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Teams / Big Ten / Northwestern
Index · this season
75
▲ Above its 5-year level +14▲ Up 3 this season
Career64since 1936
Peak881940
Last 561seasons
#31 nationally · 4-1 (1-1 conf)
Résumé #24
Schedule so far #65
Margin ±5 pts (tightens with games)
Why 75? →

Northwestern Wildcats

Big Ten · Evanston, IL · Lanny and Sharon Martin Stadium · Head coach David Braun
Rival
Heated rivalry
55-59-5 all time (119 meetings since 1892)
Illinois leads
Last: lost 20-13 (2025) · Illinois has won 2 straight
Wants it back
program traits are earned from history
No recognized national titles since 1936. Counted: AP poll champion, a coaches-poll champion, or the BCS / playoff title-game winner; a split year counts for both.0national titles
Heisman Trophy winners0Heisman
Seasons finishing in the AP top 10 since 19366AP top-10
Consensus All-Americans since 19368All-Americans
NFL draft picks since 196768NFL picks
Winning percentage since 193641.1%win pct
History since 1936 · football since 1892. Every season →
Chemistry
Chem 65: typical65
Chem 62: typical
62Foundation
Chem 69: typical
69Gel
gel counts 40% so far
at its usual level
early · #32 of 138
HC year4
Ret. starters46%
QB yrs w/ OC1
View chemistry →
Team chemistryearly · #32 of 138 FBS teams
Chem 62: typicalFoundation62+Chem 69: typicalGel69=Chem 65: typicalChem65Gel counts 40% so far (it grows as games are played, up to half)
Foundationwhat the program has built · moves over seasons
Foundation62Staff stability — Coach and coordinator tenure, staff who came along, assistant turnoverStaff stability58Roster continuity — Returning starters and the lineup's experienceRoster continuity70Unit cohesion — QB & coordinator, QB & receivers, offensive line, defense: how long each unit has played togetherUnit cohesion58Administration — Athletic director continuity and coach-AD alignmentAdministration56Investment — Commitment to football: its share of the department's spending and whether that is growing, plus spending and recruitingInvestment58Fan base — How passionate and loyal the fan base is: how often it sells out, and whether it sells out games that don't matterFan base66
ContinuityClimate
Continuity · who has played and coached togetherlive

Who has played and coached together, and for how long, ranked against every FBS team at the same point of the season.

▸Staff stability
Coach and coordinator tenure, staff who came along, assistant turnover
58
Staff cohesion57
HC year 4 · OC year 1 · DC year 3
Assistant turnover59
44% of on-field staff new this season (FBS average about 45%)
▸Roster continuity
Returning starters and the lineup's experience
70
Returning core74
45% of last season's starters · FBS median 32%
Experience67
13 career starts per starter · FBS median 12
▸Unit cohesion
QB & coordinator, QB & receivers, offensive line, defense: how long each unit has played together
58
QB & coordinator55
1st season together · same as 76% of FBS teams
QB & receivers64
4.0 games started together on average · FBS median 3.9
Line cohesion46
3.7 games per linemen pair · FBS median 5.2
Defensive cohesion66
4.8 games per defensive pair · FBS median 4.5
Climate · around the programlive

The administration, money and fans around the team: athletic director continuity, willingness to invest, and crowds.

▸Administration
Athletic director continuity and coach-AD alignment
56
AD continuity56
Mark Jackson · year 3 (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
▸Investment
Commitment to football: its share of the department's spending and whether that is growing, plus spending and recruiting
58
Football's share59
29% of department spending goes to football
Investment trend49
+15% over three years
Football investment67
$37.9M on football (2024-25 federal report)
Recruiting spend67
$1.86M men's recruiting
Department resources65
$132M athletic department revenue
▸Fan base
How passionate and loyal the fan base is: how often it sells out, and whether it sells out games that don't matter
66
Sellouts65
sellout crowds (95%+ of capacity) at 9 of 40 home games (last 8 seasons)
Sells out anyway66
sellout crowds at 7 of 29 games that didn't matter: cupcakes, or a team expected to lose or having a losing season

Finances: U.S. Department of Education athletics disclosures, as reported by each school. Athletic directors: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Attendance: reported crowds vs stadium capacity.

