Answering all of your mailbag questions!

The Inside NU editors-in-chief try to reply to (almost) all the questions you have about Northwestern sports right now.

Thank you all for submitting your mailbag questions to us! We tried our best to answer all the questions that we could reply to. So without further ado, here are the responses:

From Ben Chasen (via X): Favorite Northwestern football uniform combo?

Yanyan: I’d have to go with the dark Gothics — honestly, across every Northwestern sport, they are up there as one of my favorite uniform color combinations. That said, I wish the football team had white Gothics like how lacrosse/basketball/softball have them. White Gothic with white helmets would look incredible.

Harris: This is kind of a weird shout, but I’m going to go with Northwestern’s black-white-black combination from the 24-10 win against Wisconsin in 2023. Like all great uniform combinations, my memory from that game carries a lot of weight. I made the trip up with a group of friends during my freshman year, and we bounced around a few tailgates before taking our talents to Camp Randall — talking a big game to our Wisconsin friends while fully expecting to watch the ‘Cats get pummeled for the next three hours.

After taking six months of flak from high school friends going to schools with much more prestigious football programs, that type of performance on the road saw me send a lot of mean texts to a lot of people.

Those simple white and black uniforms matched the personality of that underdog 2023 side. They were sleek, unassuming and undeniably tough. The ‘Cats also wore them in their 37-10 road smackdown over Maryland in 2024. Need these again for Nebraska in 2025.

Miguel: Not to go chalk here, but I’ll also have to say the dark Gothics, far and away. Not only is it my favorite Northwestern football uniform combo, but it might be one of my favorites in the entire country. Given the white, purple and black color combination, Northwestern has so many great options to choose from. I think the gothics do the color combo justice while also paying homage to the campus’s gothic architecture.

From AyanKB: Besides field hockey, golf and lacrosse, what is the most likely program to win an NCAA championship?

Yanyan: It’s far-fetched but I’m going to say men’s golf if I had to pick. The Wildcats were Big Ten champions last season, have made three consecutive NCAA tournaments and finished the 2025 season ranked No. 35 in the nation. Getting through the regional and team competitions is a tough ask, but the unpredictability of match play helped push the Northwestern women over the mountain. If the men’s golf team can sneak its way into the final eight, there’s an opportunity for a Cinderella run.

Now I would have said softball given its recent success, but contrary to golf, the double elimination format of the NCAA tournament doesn’t favor teams that rely heavily on their star ace — which unfortunately has been the repeating pattern for NU over the past few seasons.

Harris: I agree with Yanyan that any team outside of the three you named is a long shot, but there’s a lot to be excited about in the realm of men’s tennis. Head coach Arvid Swan brought in three former five-star recruit transfers this spring in junior Cyrus Mahjoob from Georgia, junior Ethan Schiffman from Cal and Dylan Charlap from Vanderbilt on top of the No. 16-ranked freshman recruiting class in the country.

It’s a stretch-and-a-half to forecast a national championship for a team that flamed out in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament in 2025, but Swan is one of the more experienced coaches in the nation, and the on-paper talent of this group is undeniable. Nobody thought women’s golf had any shot of bringing home hardware even on the Wednesday morning before facing No. 1 Stanford in the title game. I could see a little Cinderella action out of the Combe.

Miguel: Although I also don’t see any other programs winning a championship in the near future, I would have to go with the softball team if I were to guess. For me, the combination of talent on this roster, the hard-nosed coaching experience and prowess of Kate Drohan and the standard the team has built in recent years as a Women’s College World Series mainstay, I have plenty of confidence in NUSB to go on a crazy run and do the unthinkable.

Now, this season wasn’t the most promising of years: NU started off in and out of the top 25, but ultimately limped to the finish line, losing to Purdue in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. Nevertheless, the ‘Cats still snuck their way into the NCAA Tournament before being unable to make their way out of the Clemson regional. The potential the Wildcats have to earn their own regional is definitely there, though, and the talent and experience they hold allow for some potential to be in the national title conversation one day.

From Sloth Astronuat: What big bombshell drops re: Northwestern athletics or the Big Ten this summer?

Yanyan: I don’t know anything and this is purely speculation, but I wouldn’t be shocked if we got some big stadium-related news this summer.

Harris: LSU head coach Brian Kelly floated a Big Ten-SEC challenge for college football earlier this week, and I could absolutely see something like that get announced this summer in the midst of all the craziness surrounding the College Football Playoff format and the respective strength of the two conferences. Northwestern vs Vanderbilt has some real juice to it.

Miguel: As much as I don’t want to see it, college football seems to continue going in the direction of conference conglomerates and independence from the NCAA. My guess is we’ll start to see the foundation of yet another College Football Playoff model, where the Big Ten gets up to four automatic bids given the pull the conference has. While this might not affect NU football immediately, it would mark a new era for college sports. For Northwestern, being in the Big Ten is as lucrative as ever.

From Sloth Astronuat: Where do I need to make an effort to eat the next time I visit?

Yanyan: My absolute favorite place in downtown Evanston is Tomo Japanese Street Food, so there’s that.

Harris: Bob’s Pizza’s fryer broke sometime this winter, and they’ve neglected to fix it, so those guys are out on account of a lack of cheese curds. I’d have to go with Taco Diablo on Davis Street. Unequivocally the best Mexican food in town.

Miguel: I can’t say I’m the biggest foodie in Evanston, considering most of the time I go out in Evanston, it’s to Chipotle. But my go-to local spot would probably have to be 10Q. Some great chicken sandwiches and good vibes.

