2016 Northwestern Wildcats football team

2016 Northwestern Wildcats football
Pinstripe Bowl champion
Pinstripe Bowl, W 31–24 vs. Pittsburgh
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Division	West Division
Record	7–6 (5–4 Big Ten)
Head coach	Pat Fitzgerald (11th season)
Offensive coordinator	Mick McCall (9th season)
Offensive scheme	Spread
Defensive coordinator	Mike Hankwitz (9th season)
Base defense	Multiple 4–3
Captain	Austin Carr Matthew Harris Connor Mahoney Anthony Walker
Home stadium	Ryan Field
Seasons ←  2015 2017  →

2016 Big Ten Conference football standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
East Division
No. 7 Penn State xy$		8	–	1					11	–	3
No. 6 Ohio State x^		8	–	1					11	–	2
No. 10 Michigan		7	–	2					10	–	3
Indiana		4	–	5					6	–	7
Maryland		3	–	6					6	–	7
Michigan State		1	–	8					3	–	9
Rutgers		0	–	9					2	–	10
West Division
No. 9 Wisconsin xy		7	–	2					11	–	3
Iowa		6	–	3					8	–	5
Nebraska		6	–	3					9	–	4
Minnesota		5	–	4					9	–	4
Northwestern		5	–	4					7	–	6
Illinois		2	–	7					3	–	9
Purdue		1	–	8					3	–	9
Championship: Penn State 38, Wisconsin 31
^ – College Football Playoff participant $ – Conference champion x – Division champion/co-champions y – Championship game participant Rankings from AP Poll

The 2016 Northwestern Wildcats football team represented Northwestern University during the 2016 NCAA Division I FBS football season. They were led by Pat Fitzgerald who is in his 11th season as the team's head coach. The Wildcats home games were played at Ryan Field in Evanston, Illinois. They were members of the West Division of the Big Ten Conference.

Schedule

Northwestern announced its 2016 football schedule on July 11, 2013. The 2016 schedule consists of 7 home and 5 away games in the regular season. The Wildcats will host Big Ten foes Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, and Wisconsin, and will travel to Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, and Purdue. ^[1]

The team will host all three non–conference games which are against the Duke Blue Devils from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Illinois State Redbirds from the Missouri Valley Conference, and the Western Michigan Broncos from the Mid-American Conference (MAC).

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 3	11:00 a.m.	Western Michigan *	Ryan Field Evanston, IL	ESPNU	L 21–22	30,635
September 10	2:30 p.m.	No. 10 (FCS) Illinois State *	Ryan Field Evanston, IL	BTN	L 7–9	30,748
September 17	7:00 p.m.	Duke *	Ryan Field Evanston, IL	BTN	W 24–13	34,464
September 24	6:30 p.m.	No. 20 Nebraska	Ryan Field Evanston, IL	BTN	L 13–24	40,284
October 1	11:00 a.m.	at Iowa	Kinnick Stadium Iowa City, IA	ESPNU	W 38–31	67,047
October 15	2:30 p.m.	at Michigan State	Spartan Stadium East Lansing, MI	BTN	W 54–40	75,625
October 22	11:00 a.m.	Indiana	Ryan Field Evanston, IL	BTN	W 24–14	35,417
October 29	2:30 p.m.	at No. 6 Ohio State	Ohio Stadium Columbus, OH	ESPN	L 20–24	107,296
November 5	11:00 a.m.	No. 8 Wisconsin	Ryan Field Evanston, IL	ABC	L 7–21	42,016
November 12	11:00 a.m.	at Purdue	Ross–Ade Stadium West Lafayette, IN	BTN	W 45–17	30,548
November 19	2:30 p.m.	at Minnesota	TCF Bank Stadium Minneapolis, MN	BTN	L 12–29	38,162
November 26	11:00 a.m.	Illinois	Ryan Field Evanston, IL (rivalry)	BTN	W 42–21	30,022
December 28	1:00 p.m.	vs. No. 23 Pittsburgh *	Yankee Stadium Bronx, NY (Pinstripe Bowl)	ESPN	W 31–24	37,918
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to game All times are in Central time

Schedule Source: ^[2]

