Northwestern Wildcats Climb to No. 25 in USA Today Coaches' Poll

Saturday the Northwestern Wildcats narrowly defeated the Minnesota Golden Gophers 29-28 on a late field goal from Stefan Demos.

Despite two weeks of undisciplined play, the victory moved Northwestern to 5-0 and into the USA Today Coaches' Top 25 rankings at No. 25.

Last week against Central Michigan the Wildcats committed 11 penalties, and coach Pat Fitzgerald promised to kill the penalties. Saturday, much to the dismay of the coach, they committed 10 penalties totaling 79 yards.

Teddy Greenstein with the Chicago Tribune reported Fitzgerald blamed mistakes (penalties) for Minnesota taking a late 28-20 lead. Fitzgerald called them "self-inflicted wounds."

The defense, led by Brian Peters with 12 tackles, struggled to stop Minnesota. They missed plenty of tackles, giving up 367 yards of total offense. The Gophers averaged 4.5 yards per carry and gained 165 yards on the ground. They were led by tailback DeLeon Eskridge, who ran for 121 yards on 22 carries.

Northwestern quarterback Dan Persa continues rolling along with Heisman-like numbers. He completed 23 of his 30 passes for 309 yards and two touchdowns while running for 106 yards. One of Persa's touchdown throws was to freshman Tony Jones. It was the first collegiate play for Jones and went for 45 yards.

The running game continues to struggle. In fact, it has struggled so much that Fitzgerald inserted freshman tailback Adonis Smith midway through the first quarter.

When asked about this decision, Fitzgerald responded: "We're playing to win, buddy. Period. End of discussion.

"We made a decision based on the production in our backfield that we're going to use every weapon we have. After going through one game, (Smith) will be much better next week. We'll get him more involved in a lot of other things," Fitzgerald said.

This Saturday the 5-0 Wildcats will host the 2-2 Purdue Boilermakers at Ryan Field. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m.

GO CATS