ORLANDO – Once again, a successful season for Northwestern will end in the State of Florida, but this one was like no other.

Playing through the pandemic has made life as difficult as it could possibly be for coaches who are trying to keep players safe and the athletes themselves. They’ve had to make sacrifices just to get through a reduced 2020 schedule, making success even more rewarding.

That’s been the case for Northwestern, who went through the regular season with a 6-1 record and a Big Ten West championship. They put up a great effort in the Big Ten Championship game against Ohio State before falling to the Buckeyes 22-10.

It has landed Pat Fitzgerald’s team in a New Year’s Day contest with Auburn in the Citrus Bowl at Noon in Orlando. This marks the fourth time the team has played in Florida in a bowl game in the Pat Fitzgerald era, but there’s another mark which is more important for the team as they take the field for the final time this season.

The team has won three consecutive bowl games since 2016 – winning the Pinstripe Bowl that year against Pittsburg, the 2017 Music City Bowl against Kentucky, and the Holiday Bowl the next year against Utah.

Having struggled to win a postseason game for years – having lost nine-straight from their 1996 Rose Bowl appearance through the 2011 Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas – the streak is another thing which the program has taken pride in the past few years.

A win would not only keep that streak alive, but also complete a transformative generation for program. Since their 1995 Big Ten championship, the program has appeared in 15 bowl games after appearing in just one before that, which has been aided by Fitzgerald as both a player and a coach.

“We have come a long way in 25 years as a program. I mean, the architect of that was obviously Gary Barnett and his staff and then Coach Walker and the staff that I was able to be a part of. Wasn’t a part of the 2000 championship team but that staff was able to get it done,” said Fitzgerald.” Now where we are at, 25 years later, the foundations that we started with back then are still the hallmarks of our program, the brotherhood, the chemistry, the playing for each other are still things that we talk about daily around here.

“The attitude that it takes to be a winner, the investment that it takes to be successful consistently and it’s things that we value and that we stress.”

Once again, it’s produced an opportunity like the one the program has on Friday, with the hopes of running their postseason winning streak to four.