Northwestern

6-2

Week 10 · updated Wednesday, Nov 4

Northwestern is 6-2 after losing 26-34 at Oregon.

Fan mood in the week of the Oregon game: on the bright side

Fan mood in each Northwestern game week this season

Compared with other fanbases in r/CFB game threads that week. Each row is a week, named for its game; the further right the dot, the brighter the talk.

sourerbrightervs Colorado W 41-7all inat Indiana L 23-29not enough talk to readvs Penn State W 34-13on the bright sidevs Ball State W 45-14all inat Michigan State W 24-21not enough talk to readvs Rutgers W 42-14all inat Oregon L 26-34on the bright sidesourerbrighterSep 19vs ColoradoW 41-7all inSep 25at IndianaL 23-29not enough talk to readOct 2vs Penn StateW 34-13on the bright sideOct 10vs Ball StateW 45-14all inOct 17at Michigan StateW 24-21not enough talk to readOct 24vs RutgersW 42-14all inOct 31at OregonL 26-34on the bright side
  • W 34-18 vs South Dakota State
  • W 41-7 vs Colorado
  • L 23-29 at Indiana
  • W 34-13 vs Penn State
  • W 45-14 vs Ball State
  • W 24-21 at Michigan State
  • W 42-14 vs Rutgers
  • L 26-34 at Oregon
  • Next: vs Iowa, Saturday, Nov 7

Scores ours first. The two losses came by 6 and 8.

Since the last game

Northwestern lost 26-34 at Oregon, after leading 20-13 at half.

The whole Oregon game

Before Iowa

Iowa has won 8 of the last 12 meetings, including the last four; Northwestern's last win was 21-20 in 2020.

Kirk Ferentz is 13-11 against Northwestern as a head coach.

The playoff simulation gives Northwestern a 59% chance at home against Iowa on Saturday, Nov 7.

In the playoff simulation, the Iowa game has a playoff place on it for Northwestern.

Iowa game on Now

What the Iowa game is worth

How fan mood is read

Fan mood compares what Northwestern fans wrote in r/CFB game threads with every FBS fanbase with enough talk that week. A week runs Monday to Sunday and is named for the game in it. The read is redrawn 300 times from the same commenters, re-ranking every fanbase each time. Sour or all in means the read sat in the bottom or top fifth in at least 70 of every 100 draws; on the sour side or on the bright side, in the bottom or top two fifths in at least 80; anything less settled is middle of the pack. A bright label also needs more positive talk than negative, and a sour one the reverse. Brighter or sourer than usual compares the week with the team's own earlier weeks, after taking out how every fanbase read that week. Each dot sits at the read's rank that week. A week read before these labels keeps the word it was first given, the fifth it sat in (sour, uneasy, mixed, hopeful or all in). Season averages are the mean of a season's reads, in fifths from sour to all in, and seasons before 2026 were read from each week's wider talk, so a comparison across seasons is rough.

Fan mood, week by week

Mood over time

Position = mood · width = volume · color = the kind of feeling

What the reporters say

What reporters say

5 quotes collected this season

What the beat said, in their own words.

Well, tough loss. We didn’t coach well enough, we didn’t play well enough against a good football team
Schiano · On33 days after Northwestern's 2026 game against Rutgers
We got really good news on Turbo, and he'll be day to day, and I'm optimistic he can play Saturday as well as Rolijah Hardy
Cignetti · FOX Sports2 days after the 23-29 game
A loss by 10, a loss by three, a loss by 30 — it hurts me. There’s no degrees of loss
Sanders · FOX Sports3 days after the 41-7 game

More in this tab

Fan chatterThe loudest night of the season and what a usual night looks like.

Fan chatter this season

Loud

The loudest night was the 24-21 win over Michigan State.

FirstSecondThirdFourthNorthwestern fansMichigan State fansusual

A usual night for Northwestern fans is steady.

The argumentThe one thing this fanbase can't agree on, with receipts.