Game summaries

Western Michigan

	1	2	3	4	Total
Broncos	0	6	10	6	22
Wildcats	7	0	7	7	21

See also: 2016 Western Michigan Broncos football team

Illinois State

	1	2	3	4	Total
#10 (FCS) Redbirds	0	6	0	3	9
Wildcats	0	0	0	7	7

See also: 2016 Illinois State Redbirds football team

Duke

	1	2	3	4	Total
Blue Devils	0	7	0	6	13
Wildcats	7	0	10	7	24

See also: 2016 Duke Blue Devils football team

Nebraska

	1	2	3	4	Total
#20 Cornhuskers	0	10	14	0	24
Wildcats	0	7	6	0	13

See also: 2016 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team

At Iowa

	1	2	3	4	Total
Wildcats	10	7	14	7	38
Hawkeyes	7	14	3	7	31

See also: 2016 Iowa Hawkeyes football team

At Michigan State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Wildcats	7	12	21	14	54
Spartans	14	3	14	9	40

See also: 2016 Michigan State Spartans football team

Indiana

	1	2	3	4	Total
Hoosiers	3	0	9	2	14
Wildcats	14	10	0	0	24

See also: 2016 Indiana Hoosiers football team

At Ohio State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Wildcats	0	10	7	3	20
#6 Buckeyes	10	7	0	7	24

See also: 2016 Ohio State Buckeyes football team

Wisconsin

	1	2	3	4	Total
#8 Badgers	0	10	3	8	21
Wildcats	0	7	0	0	7

See also: 2016 Wisconsin Badgers football team

At Purdue

	1	2	3	4	Total
Wildcats	7	7	21	10	45
Boilermakers	10	0	7	0	17

See also: 2016 Purdue Boilermakers football team

At Minnesota

	1	2	3	4	Total
Wildcats	0	0	6	6	12
Golden Gophers	6	6	3	14	29

See also: 2016 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team

Illinois

	1	2	3	4	Total
Fighting Illini	0	14	7	0	21
Wildcats	14	7	14	7	42

See also: 2016 Illinois Fighting Illini football team and Illinois–Northwestern football rivalry

