15 years ago today, Northwestern's rise out of the Dark Ages began with the stunning defeat of Notre Dame in South Bend. Coach Barnett's pre-game words of "Don't carry me off the field when we win. Act like you've done this before" kick-started arguably the greatest season in Wildcat history.
28 point underdogs on the road, coming off a 3-7-1 season. A 17-15 victory that shocked the college football world, and in some ways was a pivotal moment in the history of both programs.
In today's college football world parity abounds, and while results such as Appalachian State over Michigan and others are shocking, "unbelievable" upsets are becoming an expected part of a college football season. In 1995, a time in which one couldn't watch 25 games in a weekend, few college football teams had any significant national exposure - leading to a much larger gap between the "haves" and "have-nots" of the college landscape. Notre Dame, ranked #9 at the time, was very much one of the "haves," and in the hours and days after the final seconds ticked off the clock many commentators called the outcome the greatest upset in college football history.
Of course, today, we know that the result was not much of an upset at all - Northwestern would finish the regular season 10-2, winning the Big Ten and getting the chance to play in the Rose Bowl. Yet this takes nothing away from the impact of that day. Northwestern had lead "big" games in the past - even leading Notre Dame at halftime the season before - but this time they closed the deal. Barnett had come in and preached "belief without evidence" as a motivational tool for the 'Cats as they fought against 25 years of futility. At long last, they had their evidence.
Oh, and we have not been invited back since.
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