VOTE: Who was the best Northwestern head coach over the last 25 years?

It's been 25 years since Northwestern's magical run to the Rose Bowl in 1995. WildcatReport is celebrating that Silver Anniversary by finding out who's been the best player at each position since that legendary team revitalized Wildcat football.

BEST IN 25 YEARS SERIES

OFFENSE: QB Dan Persa l RB Justin Jackson l WR D'Wayne Bates l TE Drake Dunsmore l T Zach Strief l G Ryan Padgett l C Rob Johnson

DEFENSE: DE Corey Wootton l DT Matt Rice l MLB Pat Fitzgerald l OLB Napoleon Harris l CB Sherrick McManis l S Ibraheim Campbell

SPECIAL TEAMS: PR Venric Mark l KR Solomon Vault l K Jeff Budzien l P Paul Burton

We took a break from the Best in 25 Years Series once the season started in late October. But now that the season is over, we can again turn out attention to rewarding the best Wildcats over the last quarter century.

We have all the spots filled but one -- and this one may be the most difficult pick of all: head coach.

Northwestern has only had three coaches over the last 25 years, and they were each unique in their own way and left their mark on the Wildcat program.

Take a stroll down memory lane and read about the careers of Gary Barnett, Randy Walker and Pat Fitzgerald below. Then vote for the coach you think was the best over the last 25 years on the WildcatReport Football Board. You'll find the link at the end of this story.

Reason he deserves it: Barnett engineered one of the greatest turnarounds in college football history, taking the Purple to Pasadena in 1995 for the first of two straight Big Ten titles.

The skinny: It's difficult to overestimate just how bad Northwestern's program was when Barnett arrived in Evanston in 1992. Most people laughed him off when he famously told a crowd at Welsh-Ryan Arena after he was hired that he was going to "take the Purple to Pasadena."

But that's exactly what he did three years later.

Barnett went 8-24-1 in his first three years before mounting the greatest season in Northwestern history with a 1995 team that captured the nation's imagination as one of the all-time Cinderella stories. With the No. 1 scoring defense in the nation led by All-American middle linebacker Pat Fitzgerald and an offense spurred by Heisman finalist Darnell Autry, the upstart Wildcats knocked off four-touchdown favorite Notre Dame in the opener and then went 10-1 and 8-0 in the Big Ten. They earned a berth in the Rose Bowl for just the second time in school history, and reached No. 3 in the AP rankings.

How long had it been since Northwestern was relevant? The 1995 Cats claimed the program's first conference championship in 59 years, first bowl berth in 46 years and first winning season in 24 years. Barnett, of course, won every major coaching award in the nation.

Barnett followed up that magical run with a 9-3 mark in 1996, a share of a second straight Big Ten title and a Citrus Bowl invitation. The Wildcats went a preposterous 15-1 in Big Ten play over those back-to-back title seasons, though they dropped both bowl games.

Barnett’s tenure did experience some controversy. In 1994, a points-shaving scandal tainted the program and erased leading rusher Dennis Lundy from the record books. And while Barnett brought the Wildcats to heights not seen since the 1930s, he could not sustain it and his NU career did not end well. After flirting with several schools, he left for his dream job at Colorado after an ugly 3-9 (0-8 Big Ten) campaign in 1998.

Still, Barnett was responsible for arguably the greatest turnaround job in college football history and started the Renaissance of Northwestern football. He captured two of the eight Big Ten titles in program history and is one of just two Wildcat coaches to win more than one conference crown.

Reason he deserves it: Walker won a Big Ten title, is the only one of the three to beat Ohio State and established the spread offense that became the programs identity.

The skinny: After experiencing Barnett’s annual dalliances with other schools, Walker, who was an assistant at Northwestern in the 1980s, was a breath of fresh air. He wanted the Northwestern job.

He went 3-8 in his first year before unleashing his new spread offense on the Big Ten in 2000. Riding a high-scoring attack led by quarterback Zak Kustok and 2,000-yard rusher Damien Anderson, the Wildcats went 8-4 (6-2) to take a quarter share of the conference championship and an Alamo Bowl berth.

The following year brought tragedy when safety Rashidi Wheeler died during preseason conditioning drills. Wheeler's family sued Northwestern for wrongful death and the program won just seven games over the 2001-02 seasons.

Walker would post just one more winning season at Northwestern, a 7-5 mark in 2005, his final season. He made three bowl games in all -- the 2000 Alamo, the 2003 Motor City and 2005 Sun -- but he wasn’t able to win any of them.

Walker had two monumental wins that people still talk about. The first was a 54-51 over Michigan in 2000 that changed the landscape of college football and was largely responsible for the proliferation of the spread offense throughout the country. The second one was a 37-34 overtime victory over Ohio State in 2004 that is still the Wildcats only win over the Buckeyes in 34 tries since 1971.

Walker's teams could score with anyone and were known for their ability to rally from deficits. But his defenses were almost always the weak link.

Walker’s career came to a tragic and sudden end when he died of a heart attack on June 30, 2006, at age 52.

Reason he deserves it: A former star player, Fitzgerald is the school's all-time wins leader. In many ways, Fitz is Northwestern football.

The skinny: Fitzgerald was just 31 years old when he was thrust into the head coaching role after Walker's death in 2006. He went 4-8 that first year but has since brought the program to unprecedented levels of consistent success while setting just about every major wins record in the book. About the only thing he doesn't have is a Big Ten championship.

Fitzgerald has coached three of the five 10-win teams in the school's history (he played on one of the two others, too). The program had appeared in just six bowl games when Fitzgerald took the job but he has taken them to 10 since, and he owns five of the six bowl victories in school history. While he hasn't won the Big Ten crown, he captured two West division titles over the last three years.

Fitzgerald's first 10-win team in 2012 featured running back Venric Mark and the two-headed quarterback monster of Kain Colter (the runner) and Trevor Siemian (the passer). His other two, in 2015 and 2017, featured dominant defenses, as well as the school's all-time leading rusher (Justin Jackson) and passer (Clayton Thorson).

Fitzgerald won his first West title in 2018, when his team rallied from a 1-3 start to win seven straight Big Ten games, and he took home the conference coach of the year award. In 2020, in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic, he led the Wildcats to a 7-2 mark to win the trophy again. Each time, they lost to Ohio State in the championship game but followed it up with a bowl win.

There have been some clunkers in there, too. Coming off of his first 10-win season, the Cats posted back-to-back losing seasons in 2013-14, and sandwiched in between the two West titles was a 3-9 face-plant in 2019. He’s also experienced some inexplicable upset losses to the likes of Akron (2018) and Illinois State (2016).

Over time, Fitzgerald transformed the identity of the program from an explosive offensive team that couldn't stop anyone to one in his own image, featuring rock-solid defenses and sometimes points-challenged offenses based on the running game.

Fitzgerald is the face of the program, an ambassador who represents the entire university to many. He has raised the bar on recruiting and was instrumental in getting Northwestern's $270-million Walter Athletic Center -- the “Fitz-Carlton” -- built.

His 106 wins in 15 years is the most in school history and more than double the number of No. 2 Pappy Waldorf, who has 49.

Go to our Football Board to cast your vote for Barnet, Walker or Fitzgerald. Hurry! The poll will close on Saturday at noon.

Ready? CLICK HERE TO VOTE