Cats run wild in season opener
Peyton Ramsey threw for 212 yards in his Northwestern debut, Drake Anderson ran for 103 and the Wildcats gave coach Pat Fitzgerald his 100th victory, pounding Maryland 43- 3 on Saturday night in Evanston.
Northwestern raced to a 30- 3 halftime lead and racked up 537 total yards, including 325 on the ground. It was just the sort of start the Wildcats were seeking after going from playing for the conference championship in 2018 to finishing last in the Big Ten West in 2019.
Ramsey, a graduate transfer from Indiana, looked comfortable in his new surroundings. He completed 23 of 30 passes and scrambled for a first- quarter touchdown — a promising start for a quarterback who helped lead the Hoosiers to their first eight- win season since 1993 last year.
Anderson had a 37- yard touchdown run. A. J. Hampton helped set up a touchdown with an interception. Charlie Kuhbander kicked three field goals. And Fitzgerald, by far Northwestern’s winningest coach, got a milestone win to open his 16th season.
Maryland opted to start Alabama transfer Taulia Tagovailoa at quarterback over redshirt freshman Lance LeGendre. And he struggled in a big way.
Tagovailoa was 14- for- 25 for 94 yards and three interceptions. And the Terrapins opened coach Mike Locksley’s second season on a familiar note after losing nine of their final 10 games in 2019.
Northwestern held the Terrapins to just 207 yards while dominating the time of possession ( 37: 21- 22: 39). After Maryland’s Joseph Petrino kicked a field goal on the game’s opening drive, the Wildcats took control.
Ramsey led a 75- yard march, with Isaiah Bowser scoring from the 1. Hampton then intercepted a pass along the left sideline near midfield. And a scrambling Ramsey reached across the goal line as he was dragged to the ground on a 12- yard touchdown, making it 14- 3 with 1: 31 left in the first quarter.
Kuhbander kicked a 43- yard field goal to bump the lead to 14 with just over nine minutes left in the half. Anderson made it 24- 3 with 5: 43 remaining, when he burst through a hole in the line and got few good blocks on his 37- yard touchdown, and the Wildcats didn’t have to wait long to score again.
They took over at the Maryland 23 after Isaiah Jacobs muffed the kickoff and Cam Porter recovered the ball. That led to a 23yard field goal by Kuhbander, and he added a 43- yarder as the half ended.