Gelhow it is working right now · moves week to week
Gel69Playing above its parts — Results vs what its preseason projection expected, game by gamePlaying above its parts85Settled & sharp — A settled starting lineup and clean execution (penalties, turnovers) vs its own normalSettled & sharp62Alignment — Coaches and players telling the same story; the staff on one pageAlignmentsoonResilience — Confidence, and how the team sounds after adversityResiliencesoonFan & media mood — Expectations met or missed this season (preseason rank vs now), stronger for fan bases that react hard; fan and media sentiment joins laterFan & media mood73Coach security — The hard-facts hot seat, inverted: results vs expectation, recent seasons vs the program's norm, stakes, a new ADCoach security71
InternalOn-field fitExternal
Internal · how the program talkscoming

How the team talks in press conferences and interviews, each program against its own normal, so a naturally terse coach isn't read as upset. Being built program by program, Big Ten first.

▸Alignment
Coaches and players telling the same story; the staff on one page
soon
Coming: measured from press conferences and interviews.
▸Resilience
Confidence, and how the team sounds after adversity
soon
Coming: measured from press conferences and interviews.

Readings are team-level; we don't publish psychological readings of individual players.

On-field fit · how it is playing togetherlive

How the team is playing together this season: beating or missing its preseason expectation, a settled lineup, clean execution.

▸Playing above its parts
Results vs what its preseason projection expected, game by game
85
This season85
+8.2 points a game vs its preseason projection (4 games)
▸Settled & sharp
A settled starting lineup and clean execution (penalties, turnovers) vs its own normal
62
This season62
86% of starters kept game to game
External · pressure from outsidelive

Pressure from outside the building: the hard-facts hot seat now; this season's fan and media mood as it is measured.

▸Fan & media mood
Expectations met or missed this season (preseason rank vs now), stronger for fan bases that react hard; fan and media sentiment joins later
73
This season73
outside the AP poll: projected #34 preseason -> #31 in our Index now · results 4-1 (+11, recent games count more)
▸Coach security
The hard-facts hot seat, inverted: results vs expectation, recent seasons vs the program's norm, stakes, a new AD
71
This season71
David Braun, year 4 · 80% wins so far · +8.2 pts a game vs preseason expectation · last two seasons -7% vs the program's norm

Dashed gold ring = typical (62). 20-50 is the warning zone; under 10 is a collapse. Spokes with no data yet are dashed and left out until they fill in. Chem blends the two halves, then places the blend among this season's teams.

