 remaining before the break. For most of recent Northwestern history, the Cats would have kneeled out the half and gone into the locker room to lick their wounds. Braun and offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian remained aggressive and were rewarded. Bryant, showcasing a short memory, completed all four of his passes for 45 yards and added another 15 on a scramble.

Eventually, with Northwestern at the 3-yard line, Bryant handed to Anthony Tyus III, who fumbled before crossing the goal line. But right guard Dom D'Antonio pounced on the loose ball in the end zone and Northwestern took a 21-20 lead into the break. Those seven points proved crucial. The offensive outburst was needed for Northwestern to win a wild game that featured two non-offensive touchdowns, 37 points in the fourth quarter and multiple attempts at an onside kick.

Northwestern's offense has faced plenty of deserved criticism this year, but on Saturday they bailed the Wildcats out.

3. Special teams make special teams.

Special teams can get lost in the shuffle of analysis with so much excitement on offense and disappointment on defense, but their exploits swung the game on Saturday in Champaign. After Illinois took the lead 31-28 with 13:12 remaining in the game, the Wildcats' third phase took over.

Hunter Renner punted after an apparent Northwestern three-and-out, but Illinois return man Isaiah Williams dropped the ball and Ray Niro III jumped on it to set Northwestern up at the Illinois 18-yard line. Bryant would run it in four plays later to put NU back in front.

On the ensuing kickoff, Northwestern redshirt freshman linebacker Braydon Brus put his helmet right on the ball and knocked it out of returner Kenari Wilcher's hands. The ball fell right into arms of safety Garner Wallace who took it back 17 yards for another Wildcat touchdown. Northwestern went from down three to up 11 in the span of nine seconds, and its defense never left the sideline.

Kicker Jack Olsen added a 46-yard field in the fourth quarter that proved to be the deciding points, as well, an impressive response after he came up short from 45 yards earlier.

Northwestern made plenty of mistakes on Saturday, but their big-play ability on special teams covered up most of them, and allowed the Wildcats to escape Champaign with a rivalry win.

1. How will Northwestern line up in the division-less Big Ten?

In a sick twist of irony, Saturday's shootout was the final game of the Big Ten West. A division known for punting and going under the over/under line went out in a fast-paced, up-and-down shootout. Fittingly, neither team looked comfortable playing in such a high-scoring game, making enough mistakes to drive both fanbases crazy.

Now, Northwestern heads into a new future: one with new opponents and no divisions. Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington will join the Big Ten next year and divisions will be a thing of the past.

It's no secret that Northwestern benefitted from being in the Big Ten West. Not having to play Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State every year was nothing to complain about. Northwestern made two appearances in the Big Ten Championship game largely because of it, falling to the Buckeyes in hard-fought games both times. This year, if there had been no divisions, Northwestern would have finished in fifth place in the Big Ten.

Braun will lead Northwestern into a new era and a stadium, but based on his first season at the helm, the Wildcats showed they can fit right in. Washington and Oregon are elite programs still in the hunt for a playoff bid, but Northwestern, UCLA and USC all finished with 7-5 records this season.

2. Which coaches will be back in 2024?

The coaching carousel is in full-spin once more in college football. Northwestern got an early start by promoting Braun with two games remaining in the regular season, but they won't be done there.

One thing that we know is that Northwestern will need a new defensive coordinator. Braun said he is relinquishing his role as defensive play-caller to focus solely on being the man in charge of the whole operation. Linebackers coach Tim McGarigle is a candidate to be promoted, and defensive assistant DJ Vokolek also may get consideration. Braun could also look outside the program and hire someone he's very familiar with, like his former boss at North Dakota State, Matt Entz.

On the other side of the ball, Braun will in all likelihood look for a new offensive coordinator after four mostly disappointing years under Bajakian. Braun could also decide to replace offensive line coach Kurt Anderson and tight ends coach Jeff Genyk, both holdovers from the Pat Fitzgerald era. First-year coaches Armon Binns (wide receivers) and Chris Foster (running backs) could stick around, but no one is sure at this time.

Northwestern will play Kansas in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl.

Now all that's left for Northwestern this week is to rest up and find out the specifics of their bowl destination.

When looking at the group of Big Ten teams going bowling, it starts at the top with the likely playoff-bound Michigan Wolverines. Ohio State and Penn State will almost assuredly find themselves in New Year's Six bowls, as well. Iowa is next on the list and seems destined to head to the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl to take on an SEC opponent.

Now, it gets down to bowl games where Northwestern will be considered as an option. The former Outback Bowl, now the ReliaQuest Bowl, could take the next Big Ten team after the Hawkeyes, but it seems like they'll pick Notre Dame and set up a Brian Kelly Bowl by pitting the Irish against LSU.

That leaves the Music City, Las Vegas, Pinstripe and Guaranteed Rate bowls to choose from among the Wildcats, Maryland, Wisconsin and Rutgers. Despite Northwestern beating both the Badgers and Terrapins in 2023, both of those teams could be picked ahead of the Wildcats because of perceptions about the size of the teams' fanbases. The Cats also appeared in both the Music City and Pinstripe bowls in the last seven years.

Las Vegas and Guaranteed Rate are the most likely outcomes. We think that a trip to Phoenix for the Guaranteed Rate Bowl may be the ultimate destination for the Cats, who will get to escape to somewhere warm and take on 8-4 Kansas, a resurgent program that has enjoyed its best season since 2007.