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EVANSTON – In what was a rare down year in the Pat Fitzgerald era of Northwestern football, there was one glaring problem with the Wildcats.

It hadn’t been an issue for a while, since Clayton Thorson held down the position from 2015-2018, leading the school to a Big Ten West title in his final season.

But the quarterback’s inconsistency led to a terrible offensive year, one in which Northwestern was fifth from the bottom in the FBS in points a game with 16.3. It led to a 3-9 record and the worst campaign for the program since Fitzgerald took over in 2006.

This year the offense gets a remake with new offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian and signal caller in Peyton Ramsey. The graduate transfer won the offseason competition with a collection of quarterbacks who played in 2019 and will lead the team onto the field against Maryland in the Wildcats’ opener Saturday night at 6:30 PM.

“I’ve known for a little bit but not too long,” said Ramsey of when he found out he had the starting job. “Like I said, those guys pushed and have made the team better as well. There’s a lot of older guys in that room that have proven themselves who have a lot of trust in their teammates and their teammates have trust in them.

“It went a while and credit to those guys. Awesome, awesome quarterback room.”

Ramsey will lead it as Northwestern starts their nine-game season on Saturday night, and experience will aid him in 2020. The quarterback comes to Evanston with 31 games under his belt at Indiana, where he threw for 6,581 yards with 42 touchdowns compared to 23 interceptions.

Many of those contests were against conference foes, making him an ideal candidate to try and get the Northwestern offense restarted over the next two months.

“It’s a great fit. I have experience playing in the Big Ten. Playing against a lot of these defenses.,” said Ramsey. “Playing in Big Ten weather, just kinda the whole gamut. I’ve played a lot of football, really experienced, coming into a great experienced team, I think that helps a lot too, and a new offensive coordinator; the two of us have clicked.

“It’s been an awesome fit. I’m looking forward to it. Super excited, as are the rest of the guys.”

NIU: A LITTLE LONGER WAIT

Not every FBS team in the State of Illinois is playing yet.

Head coach Thomas Hammock and Northern Illinois still have about a week-and-a-half before the take the field for their Mid-American Conference opener against Buffalo in DeKalb on Wednesday, November 4th.

It will be the first of a six-game schedule for the Huskies, who like Northwestern, is looking to improve after a disappointing 5-7 record in 2019. The wait to play is a little longer for the Huskies, since it was the MAC that first postponed football earlier in August.

“I enjoy practice. I enjoy going out there and watching those guys compete,” said Hammock of the team in preseason workouts. “They completed extremely hard over the last couple of weeks. We’ve got another ten days or so to go to put the final finishing touches on it.

“I expect us to be a well-tuned football team come November 4th.”