One of the most consistent teams as of late have been the Northwestern Wildcats. They've went to bowl games the last four seasons and have had at least one win over a ranked team every year during this tenure. For a program that only has been to bowl games 10 times in its history, that's pretty substantial. Pat Fitzgerald has taken a program that frankly, was a whipping post for years, evidenced by the program's .422 winning percentage, and turned them into a relatively respectable team. The Wildcats aren't exactly rewriting the record books with 6-9 win seasons over the last four years, but for the Big Ten's most prestigious academic institution, it's a big step forward.Northwestern began 2011 with high hopes, but they weren't able to capitalize on the preseason hype. In fact, before the season began, Northwestern quarterback Dan Persa had been mentioned in the Heisman discussion. However, he was injury plagued throughout the year, leading to a lot of playing time for Kain Colter. Despite Persa's 519 rushing yards in 2010 and 164 carries, he only had 79 carries and 32 rushing yards in 2011. This was the big change for Northwestern's offense in 2011, an immobile Dan Persa. Kain Colter did help make up for this with 654 rushing yards, but it was still a major setback.
