Northwestern Football Relies on Young Talent in Upcoming Season

The Tigers are set to kick off their season, on August 18 on the road against Ashland. 

MAPLE, Wis.- In three of the last four seasons, the Northwestern football team has completed a perfectly unblemished regular season. This year, the 17-time Heart O’North Champions will face the challenge of filling 18 of the 22 starting spots. That all began on Monday, Day One of practice.

The Tigers graduated a large senior class last season of key players and this year the team will be made up of, a mostly, young group of guys with their own set of skills to bring to the table.

Head Coach Jovin Kroll says this year’s team is built a lot on speed and they’ll look to use that to their advantage in the run game. Looking more like a vintage Northwestern football team.

“I think we’ll look more like an old school Northwestern football team than you’ve seen in many years. So, if you like Northwestern football in the mid-90s this might look like that. We’re going to be physical we’re going to be fast and we’re going to run the football,” says Kroll, “Obviously graduating a very successful Quarterback in Luke Sedin, we’ve got some new kids that need to throw and catch a football and it might take them a while to get comfortable in that role but these guys know how to run the football so that’s going to happen from day one, so it should be fun.”

Despite the unknowns at this point in the season, the brand that is Northwestern style of play, still remains.

“Just hard-nosed football. We’re a running school, we’re a hard-nosed, downhill running team and that’s what people expect us to be so, we’ve been training all summer. Kids have been putting that work in all summer so for it to finally be here is a really good feeling,” says Tigers senior Ian Smith.

The Tigers are set to kick off their season, on August 18 on the road against Ashland.