VOTE: Who was the best Northwestern wide receiver over the last 25 years?

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

BEST IN 25 YEARS SERIES: QB Dan Persa l RB Justin Jackson

The back-to-back Big Ten championship teams that started off the last quarter century at Northwestern were built on a power running game and defense. So were the last several teams under head coach Pat Fitzgerald.

But in between, the Wildcats liked to throw the ball all over the field with gunslinging quarterbacks like Brett Basanez, CJ Bacher, Mike Kafka and Dan Persa. And they threw to deep stables of receivers, as Northwestern often rotated eight guys in and out of the lineup.

When you try to pick out the biggest stars, however, there are only a few at the top of the list. To us, D’Wayne Bates, Jeremy Ebert and Austin Carr were easy selections.

After them, it gets complicated.

There is a big group of standout wideouts who put up big numbers in their careers as Wildcats. Guys like Eric Peterman, Ross Lane, Kunle Patrick, Shaun Herbert and Mark Philmore all rank in NU’s all-time Top 10 in catches and yards. Then there's one-hit wonder Zeke Markshausen, who caught one pass in his first three years before collecting 91 in 2009, the second-most ever in NU annals.

So rather than try to differentiate among all those candidates, we decided less is more. To us, these are the three guys who stand above the crowd and deserve your consideration as the best of a golden era of NU football.

Read about each of their careers below. Then, vote for your go-to receiver on the WildcatReport Football Board. You'll find the link at the end of this story.

Reason he deserves it: Where do we start? Big, fast and silky smooth, Bates owns all of the big career receiving records at Northwestern, despite playing just three seasons. He was a breakout star of the 1995 Rose Bowl team as a freshman and only got better.

The skinny: Here are the career receiving records Bates holds at NU. Ready? Take a deep breath. Catches (210), yards (3,370), touchdowns (26), receptions per game (5.7), yards per game (91.1), games with three-plus catches (34), games with five-plus catches (24), seasons with 500-plus yards (3, tie), touchdowns per game (.7), seasons with three-plus touchdowns (3, tie) and seasons with five-plus touchdowns (3, tie).

And keep in mind that Bates set all of those career marks despite playing in just one game of his junior year in 1997 after he broke his fibula in the opener. All three of Bates' full seasons rank among the top eight at Northwestern all-time in terms of yardage. His 12 TD catches in 1996 is tied for the most in NU history, and his single-season high of 1,245 yards in 1998 is just two yards short of the record.

A former high school quarterback, Bates had the speed to blow by people, the 6-foot-2-inch height to high-point the ball and the athleticism to make circus catches. He was a two-time All-Big Ten first-team selection and a third-round pick of the Chicago Bears in 1999.

How good was Bates? In 1998, in a downpour against Michigan, coach Gary Barnett installed Bates as his quarterback in the second half, figuring to cut out the middle men and put the ball directly into his best player's hands on each snap.

The numbers:

Reason he deserves it: Ebert was Mr. Dependable. When quarterbacks -- especially best-in-25-years QB Dan Persa -- needed a first down or big catch, they looked for No. 11 in the slot. Only two players in school history caught more passes for more yards than Ebert.

The skinny: Another former high school quarterback, Ebert was a largely overlooked two-star prospect from Ohio who attracted just one Power Five offer when he arrived in Evanston in 2008. He played right away as a true freshman and caught 36 passes over his first two years before becoming Northwestern's go-to guy in 2010-11, when Persa was NU's starting QB. Ebert had 127 catches for more than 2,000 yards over his final two seasons.

Three must be Ebert's lucky number because he ranks third all-time at Northwestern in catches (173), yards (2,400) and touchdowns (21), as well as single-season TDs (11).

Ebert was considered to be one of those sure-handed receivers who knew how to get open but maybe lacked breakaway, straight-line speed. But he shattered that notion at Nebraska in 2011, when he took a short slant from Kain Colter and outran the secondary to the house for an 81-yard, fourth-quarter TD to help seal the Wildcats' stunning win over the No. 10 Huskers.

The New England Patriots selected Ebert in the seventh round of the 2012 draft.

The numbers:

Reason he deserves it: 2016. A former walkon, Carr had a storybook season to cap his fairy-tale career as he led the Big Ten in catches, yards and touchdowns and took home the Richter-Howard Award as the conference's wide receiver of the year.

The skinny: Carr wasn't even a preferred walkon when he began his career at Northwestern in 2012; he called the football program to offer his services. He redshirted his first season, then had one catch in 2013, eight in 2014 and 11 in 2015.

Then came 2016, when he was suddenly an unstoppable force.

Carr was just the third player since 1990 to lead the Big Ten in receptions (90), receiving yards (1,247) and touchdowns (12) in the same season and was a unanimous first-team all-conference pick. Those numbers earned Carr school records for yardage and TDs (tied), and placed him second (tied) for catches.

Carr caught at least four passes in every game that year. He hit the 100-yard receiving mark six times and caught a scoring pass in six straight contests to set school records in both categories. On every play, it seemed, quarterback Clayton Thorson looked at Carr first, then when through the rest of his progressions. More often than not, No. 80 was open.

At 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds, Carr was built more like a running back than a wide receiver. He wasn't long and lanky, and he didn't have breakaway speed. But his routes were works of art and, for that one magic season, Carr simply caught everything thrown his way, whether he was wide open or wearing a defensive back on his jersey.

The numbers:

Go to our Football Board to cast your vote. You can vote for any of the three wideouts listed above. Or, if you think that one of the other guys we mentioned is more deserving, you can vote for "Other" and identify your write-in candidate in your reply to the message.

Hurry! The poll will close on Sunday night.

Ready? CLICK HERE TO VOTE