Trend · Foundationeach program year runs Feb 1 to the title game
'1677'1784'1875'1969'2074'2146'2263'2348'2455'2558'262016 wk 1 vs Western Michigan: 80 · L2016 wk 2 vs Illinois State: 87 · L2016 wk 3 vs Duke: 81 · W2016 wk 4 vs Nebraska: 79 · L2016 wk 5 vs Iowa: 82 · W2016 wk 7 vs Michigan State: 83 · W2016 wk 8 vs Indiana: 72 · W2016 wk 9 vs Ohio State: 76 · L2016 wk 10 vs Wisconsin: 76 · L2016 wk 11 vs Purdue: 78 · W2016 wk 12 vs Minnesota: 77 · L2016 wk 13 vs Illinois: 79 · W2016 wk 1 vs Pittsburgh: 77 · W2017 wk 2 vs Duke: 82 · L2017 wk 3 vs Bowling Green: 84 · W2017 wk 5 vs Wisconsin: 84 · L2017 wk 6 vs Penn State: 85 · L2017 wk 7 vs Maryland: 84 · W2017 wk 8 vs Iowa: 83 · W2017 wk 9 vs Michigan State: 83 · W2017 wk 10 vs Nebraska: 82 · W2017 wk 11 vs Purdue: 85 · W2017 wk 12 vs Minnesota: 84 · W2017 wk 13 vs Illinois: 85 · W2017 wk 1 vs Kentucky: 84 · W2018 wk 2 vs Duke: 76 · L2018 wk 3 vs Akron: 77 · L2018 wk 5 vs Michigan: 66 · L2018 wk 6 vs Michigan State: 77 · W2018 wk 7 vs Nebraska: 76 · W2018 wk 8 vs Rutgers: 75 · W2018 wk 9 vs Wisconsin: 76 · W2018 wk 10 vs Notre Dame: 78 · L2018 wk 11 vs Iowa: 78 · W2018 wk 12 vs Minnesota: 77 · W2018 wk 13 vs Illinois: 75 · W2018 wk 14 vs Ohio State: 73 · L2018 wk 1 vs Utah: 75 · W2019 wk 3 vs UNLV: 70 · W2019 wk 4 vs Michigan State: 71 · L2019 wk 5 vs Wisconsin: 71 · L2019 wk 6 vs Nebraska: 71 · L2019 wk 8 vs Ohio State: 67 · L2019 wk 9 vs Iowa: 74 · L2019 wk 10 vs Indiana: 70 · L2019 wk 11 vs Purdue: 71 · L2019 wk 12 vs Massachusetts: 71 · W2019 wk 13 vs Minnesota: 70 · L2019 wk 14 vs Illinois: 69 · W2020 wk 9 vs Iowa: 76 · W2020 wk 10 vs Nebraska: 75 · W2020 wk 11 vs Purdue: 76 · W2020 wk 12 vs Wisconsin: 77 · W2020 wk 13 vs Michigan State: 77 · L2020 wk 15 vs Illinois: 77 · W2020 wk 16 vs Ohio State: 76 · L2020 wk 1 vs Auburn: 74 · W2021 wk 2 vs Indiana State: 50 · W2021 wk 3 vs Duke: 50 · L2021 wk 4 vs Ohio: 50 · W2021 wk 5 vs Nebraska: 47 · L2021 wk 7 vs Rutgers: 47 · W2021 wk 8 vs Michigan: 49 · L2021 wk 9 vs Minnesota: 51 · L2021 wk 10 vs Iowa: 52 · L2021 wk 11 vs Wisconsin: 50 · L2021 wk 12 vs Purdue: 50 · L2021 wk 13 vs Illinois: 46 · L2022 wk 2 vs Duke: 64 · L2022 wk 3 vs Southern Illinois: 64 · L2022 wk 4 vs Miami (OH): 61 · L2022 wk 5 vs Penn State: 65 · L2022 wk 6 vs Wisconsin: 65 · L2022 wk 8 vs Maryland: 65 · L2022 wk 9 vs Iowa: 61 · L2022 wk 10 vs Ohio State: 66 · L2022 wk 11 vs Minnesota: 62 · L2022 wk 12 vs Purdue: 61 · L2022 wk 13 vs Illinois: 63 · L2023 wk 2 vs UTEP: 49 · W2023 wk 3 vs Duke: 43 · L2023 wk 4 vs Minnesota: 50 · W2023 wk 5 vs Penn State: 49 · L2023 wk 6 vs Howard: 41 · W2023 wk 8 vs Nebraska: 43 · L2023 wk 9 vs Maryland: 40 · W2023 wk 10 vs Iowa: 50 · L2023 wk 11 vs Wisconsin: 44 · W2023 wk 12 vs Purdue: 49 · W2023 wk 13 vs Illinois: 41 · W2023 wk 1 vs Utah: 48 · W2024 wk 2 vs Duke: 56 · L2024 wk 3 vs Eastern Illinois: 56 · W2024 wk 4 vs Washington: 50 · L2024 wk 6 vs Indiana: 51 · L2024 wk 7 vs Maryland: 55 · W2024 wk 8 vs Wisconsin: 56 · L2024 wk 9 vs Iowa: 54 · L2024 wk 10 vs Purdue: 51 · W2024 wk 12 vs Ohio State: 52 · L2024 wk 13 vs Michigan: 53 · L2024 wk 14 vs Illinois: 55 · L2025 wk 2 vs Western Illinois: 59 · W2025 wk 3 vs Oregon: 58 · L2025 wk 5 vs UCLA: 59 · W2025 wk 6 vs UL Monroe: 58 · W2025 wk 7 vs Penn State: 59 · W2025 wk 8 vs Purdue: 59 · W2025 wk 9 vs Nebraska: 59 · L2025 wk 11 vs USC: 60 · L2025 wk 12 vs Michigan: 61 · L2025 wk 13 vs Minnesota: 61 · W2025 wk 14 vs Illinois: 61 · L2025 wk 1 vs Central Michigan: 58 · W2026 wk 3 vs Colorado: 62 · W2026 wk 4 vs Indiana: 64 · L2026 wk 5 vs Penn State: 63 · W2026 wk 6 vs Ball State: 61 · W2026 wk 7 vs Michigan State: 62 · next gametypical 62

Every game since 2016, one continuous line; thin rules separate seasons and the chip is where each season finished. Navy dot = win, red = loss. Big drops usually mean a new staff, a new quarterback or a rebuilt line.

