1996 Northwestern Wildcats football team

The 1996 Northwestern Wildcats football team represented Northwestern University in the 1996 NCAA Division I-A college football season. Under head coach Gary Barnett, Northwestern finished the season with a 9–3 record. The Wildcats won a share of the Big Ten Conference title for the second straight year. They faced off against Tennessee in the Florida Citrus Bowl, where the Wildcats lost, 48–28.

1996 Northwestern Wildcats football
Big Ten co-champion
Florida Citrus Bowl, L 28–48 vs. Tennessee
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 16
AP	No. 15
1996 record	9–3 (7–1 Big Ten)
Head coach	Gary Barnett (5th season)
Defensive coordinator	Ron Vanderlinden (5th season)
Captains	Justin Chabot[1] Pat Fitzgerald Mike McGrew Steve Schnur
Home stadium	Dyche Stadium (Capacity: 48,187)

1996 Big Ten Conference football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 2 Ohio State +		7	–	1					11	–	1
No. 15 Northwestern +		7	–	1					9	–	3
No. 7 Penn State		6	–	2					11	–	2
No. 18 Iowa		6	–	2					9	–	3
No. 20 Michigan		5	–	3					8	–	4
Michigan State		5	–	3					6	–	6
Wisconsin		3	–	5					8	–	5
Purdue		2	–	6					3	–	8
Minnesota		1	–	7					4	–	7
Indiana		1	–	7					3	–	8
Illinois		1	–	7					2	–	9
+ – Conference co-champions Rankings from AP Poll

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 6	5:30 PM	at Wake Forest*	No. 13	Groves Stadium Winston-Salem, North Carolina	SCC	L 27–28	21,749
September 14	2:30 PM	at Duke*		Wallace Wade Stadium Durham, North Carolina	ABC	W 38–13	29,321
September 21	11:30 AM	Ohio*		Dyche Stadium Evanston, Illinois	SCC	W 28–7	38,148
September 28	11:30 AM	at Indiana	No. 25	Memorial Stadium Bloomington, Indiana	ESPN	W 35–17	36,714
October 5	11:30 AM	No. 6 Michigan	No. 22	Dyche Stadium Evanston, Illinois	ESPN	W 17–16	48,187
October 12	11:30 AM	Minnesota	No. 15	Dyche Stadium Evanston, Illinois	ESPN2	W 26–24	35,848
October 19	11:30 AM	at Wisconsin	No. 14	Camp Randall Stadium Madison, Wisconsin	ESPN2	W 34–30	79,576
October 26	11:00 AM	Illinois	No. 11	Dyche Stadium Evanston, Illinois	ESPN+	W 27–24	48,187
November 2	2:30 PM	at No. 15 Penn State	No. 11	Beaver Stadium University Park, Pennsylvania	ABC	L 9–34	96,596
November 9	2:30 PM	at No. 23 Iowa	No. 18	Kinnick Stadium Iowa City, Iowa	ABC	W 40–13	70,397
November 16	1:00 PM	Purdue	No. 13	Dyche Stadium Evanston, Illinois		W 27–24	41,178
January 1	12:00 PM	vs. No. 9 Tennessee*	No. 11	Florida Citrus Bowl Orlando, Florida (Florida Citrus Bowl)	ABC	L 28–48	63,467
*Non-conference game Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Central time

Roster

1996 Northwestern Wildcats football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class RB 32 Adrian Autry Jr RB 24 Darnell Autry Jr WR 5 D'Wayne Bates So G 61 Justin Chabot (C) Sr QB 8 Tim Hughes Sr T 74 Paul Janus Sr WR 22 Brian Musso Jr QB 10 Steve Schnur (C) Sr WR 25 Jeff Swenson Jr TE 84 Jay Tant Fr	Defense Pos. # Name Class SS 33 Eric Collier Sr DE 36 Casey Dailey Jr LB 51 Pat Fitzgerald (C) Sr LB 55 Barry Gardner So CB 3 Hudhaifa Ismaeli Jr LB 44 Keith Lozowski Sr DT 94 Joe Reiff Sr DT 95 Matt Rice Sr DT 96 Ray Robey Sr LB 59 Jason Ross Jr LB 52 Tim Scharf Sr DE 90 Thor Schmidt So	Special teams Pos. # Name Class P 14 Paul Burton Sr K 13 Brian Gowins Jr	Head coach Gary Barnett Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt Roster

Rankings

Further information: 1996 NCAA Division I-A football rankings

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Final
AP	18	15	13	NR	NR	25	22	15	14	11	11	18	13	11	11	10	11	15
Coaches	19		18	NR	NR	NR	NR	18	15	12	10	18	14	11	11	12	11	16

[2]

Game summaries

Wake Forest

See also: 1996 Wake Forest Demon Deacons football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
2–0	1993	W 26–14

Duke

See also: 1996 Duke Blue Devils football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
0–6	1990	L 24–27

Ohio

See also: 1996 Ohio Bobcats football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
0–1	1973	L 12–14