Inside the fanbase: all 8 corners

Cr/CFB
GGoogle News
IInside Nu
CCampus paper
BBluesky
YYouTube
6 outlets & communities talking

The split, staged

Warmest corner+0.24
Local
Most bought-in cohort
vs
Coldest corner+0.15
National take
Coolest cohort

How Northwestern fans actually talk

Rr/CFBFan talk

Northwestern lost but goddamn I've never seen end of game management done so smoothly. If they recovered that onside kick there's a chance we would be spamming the sub with google memes.

open ↗

One of the crowd’s most upvoted takes — read for mood, not as a side. The cohort read is the measured part.

From the team’s own coverage

All 8 corners of the fanbase

negative
0
positive
National take+0.15 to Local+0.24

Cohort sentiment is a source-weighted model read — never a quote pinned to a person.

What this fanbase keeps coming back to

fan energy
35%
recent results
20%
where the program is headed
8%
the coaching staff
7%
offense
6%

Topics are model-labeled from Reddit — a rough signal of what this fanbase is circling right now.

week 10. The sources and the divergence rank are measured. Cohort labels and sentiment are a source-weighted model estimate, never a quote attributed to a person.
The obsessionThe rival this fanbase can't stop bringing up.
Rent Free · r/CFB fan posts, 2026 season
Northwestern fans 26% of posts bring up another team▲1pp saltier#57 of 77 saltiest · mostly about Penn State
Who Northwestern fans can’t stop bringing up
  1. Penn State5%
  2. Michigan3%
  3. Purdue2%
  4. Illinois2%
  5. Iowa2%
share of Northwestern’s football posts that mention each team
Northwestern lives rent-free in
  1. Michigan State12%
share of each rival fanbase’s football posts that bring up Northwestern
Who they talk aboutThe people this fanbase names more than anyone else does.
Who they talk about Against the field · 2026 season

The names this fanbase says more than anyone else does — players, coaches, the places they keep coming back to. Not slang: these are the people carrying the conversation.

Aidan Chiles
×661.4 the field
Signature — named ≥10× as often as the rest of college football
Aidan Chiles×661.4
Chip Kelly×174.2
David Braun×810.9

“Chip Kelly and Aidan Chiles are my new dads, and Northwestern’s making the playoff”

reddit/CFB · fan post
Fans on Aidan Chiles
  1. Aidan Chiles, Griffin Wilde, Dakorien Moore, all the U of O running backs, Ra'Shaad Samples (Oregon
  2. Aidan Chiles is ballin' out this year. Burnt us with his legs while always keeping his downfield
  3. raiola thinks he’s aidan chiles or something
  4. Aidan Chiles has become latest signal-caller who has blossomed after switching teams. After
  5. Feel stupid for not knowing this but is Aidan Chiles in his last year of eligibility? Or could we be getting him back next year?
  6. will Aidan chiles come back for a 5th year? many (scouts) are wondering if he can do better than northwestern
  7. AIDAN CHILES!!!!!!!!!!! NFL bound
  8. (Illinois) Aidan Chiles (Northwestern)
What they're calledThe slang the sport reaches for about this program more than most.
What the sport calls them 2026 season · from Words

How often college football reaches for these watchlist words about Northwestern — against the average FBS program, or against their own usual rate — said by rival fans and national media as readily as by their own people.

The whole board →
Voice profileHow this fanbase sounds vs. every other fanbase.
Measured
Optimism
75th
Joy
80th
Anger
22nd
Doom
75th
Sarcasm
71st
Vs the 127 highest-volume fanbases - 2026 season
Vocabulary by eraThe words that defined each chapter of this program.

Season vocabulary

2026indiana
indianalasttexas
Northwestern should be a ranked team. Their only loss is to indiana.
2025stone
stonefumblezoneflairred zonered
Elite defensive play by stone thats my QB
2024offense
offensedefensetouchdown
I love ball control offense. Play keep-away
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