Northwestern improved to 𒊎5-0 after knocking off Wisconsin 17-7 Saturday afternoon, but it was the peculiar rallying cry the Wildcats adopted that has caught people’s attention.
After defeating the No. 10 Badgers and taking a seat atop the Big Ten West, Northwestern𝔉 players could be seen runn🔯ing off the field calling themselves the “Fighting Rece Davises.” The moniker originated on ESPN’s College Football Playoff Top 25 show Tuesday, when host Rece Davis asked analyst Joey Galloway about his thoughts on Northwestern.
“Honestly, they’ve got a bunch of Rece Davises running around out there,” he said, poking fun at his colleague and suggesting the Wildcats might be at an athletic disadvantage.
“High-level athletes, huh?” Davis replied with a laugh.
“Very athletic, Rece,” Galloway responded sarcastically. “That’s why I said that.”
During a postgame interview with ESPN, Wildcats coach Pat Fitzgerald for the added ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚmotivation.
“How about these Fighting Rece Davises right here, h🍌u🤡h Joey Galloway?” he said. “How about the Fighting Rece Davises?”
“As long as Joey Galloway keeps talking, we’ll I th🧸ink appreciate it; I think the guys heard him pretty loud and clear.”
Fitzgerald may have joked that the ESPN bit gave his players a chip on t🌳heir shoulders, but the longtime Wildcats coach said it was “disrespectful.” Seve♈ral players didn’t find the joke funny, while others took it to heart.
“I mean, that really ticked guys off, I’m not gonna lie to you,” Fitzgerald told reporters after the game. “It was, I thought, incredibly disrespectful. I just talked to the guys about putting fuel in their engine, man. Just use that as fuel in the engine and just go out and play the way we’re capable. We’ve got really, really good football players. We’ve got outstanding football players, in my opinion. We’ve got a bunch of guys who are going to be potentially All-Big 10, potentially All-American and potentially in the NFL.”
Added cornerback Greg Newsome II: “That’s what they view us as. At the end of the season they can call us Rece Davises all they want as soon as we get to that Big 10 championship and win that. That’s all right with us. It’s just gonna keep fueling us every single week.”
For Fitzgerald, whose team is coming off a tough 3-9 season last year, it was a reminder that Northwestern isn’t🤪 always considered a ser🏅ious contender.
“Now, since I’ve been a part of the program, it’s like the we have one bad year and it’s like 19-whatever again,” he said, alluding to the 1990s, when the Wildcats won three or fewer games seven times. “I understand that and I respect people’s opinions. But yeah, that was a little bit of extra fuel in the rocket, there’s no question about that.”