Pittsburgh–Pinstripe Bowl

	1	2	3	4	Total
#22 Panthers	3	7	7	7	24
Wildcats	0	14	7	10	31

See also: 2016 Pittsburgh Panthers football team and 2016 Pinstripe Bowl

Roster

2016 Northwestern Wildcats football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class WR 2 Flynn Nagel So RB 4 Solomon Vault Jr WR 5 Charles Fessler  Fr WR 6 Jelani Roberts So QB 7 Matt Alviti  Jr SB 9 Garrett Dickerson Jr QB 10 T. J. Green  Fr QB 11 Aidan Smith Fr RB 12 Auston Anderson  So RB 13 Warren Long Sr QB 14 Lloyd Yates  Fr WR 15 Macan Wilson  Jr WR 16 Quinn Baker  Jr QB 17 Daniel Kubiuk  So QB 18 Clayton Thorson  So SB 19 Jayme Taylor  So RB 20 John Moten IV  Fr RB 21 Justin Jackson Jr WR 23 Steven Reese  Fr RB 25 Corey Acker  Jr JR 26 Chad Hanaoka So RB 28 Jeremy Larkin Fr RB 36 Jesse Brown Fr SB 44 James Prather  So SB 46 Eric Lutzen  So SB 48 Cody Link Fr OL 57 Cam Kolwich Fr OL 59 J. B. Butler  So OL 60 Jason Goosen Fr OL 63 Ian Park  Sr OL 64 Andrew Otterman  Fr OL 65 Jared Thomas  Fr OL 66 Nik Urban Fr OL 68 Connor Mahoney (C)  Sr OL 69 Brad North  Jr OL 70 Shane Mertz  Sr OL 71 Tommy Doles  So OL 72 Blake Hance  So OL 73 Gunnar Vogel Fr OL 74 Graham Bullmore  Jr OL 75 Ben Oxley  So OL 76 Eric Olson  Sr OL 77 Jesse Meyler Fr OL 78 Adam Lemke-Bell  Fr OL 79 Sam Coverdale  Jr WR 80 Austin Carr  (C)  Sr WR 81 Ramaud Chiaokhiao-Bowman Fr WR 82 Andrew Scanlan  Sr SB 83 Heath Reineke  So WR 84 Cameron Green  Fr WR 85 Jack Tirmonia Fr WR 86 Riley Lees Fr SB 87 Eric Eshoo Fr WR 88 Ben Skowronek Fr WR 89 Cole Johnson  Jr	Defense Pos. # Name Class LB 1 Anthony Walker  (C)  Jr CB 3 Keith Watkins II  Jr DL 7 Ifeadi Odenigbo  Sr LB 10 Brett Walsh  So CB 11 Matthew Harris (C)  Sr DB 14 Jake Murray  Fr S 16 Godwin Igwebuike  Jr CB 17 Marcus McShepard  Jr S 21 Kyle Queiro  Jr DB 22 Parrker Westphal  So CB 24 Montre Hartage So DB 26 Brian Bullock Fr DB 27 Roderick Campbell Fr DB 28 Alonzo Mayo  Fr DB 29 Trae Williams  Fr LB 31 Tommy Vitale So LB 32 Nate Hall  So LB 34 Simba Short  Fr LB 35 Tom Hruby Sr LB 40 Paddy Fisher Fr S 41 Jared McGee  So LB 42 Joseph Jones  Sr LB 45 Nathan Fox  Fr DB 47 Joe Bergin  Fr S 48 Tommy Odell  Jr LB 49 Josh Roberts  Jr LB 50 Jango Glackin Fr LB 51 Jaylen Prater  Sr LB 53 Cameron Queiro  So DL 54 Trent Goens  Fr DE 55 Mark Gooden Fr DE 56 Xavier Washington Jr DL 67 Tyler Lancaster  Jr DL 90 C. J. Robbins  Sr DL 92 Fred Wyatt  So DL 93 Greg Kuhar  Sr DE 94 Tommy Carnifax Fr DL 95 Alex Miller Fr DL 97 Joe Gaziano  Fr DT 98 Jake Saunders Fr DL 99 Jordan Thompson So	Special teams Pos. # Name Class K 8 Jack Mitchell  Sr K, P 33 Matt Micucci  Sr K, P 38 Drew Luckenbaugh Fr K 38 Mason Weissenhofer  Fr LS 43 Tyler Gillikin Fr LS 52 Chaz Fitzpatrick  Sr LS 58 Trevor Stroebel  Sr P 96 Hunter Niswander Jr	Head coach Pat Fitzgerald Coordinators/assistant coaches Randy Bates (linebackers) Jerry Brown (assistant head coach / defensive backs) Adam Cushing (offensive line) Mike Hankwitz (defensive coordinator) Bob Heffner (superbacks) Marty Long (defensive line) Matt MacPherson (running backs / recruiting coordinator) Mick McCall (offensive coordinator / quarterbacks) Dennis Springer (wide receivers) Chris Bowers (director of player personnel) Cody Cejda (director of football operations) Darby Dunnagan (director of video operations) David Girardi (defensive graduate assistant) Jay Hooten (director of sports performance for football) Jacob Schmidt (director of player development) Mike Jasinski (recruiting assistant) Bryan Payton (recruiting assistant) Christian Sarkisian (recruiting assistant) Mike Kafka (offensive graduate assistant) Steve Pursley (defensive graduate assistant) Tim Brandon (offensive graduate assistant) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt Roster Last update: November 7, 2016

Awards and honors

Weekly Awards

Player	Award	Date Awarded	Ref.
Ifeadi Odenigbo	Co-Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week	October 3, 2016	[3]
Justin Jackson	Big Ten Co-Offensive Player of the Week	October 17, 2016	[4]
Solomon Vault	Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week	October 17, 2016	[4]
John Moten IV	Co-Big Ten Freshman of the Week	November 12, 2016	[5]
John Moten IV	Big Ten Freshman of the Week	November 29, 2016	[6]
Austin Carr	Richter-Howard Receiver of the Year	November 30, 2016	[7]

References

1. "B1G RELEASES NINE-GAME CONFERENCE SCHEDULES FOR 2016, 2017" (Press release). Northwestern University Department of Athletics. July 11, 2013. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
2. "2016 Northwestern Wildcats Football Schedule". FB Schedules. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
3. "Big Ten Football Players of the Week". Big Ten Conference . Big Ten Conference. October 3, 2016. Archived from the original on October 5, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
4. "Big Ten Football Players of the Week". Big Ten Conference . Big Ten Conference. October 17, 2016. Archived from the original on November 17, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
5. "Big Ten Football Players of the Week". Big Ten Conference . Big Ten Conference. November 14, 2016. Archived from the original on November 14, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
6. "Big Ten Football Players of the Week". Big Ten Conference . Big Ten Conference. November 29, 2016. Archived from the original on November 30, 2016. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
7. Pereles, Zach (November 30, 2016). "Austin Carr wins Richter-Howard Receiver of the Year award". Inside NU. Retrieved December 16, 2016.