Trend · Gelthis season, after each game
typical 62wk 3 vs Colorado · W · on-field 61 · fan mood 72653wk 4 vs Indiana · L · on-field 64 · fan mood 71674wk 5 vs Penn State · W · on-field 64 · fan mood 84725wk 6 vs Ball State · W · on-field 67 · fan mood 87746

How the team is working right now, rebuilt after each game from only the games so far: on-field fit (results vs preseason expectation, lineup settling, execution) and that week's fan & media mood. Coach security is part of today's Gel number but isn't rebuilt week by week yet. Navy frame = win, red = loss.

Continuity facts
Head coach
Year 4
at this school
Offensive coordinator
Year 1
new this season
Defensive coordinator
Year 3
at this school
HC & OC together
1 seasons
working together
QB with his OC
1 seasons
same play-caller
QB & receivers
4.0 games
started together, average
Offensive line pairs
3.7 games
started together, average
Returning starters
45%
from last season
Starter experience
13 starts
career average
Internal facts
Pressers read
soon
this season, coaches and players
Coach tone
soon
vs his own normal
"We" vs "I"
soon
share of team language
Owning mistakes
soon
vs pointing outward
Same story
soon
coaches and players agree
After losses
soon
how fast tone recovers
Leaders named
soon
players teammates point to
Newcomers
soon
transfers talked about as part of it
Openness
soon
forthcoming vs guarded
Measured from press conferences and interviews, program by program.
Climate facts
Athletic director
Mark Jackson
year 3
Football spending
$37.9M
2024-25 federal report
Spending trend
+15%
over three years
Department revenue
$132M
all sports
Recruiting spend
$1.86M
men's teams
Home crowds
—
of capacity
Staff turnover
44%
on-field staff new this season
Fan mood
soon
fans and local media
Coach & AD
soon
on the same page
Finances: U.S. Department of Education athletics disclosures. Athletic directors: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
Offense · games started togetherlatest lineup · 11 starters
Chiles
Komolafe
Eligon
Wilde
Wagner
Honig
Carsello
McGuire
Schaller
Seagren
Rahouski
QBAidan Chiles55254555254
RBCaleb Komolafe515111545155254
WRHayden Eligon II211121212122122
WRGriffin Wilde515121845187254
WRDrew Wagner44144444243
TEAlex Honig55254555254
OLJackson Carsello515121845277254
OLDeuce McGuire55274577254
OLPatrick Schaller22122222222
OLGrant Seagren55254555254
OLDennis Rahouski44243444244

Each square: games the two players have started together at this school (darker = more). Gray diagonal: the player's own starts here.

Defense · games started togetherlatest lineup · 11 starters
Johnson
Flakes
Gant
Kilbane
McKinzie
Brus
Deasfernandes
Adeyi
Fitzgerald
Pate
Stevens
DLJamaal Johnson55545535522
DLBrendan Flakes518585183101822
DLTyler Gant55545535522
DLMichael Kilbane48484837822
LBKobie McKinzie55545535522
LBBraydon Brus518585183101822
DBBrenden Deasfernandes33333333322
DBOre Adeyi510575103111022
DBRobert Fitzgerald518585183102222
DBMontae Pate22222222222
DBJon Jon Stevens Jr.22222222222

Each square: games the two players have started together at this school (darker = more). Gray diagonal: the player's own starts here.

Chemistry is Scorebook's own rating of how well a program fits together, on the same all-time 0-99 scale as our other ratings (compared with every FBS team since 2016; 62 is typical, 20-50 signals something is wrong, and single digits are reserved for true collapses; each season is compared with its own era). This early version blends continuity (who has played and coached together, and for how long; it counts most) with the climate around the program; how the program talks joins as it is measured. Within continuity, quarterback-centered pairings count most because they held up when we tested them against results. How our ratings work →