From NU’06er: What commenter hot takes make current students give a “y’all just don’t understand college kids” shake of the head? What are we out here in old fogie-land too set in our ways to comprehend?

Yanyan: I’m not sure if this is a generational thing, but I think there’s an assumption amongst the comments that women’s basketball is a “non-revenue” sport in the way that field hockey and lacrosse are. It doesn’t have the same money as football or men’s basketball, but I think it falls above most other sports in terms of how much money influences things, and it will only get more prevalent as the sport grows — especially with NCAA tournament units and NIL now in play. This is why I don’t think it’s fair to expect Northwestern to be on the same level as other schools like Texas, UCLA, etc., in the same way that fans don’t expect the men’s team to be. Obviously, NUWBB can be a lot better than it is now, but a lot of those outside factors are in play in a way that they weren’t five years ago.

Harris: I’m appreciative of 99% of all the comments we get on this site. We rarely respond in the comment sections, but I’m reading everything written under my articles and most of what’s written under everybody else’s. I will always appreciate the feedback — thank you to whoever reminded me that the sun doesn’t actually set over Lake Michigan in the comment section of my “Three reasons to love lakefront Northwestern football” article from last year.

Though Northwestern students are not blameless by any means, I feel like Northwestern students sometimes get an unfair amount of criticism for low-attendance numbers, especially for football. The school has to do a better job getting students to those games and creating a gameday experience that is enticing to a student crowd. I think the new stadium will solve a lot of those problems, but it does worry me a little bit that most of the promotion has been centered around premium seating and not a student section. Northwestern also needs a revamped shuttle service that makes it easier for students to get to Ryan Stadium when the games move off-campus. It’d be great if the school could add some alternate routes to grab students tailgating off-campus as well — a lot of my friends will go to these off-campus houses pregame and then decide against calling a $15 Uber/walking the 20 minutes to the stadium. A little pathetic, sure, but it’s Northwestern’s job to make it easy for students to get to the stadium, and things like that go a long way.

Miguel: This might just be me, but I think the standard for some Northwestern sports is just a little too high sometimes. While I understand that Northwestern is a Big Ten school and should be competitive, I think Northwestern fans (at least the ones consistently in article comment sections) get a little ungrateful for the success sports have seen recently. Football might have had a tough season, and women’s basketball is in the dumps; but on the flip side, men’s basketball is probably the best it’s ever been, and championships from both field hockey and women’s golf shouldn’t be taken lightly. At the end of the day, two championships in one year is something to be extremely proud of and grateful for.

From Johnathan Wood: What player and/or team are you most looking forward to watching in the 2025-26 year?

Yanyan: Northwestern field hockey forward Ashley Sessa, the nation’s leader in points last season. I don’t think NU’s field hockey stars get the recognition that some stars across other sports get, but Sessa is up there as one of the most entertaining athletes I’ve ever covered at this school. She obviously had that big 3D goal against Iowa last season, but she’s generally fast and creative with her stick in a way that not many players in the country are. Her plays are the type to get you into field hockey if you’ve never watched before.

As for a team, I’m excited to watch men’s basketball. I didn’t get an opportunity to cover many in-person MBB games throughout my time as a managing editor or staff writer, so I hope to do a lot more this coming season. The energy in Welsh-Ryan after a big conference win is unmatched, and I hope I get to capture that (rather than after a blowout loss to Michigan State). Also, I look forward to seeing what this big freshman and transfer class can bring.

Harris: The player has to be Preston Stone. There’s been a fair amount of hype surrounding the SMU transfer, and I still think that Northwestern fans are under-appreciating how massive of a get he was this summer. Stone is at least a tier-up from the Ben Bryant genre of mildly productive transfer quarterback from a non-Power Five program — and at least two tiers up from Mike Wright. The former four-star recruit put up all-conference numbers during his junior season at SMU and received votes for ACC Preseason Player of the Year in 2024, even after BREAKING HIS LEG in November of 2023. There’s a lot of uncertainty in the rest of that Northwestern offense, most immediately in the wide receiver room, but I think that the retooled offensive line will be good enough for Stone to surprise a bunch of people in the Big Ten.

As for a team, it’s got to be men’s basketball. I’m well on the record for how excited I am to watch the three incoming transfers (Jayden Reid sneaky All-Big Ten team…?) and I’m beyond curious to see how Collins works in the five freshmen. Cade Bennerman, especially, is going to be an interesting guy to monitor given Northwestern’s lack of depth at center and Bennerman’s stated preference to play the forward position. Also, this block is just outrageous:

Miguel: There are so many players I’m looking forward to, so it’s hard to choose just one. Given that fall sports are up next, I think my pick would have to be the duo of Preston Stone at quarterback and Griffin Wilde at wide receiver. After showing off at the open spring practice, these two look primed to bring Northwestern football back to winning ways after a disappointing 2024 season. As usual, the ‘Cats will be looked over to begin the year, but I think these two have the potential to surprise a lot of people in the Big Ten on the way to a bowl appearance.

If there’s any single team I’d choose, it would probably be baseball. I had very little faith, given how historically bad the team has been for the last two decades, but this year showed a lot to me in terms of just how good of a hire Ben Greenspan really was. The second-year head coach is changing the culture in Evanston, turning the ‘Cats into a capable team. Even if they were just short of qualifying for the Big Ten Tournament, they looked better than they have in years.