Your 2023 Northwestern football team has won seven games! The same Cats that everyone picked to go 2-10 this season, coming off a 1-11 disaster last year, finished 5-4 in the league and second in the Big Ten West division. Yes, the BTW could very well be the weakest and weirdest division in the history of power five conference football, but hey finishing second in your division is still nothing to sneeze at.
My WGN News Now Segment Previewing Northwestern (see below)
Hey, congrats to David Braun for getting the interim tag removed (more on that here), as it was very well deserved. Braun is a coach of the year nominee.
2023 Northwestern Football Bowl Game Projections
(Schlabach) Guaranteed Rate Bowl vs. Kansas, Chase Field (Phoenix), Tues. Dec, 26, 9 p.m., ESPN and the ESPN App
Guaranteed Rate Bowl vs. Kansas
Guaranteed Rate Bowl vs. Kansas
(Bonagura) Music City Bowl, Nissan Stadium (Nashville), Sat. Dec 30, 2 p.m., ABC and the ESPN App
Pinstripe Bowl, vs Georgia Tech, Yankee Stadium (New York) 2:15 p.m., ESPN and the ESPN App
College Football Network: Las Vegas Bowl vs Utah
Sporting News: Las Vegas Bowl vs Utah
When you think about it, having won seven games is already pretty much a miracle achieved by David Braun, all things considered. He absolutely deserved to win Big Ten Coach of the Year, no doubt about it.
Winning even three games this year was considered very optimistic, back in the summer, given all the context of everything.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now, while writing for the International Baseball Writers Association of America. You can follow the website on Twitter.