The 2000 Northwestern Wildcats (#5, 8-4) had a flair for the dramatic. Meanwhile, their opening round opponent, the '69 squad (#28, 3-7), started its season with losses to Notre Dame, USC and UCLA by a total score of 119-16. However, by the end of their campaign, such players as Mike Adamle, Maurie Daigneau, Eric Hutchinson and Rick Telander were emerging stars. In other words, the '00 crew could not take this win for granted. Fortunately, '00 RB Damien Anderson got the message, rushing for 184 yards on 30 carries (6.1 ypc) and scoring the winning points in the second OT period.
The '00 Wildcats scored first on a 50-yard FG by Tim Long and then took a 10-0 lead early in the 2nd quarter on a 2-yard TD run by Anderson. They were looking for more points at the '69 team's 37 yard line, but '69 LB Ray Forsthoffer intercepted '00 QB Zak Kustok (10 for 27 but only 95 yards passing) and took the ball in the other direction for 64 yards. Moments later, Adamle (14 rushes for 62 yards) plowed into the end zone and '69 was on the board. On '69's next series, Daigneau (14 for 26, 175 yards) took his group 79 yards on 13 plays and RB Mike Hudson (14 carries for 78 yards) scored from 3 yards out to give '69 a 14-10 halftime lead. The '00ers retook the lead in the 3rd quarter on a 7-yard TD pass from Kustok to WR Sam Simmons, but the '69 gang wouldn't quit and Bill Planisek made a 33-yard FG to tie the game. Kustok and company responded with a long drive capped by a short FG by Long. After '69 punted, '00 drove again, but this time Long missed from 40.
Taking over on its own 23, '69 had just 2:03 left on the clock to tie or win the game. All '00 needed was a stop to seal it. Daigneau hit Al Robinson for 15 yards, Adamle for another 15 and Bruce Hubbard for 16. But after an inspired draw to Hudson gained 8, '00 DL Dwayne Missouri sacked Daigneau back on the '00 30 yard line. Daigneau tried to get a few more yards for Planisek, but he missed on a pass to SE Jerry Brown. Undaunted, Planisek nailed a 47-yard FG to send the game into OT, 20-20.
In the 1st OT, the '00ers scored on a QB sneak by Kustok and Long added the PAT. The '69ers had some trouble and faced a 4th and 2 at the '00 6 yard line. Coach Alex Agase called an unexpected run and Hudson scored easily to force a 2nd OT (Planisek made the PAT).
In the 2nd OT, the '69ers could not hit paydirt after three plays inside the '00 10 yard line. Planisek kicked a 19-yard FG. The '00ers saw an opening and literally ran right through it. Kustok made 2, and Anderson gained 8. Then, a personal foul on '69 set up a 1st and Goal for '00. Anderson failed to gain, but on 2nd down, he slipped through the '69 line for a 7-yard TD run and victory. Final score 33-30 (2OT) in favor of the 2000 team.
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The Bracket
The '00s move on to the Sweet 16 as the second entrant. Stay tuned for more action...
About the NU Tournament of Generations
The top 32 teams from the last 50 years of Northwestern football were ranked by their Howell Power Ratings to obtain seeds for a single-elimination tournament bracket. Actual team and individual player statistics from each of the 32 teams were entered into Second And Ten (SAT) College Football, a text-based PC program. The SAT software allows the user to rate any teams for which the stats are known. Although SAT can be played against the PC's artificial intelligence (AI) or online against a human opponent, the program was set to auto-simulate the games. The software can play a game hundreds of times, but each game in this tournament was simulated only once to provide the chance for an upset. (If you run the program 500 times, the chance of an upset would be almost nil.)
The SAT software makes adjustments for cross-season play, which means that teams from the 1960s can be competitive with teams from recent seasons. It's also possible to use the rules/penalties from a particular season, but modern rules were used for this tournament. In addition, the software accounts for strength of schedule. It could have adjusted for home field advantage, but considering all of the teams played their home games at Dyche Stadium or Ryan Field, it didn't make sense. For much more information on the program, please see http://www.secondandten.com for information about the college version and the NFL version of the game.
In the opening round of the tournament, the match-ups are:
#1 1995 vs. #32 2006
#2 1962 vs. #31 1985
#3 1996 vs. #30 1972
#4 2005 vs. #29 2002
#5 2000 vs. #28 1969 (2000 won 33-30 2 OT)
#6 1963 vs. #27 1999
#7 1970 vs. #26 1992
#8 1971 vs. #25 1993
#9 2008 vs. #24 1967
#10 2009 vs. #23 1986
#11 1960 vs. #22 2001
#12 2004 vs. #21 1973 (2004 won 61-14)
#13 1961 vs. #20 2007
#14 2003 vs. #19 1994
#15 1965 vs. #18 1964
#16 1997 vs. #17 1966
4 comments:
Just like the 2000 team to make the game interesting/close/OT.....
hey how is the 2005 team ranked above the 2000 team?
@schell - Shane did all of the rankings. Shane?
@schell - from Shane:
The 2000 team has a power rating of 659 and 2005 has a power rating of 661. In other words, it was a very, very close call. These power ratings come from James Howell's site: http://www.jhowell.net/cf/cfindex.htm
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