Indiana

See also: 1996 Indiana Hoosiers football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
36–31–1	1995	W 31–7

Michigan

See also: 1996 Michigan Wolverines football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
12–45–2	1995	W 19–13

Minnesota

See also: 1996 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
25–45–5	1995	W 27–17

Wisconsin

#14 Northwestern at Wisconsin

1 2 3 4 Total • Wildcats 7 7 6 14 34 Badgers 10 3 3 14 30 Date: October 19 Location: Camp Randall Stadium • Madison, Wisconsin Game attendance: 79,576 Game weather: Sunny TV announcers (ESPN): Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson

Scoring summary 1 13:44 WIS Bob Adamov recovered fumble in end zone (John Hall kick) Wisconsin 7-0 1 9:08 NW Darnell Autry 20-yard run (Brian Gowins kick) Tie 7-7 1 3:53 WIS John Hall 50-yard field goal Wisconsin 10-7 2 9:15 WIS John Hall 29-yard field goal Wisconsin 13-7 2 3:59 NW D'Wayne Bates 12-yard pass from Steve Schnur (Brian Gowins kick) Northwestern 14-13 3 9:58 WIS John Hall 21-yard field goal Wisconsin 16-14 3 4:38 NW Adrian Autry 14-yard run (two-point conversion failed) Northwestern 20-16 4 14:57 WIS Ron Dayne 7-yard run (John Hall kick) Wisconsin 23-20 4 13:31 WIS Cecil Martin 2-yard run (John Hall kick) Wisconsin 30-20 4 5:02 NW Adrian Autry 2-yard run (Brian Gowins kick) Wisconsin 30-27 4 :37 NW D'Wayne Bates 20-yard pass from Steve Schnur (Brian Gowins kick) Northwestern 34-30

See also: 1996 Wisconsin Badgers football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
28–50–5	1995	W 35–0

[3]

Illinois

See also: 1996 Illinois Fighting Illini football team and Illinois–Northwestern football rivalry

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
37–47–5	1995	W 17–14

Penn State

See also: 1996 Penn State Nittany Lions football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
1–2	1995	W 21–10

Iowa

#18 Northwestern at #23 Iowa

1 2 3 4 Total • Wildcats 3 10 13 14 40 Hawkeyes 0 7 0 6 13 Date: November 9 Location: Kinnick Stadium • Iowa City, IA Game attendance: 70,397 Television network: ABC

Scoring summary 1 0:52 NW Brian Gowins 23-yard field goal NW 3–0 2 10:27 NW Darren Drexler 23-yard pass from D'wayne Bates (Brian Gowins kick) NW 10–0 2 6:48 IOWA Tim Dwight 29-yard pass from Matt Sherman (Zach Bromert kick) NW 10–7 2 0:00 NW Brian Gowins 22-yard field goal NW 13–7 3 6:32 NW Darnell Autry 9-yard run (two point conversion failed) NW 19–7 3 1:42 NW Darnell Autry 15-yard pass from Steve Schnur (Brian Gowins kick) NW 26–7 4 14:53 NW Darnell Autry 41-yard run (Brian Gowins kick) NW 33–7 4 12:19 IOWA Tavian Banks 10-yard pass from Matt Sherman (two-point conversion failed) NW 33–13 4 7:31 NW Darnell Autry 18-yard run (Brian Gowins kick) NW 40–13

See also: 1996 Iowa Hawkeyes football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
15–41–3	1995	W 31–20

[4]

Purdue

See also: 1996 Purdue Boilermakers football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
22–40–1	1995	W 23–8

Florida Citrus Bowl

#9 Tennessee vs. #11 Northwestern

1 2 3 4 Total • Volunteers 21 10 7 10 48 Wildcats 0 21 0 7 28 Date: January 1 Location: Florida Citrus Bowl • Orland, FL Game attendance: 63,467 Game weather: 79°, Partly Cloudy, Calm Television network: ABC

See also: 1996 Tennessee Volunteers football team and 1997 Florida Citrus Bowl

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
First meeting

Awards and honors

• Linebacker Pat Fitzgerald: Chuck Bednarik Award, Bronko Nagurski Trophy, Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year
• Head coach Gary Barnett: Big Ten Coach of the Year

Team players drafted into the NFL

Main article: 1997 NFL Draft

Player	Position	Round	Pick	NFL club
Darnell Autry	Running back	4	105	Chicago Bears
Tim Scharf	Linebacker	6	164	New York Jets
Hudhaifa Ismaeli	Defensive back	7	203	Miami Dolphins

[5]

References

1. "Year-by-Year Results" (PDF). 2007. p. 149. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-03-16. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
2. "Northwestern 1996 AP Football Rankings". collegepollarchive.com. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
3. "Northwestern vs. Wisconsin". USA Today. October 19, 1996. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
4. "Northwestern vs. Iowa". USA Today. November 9, 1996. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
5. "1997 NFL Draft". pro-football-reference.com. Retrieved 2019-06-23.