With a new stadium set to open on Saturday and coming off a year where they were the scrappy upstarts of the league, the Northwestern Wildcats have big hopes for 2026 in year four under head coach David Braun.
The Wildcats will have a new look on offense under first-year offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, who is back among the college ranks after an attempted return to the NFL last year with the Raiders. Kelly will have a new quarterback at the helm of his offense this fall in Michigan State transfer Aidan Chiles.
Chiles battled injury last year and saw a decrease in production for a struggling Spartan team. , Ibut in 2024, his most productive year as a starter, Chiles threw for over 2,400 yards and flashed explosiveness with over 200 rushing yards. While he threw for 13 touchdowns to 11 interceptions as a sophomore (A ratio of 1.18), the primary area that Chiles did see improvement despite his injuries in 2025 was in his decision making, tripling his touchdown to interception ratio to 3.33. If Kelly and Braun can find a way to combine Chiles’ 2025 decision making with the athletic potential he showed in 2024, the blueprint is there for the senior to be a solid quarterback for the Wildcats.
Returning All-Conference honorable mention running back Caleb Kolomafe joins Chiles in the backfield and will provide a weekly challenge for opposing defenses. Kolomafe ran for over 100 yards and scored a touchdown in four matchups last year, demonstrating his ability to take over a game.
GraduateExpect graduate student Joseph Himon will likely to get reps on third down in the backfield for the Wildcats, as he caught 21 passes in 11 appearances in 2025, doubling Kolomafe’s receiving production. Himon is also expected to be the Wildcats’ return man this year.
Northwestern’s top two receiving targets are back from a year ago in Griffin Wilde and Hayden Eligon II, a duo that combined for over 1,400 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2025. Wilde, a returning third-team All-Big Ten receiver, will be particularly important for Chiles as a target while settling into the new offense.
In addition to a pair of 13-game starters from last year’s line in Jackson Carsello and Ezomo Oratokhai, Northwestern hopes a combination of newcomers and internal development will provide consistency in the trenches for Chiles and Kolomafe.
Oklahoma State transfer Grant Seagren was a standout for the Cowboys in 2025, starting all 12 games and not allowing a single sack. Graduate student Deuce McGuire is expected to move into a starting role after being a reliable backup and making spot stats for the Wildcats over the past two years. Anthony Birsa, a former four-star recruit who primarily played special teams for Northwestern last year, is expected to step into a starting role as well.
Defensively, the Wildcats will need to replace most of their production from last year’s front seven, but they return three defensive backs to bolster their pass defense.
All three returning DBs have received All-Big Ten honors during their careers, as Robert Fitzgerald, who was named “The Wildcat” by his teammates, earned second team honors from the coaches and third team honors from the media in 2025, while Josh Fussell was named a 2025 honorable mention and Damon Walters got an honorable mention nod in 2024.
2025 All-Big Ten Honorable Mention Michael Kilbane will lead the Northwestern defense in the trenches. He posted 7.5 TFLs and 3.5 sacks last season.
UCF transfer Jamaal Johnson was a role player for the Knights last year, but his individual production numbers lagged behind the rest of the UCF front four, producing just 1.5 of the team’s 68 TFLs and none of its 27 sacks.
Team captain Brayden Brus will be the glue holding the Northwestern defense together this year at linebacker. He started all 13 games for Northwestern last year, producing 4.5 TFLs, 2.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and four PBUs on the year.
Northwestern has an over/under of 5.5 wins in 2026 with the following schedule:
September 5 vs South Dakota State
September 19 vs Colorado
September 25 at Indiana
October 2 vs Penn State
October 10 vs Ball State
October 17 at Michigan State
October 24 vs Rutgers
October 31 at Oregon
November 7 vs Iowa
November 14 at Ohio State
November 21 at Minnesota
November 28 vs Illinois
It’s a brutal schedule for the Wildcats that pits them up against all three of the league’s 2025 College Football Playoff qualifiers as well as a pair of ranked preseason foes in Iowa and Penn State. To get back to bowl eligibility, Northwestern will need to win every game it should and most of the tossup games, but if last year is any indication, this is a team not to underestimate. The Wildcats keep the core of scrappy defenders that kept them in games. They brought in a quarterback with clear markers for improvement and a lethal assortment of weapons around him. It’s easy to predict that every year will have a 2024 Indiana. The reality is that those teams are rare, particularly with a schedule like this one. If there is going to be a team out of the Big Ten to truly shock the world, though, don’t count this one out. Northwestern has all the tools to make its mark in 2026.