EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern. Big Ten favorite.

Those sentiments don't exactly roll off the tongue, but considering the vacuum created when Michigan quarterback Drew Henson opted for a career in baseball, it's where the Wildcats very probably find themselves as they go through spring drills.

Third-year coach Randy Walker has been preaching improvement on both sides of the ball this offseason, so he isn't about to let any prognostications change his approach as Northwestern prepares for Saturday's spring game at Ryan Field.

Anderson: NFL can wait

Even though his stats and accomplishments said otherwise, Damien Anderson knew he wasn't quite ready for the Next Football Level. So instead of sitting at Madison Square Garden waiting for his name to be called during Saturday's NFL draft, Anderson will be standing on the sidelines at Northwestern's Ryan Field as his teammates play in the annual spring game. And he has no regrets about his decision to pass on a big time pro contract to spend another season with the Big Ten Wildcats. "I'm happy for the guys that are going but I'm glad I made my decision as I did because I didn't feel like I was ready, as a player or a person, for that step right now and there's a lot of things I can improve on and that's why I came back," Anderson said. His main focus this spring has been on improving his pass-catching skills. Anderson had 19 receptions for 132 yards last season and his career numbers (45 receptions, 395 yards, 0 TD) aren't very impressive considering he has rushed for 3,728 yards and scored 30 touchdowns in his three seasons at Northwestern. "Damien is a guy who has been a very accomplished runner but as I've told him there's about a million guys who can run the football," Wildcat coach Randy Walker said. "For him to be special and for him to have the best chance of success at the next level, he needs to get better at the passing game." He'll have at least 11 games this fall to prove to NFL scouts that he's not just a one-dimensional back. This weekend, he'll be working on his multi-tasking skills: watching the culmination of spring practice in Evanston, while at the same time keeping one eye on the action in New York. "I've got a lot of friends who are going (to be drafted) and I'll definitely keep an eye on the running backs to see how I would have done in comparison to my stats and my athletic ability," Anderson said. – David Albright

"Everybody in the country picked us last in the Big Ten and we didn't give that a whole lot of thought and I've never put a whole lot of concern into preseason or what those rankings are about," Walker said. "It's where you show up in January that counts."

The Wildcats are hoping there's no repeat from last season in that department.

Three months ago Northwestern was left licking its wounds following a 66-17 thrashing at the hands of Nebraska in the Alamo Bowl. Northwestern actually led 10-7 early in the second quarter in San Antonio, but the Huskers scored 56 of the next 63 points and rolled up 636 yards en route to the 49-point victory.

Because of the embarrassing bowl loss, the Wildcats dropped out of the top 25 in the final polls, falling from No. 19 in the ESPN/USA Today poll and No. 18 in the AP.

With 17 starters returning from that 8-4 club, including Heisman Trophy candidate Damien Anderson, the players now find themselves dealing not only with the hangover of the Nebraska debacle, but with the expectation of being a Big Ten favorite.

"I definitely think it's motivation. I think that was a good gauge for us, to show us what the top teams in the country play like," fifth-year senior quarterback Zak Kustok said. "Nebraska was No. 1 for half the season. That showed us that we obviously weren't where we want to be this year.

"Even though we would have loved to come in and win a bowl game, I think it was a good learning experience for us. It showed that we're not maybe as good as we thought we were."

Forgive Northwestern if it had gotten a little carried away last fall. With nobody taking the Mildcats very seriously coming off of a 3-8 season in 1999, Walker's group of overachievers ended up with a share of the Big Ten title (Purdue and Michigan also finished 6-2 in conference play). And if not for a late-season stumble at Iowa, the Wildcats would have been in the Rose Bowl instead of Drew Brees and the Boilermakers.

"I came out at media day before last season started and said that I expected us to win the Big Ten and I think a lot of people in the Chicago papers made fun of me for saying that," Kustok said. "I think that's going to be one of the biggest differences from last year. Teams are going to be gunning for us and we won't be able to sneak up on anybody. But this is where we want to be. We want to be picked to be at the top of the Big Ten."

Nobody is questioning that the Wildcat offense belongs at the top of the conference. The Wildcats averaged 36.8 points and 467.9 yards per game to finish first in both categories.

That was due in large part to the efforts of Kustok (206-363, 2,389 yards, 19 TD, 7 INT) and Anderson.

The 5-foot-11, 204-pound senior rushed for 2,063 yards, scored 23 touchdowns and finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting. He has passed on a chance at the NFL to return for a fifth season with the hopes of leading the Wildcats to a BCS bowl while at the same time better positioning himself for the next level.

Anderson spends a lot of time watching his teammates take reps during spring practice because Walker won't let him participate in full-contact situations. "Damien got tackled 600 times the last two years," Walker said. "Zak might have got that many in two years, too. So I don't need to see them get hit or subject them to full-go stuff."

To compensate for the lack of competition during practice, Anderson stays after to work with running backs coach Jeff Genyk on catching the football. The game they play awards two points for catching a pass with one hand, one point for one hand with the body and no points for catches with two hands.

"One of those things that they look for in the NFL is a guy that's multi-talented," Anderson said. "I want to do that in college and be that type of threat on the next level. Right now I don't think I'm a complete player at all.

"Along with the offense, I think I've just scratched the surface on my talent. Being here for another year I think I can improve greatly."

That may be a scary proposition for the rest of the Big Ten.

	Titles and trips
	Big Ten titles: 1903*, 1926*, 1930*, 1931*, 1936, 1995, 1996*, 2000*
	Bowl appearances: 1949 – Rose, beat Cal 20-14 1996 – Rose, lost to USC 41-32 1997 – Citrus, lost to Tennessee 48-28 2000 – Alamo, lost to Nebraska 66-17
	* – co-champions

But if Northwestern is going to make a serious run at another conference title, it's going to have to improve its porous defense. The Wildcats were near the bottom of the conference in every defensive category, including total defense (427.1 yards per game, 9th) and scoring defense (33.3 ppg, 10th).

"It's important that we improve and defense is an area we think we can make some big strides in," Walker said. "We were 10th in many categories in the Big Ten last year, so we want to get better."

The good news is that a very talented linebacking corps returns, led by Nagurski Award candidate Billy Silva in the middle. He is flanked by fellow seniors Kevin Bentley and Napoleon Harris. The bad news is that there are several holes in front of and behind them.

Gone are three down linemen and a pair of defensive backs, including sack leader Dwayne Missouri (9 sacks, 16 tackles for loss) and interception leader Harold Blackmon (5 of team's 13 picks).

"Our defense wasn't nearly what it needed to be last year," Bentley said. "We had a lot of talent and we just didn't get it done – we didn't execute a lot of times. And I think we knew our offense would bail us out here and there and that's not the attitude we need to take.

"We need to go into every game looking like everyone is after us. And if they're not going to be after us then they're going to get it taken to 'em because that's how we're coming out – like we're the last man standing and everyone wants our piece of meat. I can't control what other teams do but I know what we're going to do."

Northwestern catches a bit of a break on the scheduling front as it loses Michigan and Wisconsin from its Big Ten schedule and replaces them with Ohio State and Penn State. And the non-conference schedule includes Navy and Duke after the season-opener in the desert against UNLV on Sept. 7.

"I think it's always good to come out of the blocks and play somebody good in the opener," Walker said. "We're going to get a real clear picture of where we are as a football team after that opener and hopefully we'll find some good things about ourselves."

For now, the label Big Ten favorite will have to do. Time will tell if it's deserved.

David Albright is a senior editor at ESPN.com.