A Dream Deferred for This Northwestern Football Fan

I remember a couple of years ago watching Rutgers upset Louisville, and just being overwhelmed at the sight of all those Scarlet Knights fans charging the field after the huge victory. That's what college football is all about right there!

It's my senior year at Northwestern University, and at this point I'm pretty sure our class will never get the opportunity to storm Ryan Field after an upset win.

My freshman year, the team only won two of their home games, boring victories over lowly Eastern Michigan and Illinois.

My sophomore year, the 'Cats DID have a thrilling Double OT victory over Minnesota. But Minnesota was terrible; not really worth storming the field against them. They also had a couple of pretty exciting wins over Nevada and Indiana. But again, neither was exactly a powerhouse.

Last season, NU went 9-3 in the regular season, and had a "storm the field" type victory over Minnesota as well as against Iowa. The only problem was both of those wins came on the road.

In the last game of the regular season; a game that I did not attend because i was in Providence, Rhode Island to broadcast NU's basketball game against Brown; the fans DID come out on to the field after NU beat Illinois.

But according to my friends who were there, it wasn't a storming of the field, more of an awkward milling about. NU was supposed to win that game, and they did. It was a celebration of a great season, but not a "OH MY GOD, WE JUST UPSET THIS TEAM" type moment.

Last Saturday's game against Penn State was the last chance, and Mike Kafka's injured left leg helped prevent it from happening. Yes, Northwestern plays Wisconsin to close the year at Ryan Field, but barring the unlikely scenario where the Badgers vault into the top 15, it won't be worth storming the field if the 'Cats beat them.

Northwestern has had some particularly memorable home upset victories in recent years. In 2005, they stunned Iowa by recovering an onside kick in the final minutes and converting that into a Ross Lane game-winning touchdown. In 2004, they upset Ohio State in the highest rated college football game in ESPN 2's history. And of course in 2000 they beat Michigan 54-51 in perhaps the greatest college football game ever played.

But unfortunately those amazing wins by the Cardiac 'Cats were before my class's time. 

In the end though, none of this will matter if they beat Iowa this Saturday. I'll be at the game calling it for WNUR, and I am beyond excited. Last year's game was a thriller, but this year NU gets the chance to be the first team to knock off the surprising Hawkeyes.

That would more than make up for not getting to storm the field.