1951 Northwestern
5–4 (2–4 Western Conference), coached by Robert Voigts. Share
Schedule and results
- Biggest winBeat Colorado 35–14Sep 29
By 21 points, its widest win.
| Date | Opponent | Result | Elo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 29 | vs Colorado | W 35–14 | 61% |
| Oct 6 | vs Army | W 20–14 | 52% |
| Oct 13 | at Minnesota | W 21–7 | 62% |
| Oct 20 | vs Navy | W 16–7 | 75% |
| Oct 27 | vs 14Wisconsin | L 0–41 | 63% |
| Nov 3 | at Ohio State | L 0–3 | 42% |
| Nov 10 | vs Purdue | L 14–35 | 71% |
| Nov 17 | at Michigan | W 6–0 | 32% |
| Nov 24 | vs 6Illinois | L 0–3 | 35% |
Elo: a pregame chance from scores alone.
How it ended: Lost to Illinois 3–0; unranked in the final AP poll; 6th in the Western Conference.
In program history: The 38th-best season in program history by end-of-season Elo (of 133 on file).
AP poll, week by week
- Wk 4: 18
- Wk 5: 13
- Record
- 5–4
- Conference
- 2–4 6th in Western Conference
- AP final
- Unranked peak No. 13
- Points
- 112–124
- Coach
- Robert Voigts
- Elo
- 1529 −18 this season
- SP+ rating
- —
- SRS
- 7.6 No. 37 of 116 major-college teams
- Recruiting class
- —
- Captain
- Don MacRae
- Most valuable player
- John Steeb
All-Big Ten
1 first teamFirst team
Don MacRaeOGAP-1; UP-1
From Wikipedia’s 1951 all-conference team article, with the selectors that named each player (AP-1: the Associated Press’s first team).
1951 Western Conference standings
| Team | Conf. | Overall | AP final |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois | 5–0–1 | 9–0–1 | 4 |
| Purdue | 4–1 | 5–4 | |
| Wisconsin | 5–1–1 | 7–1–1 | 8 |
| Michigan | 4–2 | 4–5 | |
| Ohio State | 2–2–2 | 4–3–2 | |
| Northwestern | 2–4 | 5–4 | |
| Minnesota | 1–4–1 | 2–6–1 | |
 Indiana | 1–5 | 2–7 | |
 Iowa | 0–5–1 | 2–5–2 |
Ordered by conference winning percentage, then conference wins. Division splits and tiebreakers aren’t applied.