| 19. Northwestern Wildcats |
| #6 in Big Ten |
There are four teams in my Top 20 who didn't lose a player early to the NFL Draft. Three of them are Big Ten schools, starting with Northwestern, which is a big reason I'm bullish on the conference following up a fantastic bowl season, with their best overall season in close to two decades. First things first, the Wildcats need to make sure a key returning piece is returning 100%, in starting quarterback Clayton Thorson. Thorson is being listed in some places as a top 5 overall pick in the NFL Draft next year, but after suffering a torn ACL in the Wildcats' Music City Bowl win over Kentucky, it's unclear exactly when he'll be ready to start 2018. He'll be needed with the graduation of Justin Jackson, perhaps the most underappreciated football player in Big Ten history. Jackson wound up his career last year with 5,440 rushing yards, #11 in NCAA history, and 2nd in Big Ten history. You might win some bar bets with the question of the 2nd leading rusher in Big Ten history. But aside from Jackson, there is returning talent all around, starting with 4 offensive linemen, and the two leading receivers from an offense that finished fourth in the conference in both scoring offense and total offense. They add Solomon Vault back into the mix as well after missing all of 2017 with an injury. Vault had 190 yards of offense in 2016, but more importantly he has 4 career return touchdowns, and has twice been named all-Big Ten as a returner. He relieves a lot of field position issues after Northwestern had the fewest kick return yards a year ago, and finished in the bottom half in punt return yardage too. Jackson's replacement, rising sophomore Jeremy Larkin, looks like another star in the making, actually rushing for more yards per carry than Jackson. He really came on late last season, rushing for 329 yards over the Wildcats' final five games (including the bowl), on a whopping 9.7 ypc. That's on 34 carries, so while it's not a massive sample size, it's not insignificant either. Defensively, the front seven looks to be very good, led by Paddy Fisher who stepped in as quarterback of the defense as just a redshirt freshman a season ago, and wound up being named second team all-Big Ten. Joined by Nate Hall to his outside, with Joe Gaziano and Sam Miller as the ends up front, Northwestern should be able to put relentless pressure up front. They'll have to because the secondary is far from as certain. Northwestern gave up a league worst 250 ypg through the air last season, but were also picked on the most. Montre Hartage benefited from teams throwing away from Kyle Queiro last year, but now he is the most experienced player in the back end, and needs to be a lot better. The development of the secondary will determine if the defense is an overall plus or not, the front seven looks plenty fine. But really it all comes down to the health of Thorson. Jackson can be replaced, as weird as that sounds, if Larkin is what he looks like, and they have a top 5 NFL Draft pick at quarterback. But few schools, let alone Northwestern could take the hit of losing both Jackson and Thorson and be ok.
Key Players| QB | | Clayton Thorson, Senior |
| G | | Tommy Doles, Senior |
| K | | Charlie Kuhbander, Sophomore |
| . | |
| DE | | Joe Gaziano, Junior |
| LB | | Paddy Fisher, Senior |
| LB | | Nate Hall, Senior |
