Ryan Field (Evanston, Ill.) — One hundred years to the day after football was first played on this site, Northwestern debuted the most expensive college football stadium ever built. The $870 million new Ryan Field is modeled after NFL and European soccer stadiums and engineered to bring fans closer to the action. And there was plenty of action on "FOX College Football Friday" as Northwestern racked up 506 total yards of offense in a 34-13 rout of Penn State.
Last week, when the Wildcats put a scare into defending national champion Indiana on the road, Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti said afterward: "Northwestern is a good football team. I tried telling everyone that. No one wanted to believe me, but two years ago, if someone would have said Indiana at this point of the season was a good football team, no one would have believed that either." On Friday, the upstart Wildcats nearly upstaged their new stadium.
Let's take a look back at a historic night at Ryan Field. The Wildcat faithful were out early. After all, it had been 1,049 days since Northwestern played a game at the old Ryan Field.
For the past two years and early this season, the team played at the school's soccer and lacrosse facility. Heading up from the field to the broadcast booth, FOX Sports game analyst and former Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III got a warm reception from Wildcats fans. Purple and pink go together.
Penn State redshirt freshman QB Alex Manske warms up before the game. The No. 2-rated prospect in Iowa first committed to Iowa State before following coach Matt Campbell to the Nittany Lions.
That journey was nothing compared to what happened next. In routine testing, he was found to have a heart problem — more specifically, a dilated aortic root and a dilated ascending aorta. Manske had open-heart surgery in March and, under the watchful eye of Penn State personnel, returned to the field for preseason camp in August.
The national anthem was electric, featuring a full-field flag and flyover. After spotting Northwestern a 10-0 early lead, the Nittany Lions recovered a fumble by Wildcats running back Gavin Sawchuk (No. 27) on his own 34-yard line and scored five plays later to tighten the score to 10-7.
Northwestern running back Joseph Himon II (No. 6) responded with a 38-yard touchdown run. Himon then added another touchdown run, fighting for the end zone with 1:55 to go in the first half, to extend Northwestern's lead to 24-7.
Overall, Himon ran for a career-high 162 yards on 10 carries. After winning a national championship with Ohio State in 2024 before a less successful stint with the Las Vegas Raiders last year, offensive coordinator Chip Kelly has returned to the college sidelines this season with Northwestern. His Wildcats offense is off to a promising start, averaging 33 points per game.
Last year, the team averaged 23.4 points. Quarterback Aidan Chiles, a transfer from Michigan State, has been a big hit with the Wildcats. On Friday night, he took every opportunity to fire up the student section.
Of course, the so-called "Wildcat Wall" doesn't need much encouragement. The students stand for the entire game — there are no seats in the section — and bang on the aluminum bleachers. Pat Ryan Jr., CEO of Ryan Sports Development and the son of Ryan Field's namesake, told FOX Sports College Sports Writer Ben Portnoy: "It's a set of aluminum bleachers that are at a 33-degree angle, 65% slope, and what you're going to see is that the intensity of putting 2,000 students on top of the end zone where you might normally have 50 is going to bring thunder." Mission accomplished.
The Nittany Lion was down in the first half but remained poised to pounce after the break. But it was more of the same in the second half, highlighted by this acrobatic 31-yard catch by Wildcats receiver Griffin Wilde late in the third quarter. Three plays later, Northwestern scored again for a 31-7 lead.
Earlier this season, Wilde surpassed 1,000 career receiving yards in just his 15th game, the quickest Northwestern receiver to do that since D’Wayne Bates, the program’s all-time leader, did it in 13 games in 1995-96. Matt Campbell, the winningest coach in Iowa State history, has started his Penn State tenure with two straight losses in Big Ten play. There's still time to rebound, but this night belonged to the Wildcats — and to the new Ryan Field.
