If Northwestern can pull off a win over Texas Tech Saturday in the TicketCity Bowl in Dallas, it will mean more to the program than the average fan can imagine. It will give the Wildcats more credibility in the Big Ten and also help their recruiting in Texas. There are seven players from Texas on the Wildcats' roster, and Fitzgerald said at one point in his tenure there were as many as "13 or 14" native Texans from either Houston or Dallas on the roster.

"We have about 6,000 alumni here in the Dallas metroplex and I will be back down here in a couple weeks recruiting and then again in May to see our alumni association," said Fitzgerald, who will hit Dallas and Houston.

* Speaking in a raspy voice attributed to getting dunked in a dunk tank contest Dec. 17 after practice in Evanston, Fitzgerald joked that to change the Wildcats' luck in bowl games he was going to conjure up some fictional magic.

"I called Cerrano from 'Major League' and got Jobu out to cut the head off the chicken," Fitzgerald said. "We did that a year ago [in the Outback Bowl] and it didn't work, so we're going to stay the course and show up tomorrow and play."