![\"Northwestern](\"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/venric-mark-northwestern-2013.png\")
<\/a>Northwestern returns 100 percent of its passing production, 95.6 percent of its rushing yardage and 84.2 percent of its receiving production.<\/p>\n
The Wildcats welcome back all three of their main contributors under center, with Kain Coulter expected to be the main option, as he ran for 894 yards and passed for another 872.<\/p>\n
Mark is a dynamic playmaker in the backfield\u2014coming off a 1,416-yard campaign\u2014averaging 6.0 yards per carry and scoring 12 touchdowns on the ground.<\/p>\n
Defense<\/b><\/p>\n
The unit ranked third in the conference in allowing just 127.6 yards per game on the ground, while holding opponents to 20 points or less in 8 of 13 games.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s squad returns six of its top eight defensive linemen, which will help in continuing to stop opposing rushing attacks.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to point out that he group will need to replace a pair of players that made 26 combined starts.<\/p>\n
The Wildcats allowed just 22.5 points per game in 2012\u2014the lowest such figure since 2008.<\/p>\n
A linebacker core that returns two of its top three tacklers will help to keep Big Ten offenses in check this season.<\/p>\n
Special Teams<\/b><\/p>\n
Fitzgerald can rest each knowing that he returns all of his primary specialists, including 2012 Big Ten Co-Kicker of the Year in Jeff Budzien.<\/p>\n
Punter Brandon Williams and holder Pat Hickey return for their fourth and third years respectively, while All-American Venric Mark looks to add to his reputation as one of the nation\u2019s most dangerous returnmen.<\/p>\n
Against the Spread<\/b><\/p>\n
Over the last four seasons, the program has tallied a 25-23 ATS record, which includes a 12-5 ATS mark when dressing up as a road underdog.<\/p>\n
Bet On<\/b><\/p>\n
College football handicappers will be interested in backing the Wildcats against the Illinois Fighting Illini on Nov. 30, as they\u2019ve covered 10 of the last 13 overall meetings.<\/p>\n
Fade Away<\/b><\/p>\n
Northwestern will likely be a home underdog when matching up with the Ohio State Buckeyes in its first game in October, which could prove troublesome due to its 0-4 ATS record in the last four games in the series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Northwestern Wildcats\u00a0 Head Coach:\u00a0 Pat Fitzgerald 2012 record:\u00a0 10-3, 5-3 Big Ten Conference 2012 Bowl Result:\u00a0 34-20 win over Mississippi St in Gator Bowl 2013 Returning Starters:\u00a0 15 total (8 on offense, 7 on defense) Betting Info Odds to Win 2014 BCS Championship:\u00a0 +17500 Odds to Win 2013 Big Ten Legends Division:\u00a0 +325 Regular Season […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":29329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[3442,7514,3119,3821,6981],"class_list":["post-29682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-big-ten-conference","tag-kain-coulter","tag-northwestern-wildcats","tag-pat-fitzgerald","tag-venric-mark"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29683,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29682\/revisions\/29683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}