The 2012 Northwestern Wildcats football team represented Northwestern University during the 2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season. Pat Fitzgerald, in his seventh season at Northwestern, was the team's head coach. The Wildcats home games were played at Ryan Field in Evanston, Illinois. They were members of the Legends Division of the Big Ten Conference. The Wildcats won their first bowl game since the 1949 Rose Bowl against California by defeating Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl 34–20. They finished the season 10–3 (5–3 Big Ten).
Preseason
Recruiting Northwestern signed 21 recruits to letters-of-intent on National Signing Day on February 1, 2012.
Transfers Wide receiver Kyle Prater transferred to Northwestern from USC on January 28, 2012, after being injured during most of the 2011 season and redshirting in 2010. The Wildcats requested a waiver to allow Prater to play immediately in 2012, as he transferred to a school close to home in order to care for a family member. Sophomore running back Adonis Smith, who was thought to be a candidate for the starting running back job in 2012 after rushing for 266 yards in 2011, announced his intent to transfer from Northwestern on February 22. He decided to transfer to UNLV. Defensive back Quinn Evans transferred to Northwestern after graduating from Stanford in June 2012. After missing the entire 2011 season because of injury, he chose to attend Northwestern as a graduate student with a year of college football eligibility remaining.
Schedule The schedule is as follows:
Rankings
Game summaries
Syracuse
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The game got off to a slow start with some notable miscues on Northwestern's special teams play. All of which was quickly forgotten when Venric Mark scored an 82-yard touchdown on a punt return, the first return touchdown of his career. Northwestern continued to dominate offensively on the work of Mark and Kain Colter, taking a 35–13 lead in the middle of the 3rd quarter. The Orange then scored 4 straight touchdowns to lead 41–35 by attacking the young Northwestern secondary with deep passes to the outside. With under 3 minutes left and needing a score to win, Northwestern changed quarterbacks. Trevor Siemian came on to lead a 75-yard drive that scored the go-ahead touchdown. Northwestern survived to win and remain 7–0 in season openers under Pat Fitzgerald.
Vanderbilt
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Boston College
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South Dakota
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Indiana
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Penn State
Roster 2012 Northwestern Wildcats rosterQuarterbacks 2 Kain Colter (C) – Junior 10 Zack Oliver – Freshman 13 Trevor Siemian – Sophomore 15 P. J. Carollo – Freshman 18 Christian Salem – Freshman
Running backs 3 Tyris Jones – Senior 5 Venric Mark – Junior 20 Malin Jones – Freshman 21 Jordan Perkins – Freshman 22 Treyvon Green – Sophomore 25 Jordan Perkins – Freshman 27 Mike Panico – Freshman 28 Tim Hanrahan – Sophomore 29 Stephen Buckley – Freshman 32 Mike Trumpy – Junior 34 Michael Odom – Freshman
Wide receivers 6 Tony Jones – Sophomore 8 Demetrius Fields – Senior 8 Jack Mitchell – Freshman 11 Pierre Youngblood-Ary – Freshman 12 Cermak Bland – Freshman 14 Christian Jones – Sophomore 17 Rashad Lawrence – Junior 19 Cameron Dickerson – Freshman 21 Kyle Prater – Sophomore 80 Mike Jensen – Junior 82 Andrew Scanlan – Freshman 83 Mike McHugh – Freshman 84 Drew Moulton – Junior 89 Austin Carr – Freshman
Superbacks 40 Dan Vitale – Freshman 41 Doug Diedrick – Freshman 43 Tim Riley – Junior 81 Evan Watkins – Junior 85 Mark Szott – Freshman 86 Jack Schwaba – Freshman 87 Brian Smith – Junior Offensive line 53 Geoff Mogus – Freshman 57 Matt Frazier – Freshman 61 Alex Pietrzak – Freshman 62 Taylor Paxton – Junior 63 Ian Park – Freshman 65 Hayden Baker – Sophomore 66 Brandon Vitabile – Sophomore 70 Patrick Ward – Senior 71 Shane Mertz – Freshman 72 Brian Mulroe (C) – Senior 73 Adam DePietro – Freshman 74 Chuck Porcelli – Senior 75 Jack Konopka – Sophomore 76 Eric Olson – Freshman 77 Kenton Playko – Freshman 79 Neal Deiters – Senior 81 Paul Jorgensen – Sophomore
Defensive line 1 Bo Cisek – Senior 67 Sean McEvilly – Sophomore 68 Connor Mahoney – Freshman 88 Quentin Williams – Senior 89 Max Chapman – Freshman 90 C. J. Robbins – Freshman 91 Brian Arnfelt (C) – Senior 92 Will Hampton – Junior 93 Greg Kuhar – Freshman 94 Dean Lowry – Freshman 95 Davon Custis – Junior 96 Anthony Battle – Junior 97 Tyler Scott – Junior 98 Deonte Gibson – Freshman 99 Chance Carter – Sophomore Linebackers 18 Ifeadi Odenigbo – Freshman 33 David Nwabuisi (C) – Senior 35 Eric Wilson – Freshman 44 Chi Chi Ariguzo – Sophomore 45 Collin Ellis – Sophomore 46 Damien Proby – Junior 48 Roderick Goodlow – Senior 50 Timmy Vernon – Junior 51 Jaylen Prater – Freshman 54 Eric Hauser – Freshman 55 Drew Smith – Freshman 56 Will Studlien – Junior
Defensive backs 3 Sean Oliver – Freshman 4 Jarrell Williams – Freshman 9 Jimmy Hall – Sophomore 15 Daniel Jones – Sophomore 16 Davion Fleming – Junior 23 Nick VanHoose – Freshman 24 Ibraheim Campbell – Sophomore 36 Mike Eshun – Sophomore 39 Joe Cannon – Sophomore 47 Troy Sheppard – Freshman
Cornerbacks 2 Dwight White – Freshman 13 C.J. Bryant – Sophomore 22 Demetrius Dugar – Senior 31 Quinn Evans – Senior
Safeties 7 Hunter Bates – Senior 10 Traveon Henry – Freshman 26 Terrance Brown – Freshman 27 Jared Carpenter – Senior 42 Joseph Jones – Freshman Punters 31 Chris Gradone – Freshman 39 Zak Kucera – Freshman 49 Brandon Williams – Junior
Punters/kickers 33 Matt Micucci – Freshman
Kickers 34 Steve Flaherty – Senior 37 Jeff Budzien – Junior 38 Arthur Omilian – Freshman
Long snappers 52 Chris Fitzpatrick – Freshman 59 Pat Hickey – Junior
Head coach Pat Fitzgerald Coordinators/Assistant coaches Randy Bates – Linebackers coach Jerry brown – Assistant head coach/defensive backs coach Adam Cushing – Offensive line coach Mike Hankwitz – Defensive coordinator Bob heffner – Superbacks coach Marty long – Defensive line coach Matt macpherson – Running backs coach/recruiting coordinator Mick mccall – Offensive coordinator/QBs coach Dennis springer – Wide receivers coach
Legend (C) Team captain Redshirt
References
External links