Aaron Nagel was a linebacker at Notre Dame, one of college football’s Holy Grails, but he wasn’t happy.

The Lemont graduate did not like the Fighting Irish’s coaches. They weren’t the kind of people he thought they would be back when he committed to play football there.

He wanted something different. That’s when he rediscovered his youth.

Nagel was just 7 years old in 1995 when Northwestern University’s football team shocked the nation on its way to a Big Ten title and berth in the Rose Bowl. Despite his age, Nagel noticed something about the Wildcats’ star linebacker, Pat Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald had passion. A lot of it.

In 2006, Fitzgerald brought that passion back to the NU sidelines when he was named head coach after the death of former coach Randy Walker. Nagel remembered the emotion the former star used to show and after having conversations with Fitzgerald, he quickly realized he wanted to be a Wildcat.

“Fitz was just real down to earth and told it to you straight, and I knew that was the kind of coach I wanted to play for,” Nagel said. “He’s a great coach, brings his knowledge of the game to his coaching.”

Nagel transferred to NU in June 2008, but he is by no means the only former fan who now plays for the former linebacker. Of the 104 players on the current Northwestern roster, 34 — nearly one-third of the entire team — are from Illinois. Thirteen of those players played high school football in Chicago’s western suburbs.

According to Fitzgerald, himself an Orland Park native and Sandburg graduate, those numbers are not accidental.

“We start and end our recruiting here in Chicago,” Fitzgerald said. “There are a lot of great kids in Chicago that fit our program, and if we can get that right match and the kids can help us win a championship, I think it’s a good marriage.

“We want to keep every kid that fits our program home in Chicago.”

Geography is one appealing aspect for incoming college athletes, but there is more than just being close to family and friends that attracts high school football players to Northwestern. For one thing, there is the appeal of playing in the Big Ten, a conference that currently has three teams ranked in the top 15 in the country by the Associated Press, tied with the Southeastern Conference for most in the nation.

Northwestern does not have the same rich history on the gridiron as other Big Ten programs like Michigan or Ohio State, but since 1995, when Fitzgerald led the Wildcats to the Rose Bowl, only the Buckeyes and Wolverines have more conference championships.

The Wildcats are about more than just football, though. The university prides itself on being one of the nation’s leaders academically, as well as athletically. In December 2008, Northwestern ranked second in the country behind only Boston College in the Academic Bowl Championship Series Rankings compiled by Higher Ed Watch. The rankings analyzed the graduation rate and Academic Progress Rates (a calculated measurement of whether athletes are continuing to move closer toward their degrees) of the top 25 football teams in the most up-to-date BCS rankings at that time.

The 2010 U.S. News and World Report rankings of the best universities in the country listed Northwestern 12th overall, one of only three schools affiliated with one of the six major football conferences to be rated that high. The other two were Stanford (fourth) and Duke (10th).

For Kevin Watt, a redshirt sophomore offensive lineman who played at Glenbard West, it was a mixture of the accolades on the field and in the classroom that drew him to Evanston.

“It was really the academics and athletics,” Watt said. “Being able to compete at a high level both academically and athletically was just huge for me.”

It also did not hurt that NU was recruiting so many players from the western suburbs. While at Glenbard West, Watt got to see firsthand the skills of Hinsdale Central defensive tackle Jack DiNardo and York offensive lineman Neal Deiters. Now, instead of calling DiNardo and Deiters opponents, Watt refers to them as teammates.

“It’s great because you’ve seen them play when you played them and you know that they’re good players,” Watt said. “It’s nice to have that little community, have guys that you are familiar with.”

Nagel said he feels that community connection as well, even though the Lemont graduate never actually faced any of his current teammates in high school. And of course, there is always a little smack-talking among the group whenever one player’s alma mater faces off against someone else’s former school.

But that little ribbing just makes the community’s bond even stronger.

“You’ve got someone to relate to, you all have the same background,” Nagel said. “They just suck you in because it’s just like the family atmosphere you have at home.”

Nagel knows about that familial feeling perhaps more than anyone else on the Wildcats. Nagel’s younger brother, Brett, who played quarterback at Lemont, is a redshirt freshman on Northwestern’s offense.

Of the 13 Wildcats originally from Chicago’s western suburbs, only Nazareth Academy alum Kevin Frymire of Burr Ridge and Hinsdale Central product John Henry Pace are upperclassmen when it comes to football eligibility. The other 11 are either freshmen or sophomores, or they redshirted one season, and many are still continuing the transition from high school football to Big Ten football.

“You come in here, you’re a star on your (high school) team and then you’ve got to sit out and wait for your turn to play,” Frymire said. “It was a little humbling at first.”

Hardly any of the 13 players are seeing the type of time on the field they grew accustomed to in high school, but in Northwestern’s 34-13 loss to Penn State on Saturday, five of them saw action, including Deiters, who started on offense at right tackle. Watt, Frymire, DiNardo and Colin Armstrong — a Benet alum from Wheaton — also appeared in the game.

The loss dropped the Wildcats to 5-4 on the season and 2-3 in the Big Ten, and it doesn’t get any easier as NU hits the road this weekend to face fourth-ranked Iowa, which is 9-0 on the season. One win in the Wildcats’ final three games, however, will make the team bowl eligible.

How many of the 13 players will play in that game or any game the rest of the season is a mystery right now. Some could become staples in the Wildcats’ starting lineup in the coming years, some may not. Either way they are getting an education from one of the highest regarded universities in the nation, while at the same time being exposed to some of the best college football the country has to offer.

And every time they step on the football field, they have a family of former foes beside them.