Coming into this season, several Big Ten teams were undecided with who they were going to play at the quarterback decision.

And as this year has progressed, a handful of other conference teams have had to call on reserves because of injury or lack of production from their starting signal caller.

But Northwestern is not one of those teams. In fact, the Wildcats were perhaps one of only two Big Ten teams (Illinois being the other) who didn't have any concerns when it came to the quarterback position.

There's no reason they should have. After all, senior rifleman Zak Kustok was returning from a season in which he lead the Northwestern offense to over 475 yards and 38 points per game last season.

"Zak would be good in any offense," Northwestern coach Randy Walker said. "I think he's just a good football player. He has great awareness, great vision and he understands the game.

"He's a ball player. He could beat anyone with a basketball in his hands."

But if it wasn't for a coaching change at another prestigious midwestern university several years ago, Walker may not have had the luxury of Kustok controlling the reigns of his complex spread offense.

After his senior season at Carl Sandburg H.S. in Orland Park, Ill., Kustok gave Lou Holtz and Notre Dame a commitment to play in the shadows of Touchdown Jesus for the Fighting Irish.

But soon after Kustok made his choice, Holtz hung up his whistle. And the new staff that the Irish brought to Notre Dame didn't suit Kustok's fancy.

"I got there and they changed their entire philosophy," Kustok said. "They wanted to run the option and I didn't feel like I was getting a good opportunity.

"After I made my decision, I haven't looked back. I don't wish any ill will on anybody."

While Notre Dame's run-oriented option attack didn't appeal to Kustok, Walker's no-huddle spread attack was right up his alley.

"If you could design an offense that fits my abilities, this is the offense," Kustok said. "It reminds me of a fast break offense. We've seen a lot of different ways a defense can play us right now. . .but the good thing about our offense is our ability to adjust."

It's that willingness to change throughout the course of a game that makes the Wildcat offense work. While many people may hear spread offense and think the pass/run ratio would be 80-20, Northwestern's is more like 50-50.

Last season Kustok completed 191 of 328 passes for 2251 yards and 18 touchdowns while getting picked off only 7 times. Not surprisingly, he came into this season as a candidate to win the Heisman trophy.

But opposing defenses couldn't key on Kustok alone.

While Kustok was putting up those impressive numbers, his backfield mate, running back Damien Anderson dashed and darted for 1914 yards and 22 touchdowns.

It's that type of balance that keeps defenses playing a guessing game from the opening kickoff.

And with a guy as smart as Kustok running the show, the results are almost always on the plus side if you're a Wildcat backer.

"By this point we've seen most of the looks that we're going to get," Kustok said. "We've seen a little bit of all the looks. But the defense can't take away everything."