ANN ARBOR, Mich. ­— C.J. Bachér has experienced frustration almost as often as television announcers have mispronounced his last name.

There have been injuries, interceptions, tough losses and last season’s 6-6 finish that left Northwestern one win short of a bowl berth.

In the latest chapter of Bachér’s tumultuous career, he threw three interceptions in a loss to Indiana three weeks ago and hurt his hamstring, causing him to miss the next two games. He returned to start Saturday at Michigan Stadium against the Wolverines, only to throw for 40 yards, no touchdowns and one interception in the first half while battling inclement weather.

NU trailed 14-7. With backup Mike Kafka relegated to the sidelines with a concussion, it was up to Bachér to lead his team to victory.

One of coach Pat Fitzgerald’s go-to mottos this season is that football is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond. If that’s true, Bachér gets an A for his second-half performance against the Wolverines.

It was an important accomplishment for a quarterback who still is trying to cement his place among the best signal-callers in school history.

Bachér is already there statistically. With two games to play in his career, he is second all-time at NU in completions, third in passing yards, and fourth in passing touchdowns and pass efficiency rating. But unlike some other top Wildcats quarterbacks, Bachér did not have a “signature win” going into Saturday.

Steve Schnur and Zak Kustok led NU to Big Ten titles. Brett Basanez never did that, but he did guide the Cats to a shocking upset of No. 7 Ohio State in 2004.

Bachér had no such win. He still has not beaten a ranked team. Obviously there are many reasons for that outside of his play, but as Fitzgerald said, the quarterback tends to get all of the credit for wins and all of the blame for losses.

While Michigan is not the team it usually is, and even though it was not a pretty game, Bachér came as close to a signature win Saturday as he ever has.

Playing in a hostile environment and dealing with cold, wet weather that must have made gripping the ball difficult, Bachér shook off a tough first half and did what had to be done to get his team a victory.

With an assist from offensive coordinator Mick McCall, who suddenly decided to open up his playbook, Bachér completed 11-of-18 passes for 158 yards, two touchdowns and an interception that was not his fault after halftime. On the first drive of the third quarter, he connected with Ross Lane on a 17-yard touchdown pass and followed that up on the next drive with a 53-yard score to Eric Peterman.

It was a signature win not because Bachér lit up the scoreboard, but because he took Fitzgerald’s words to heart and overcame some serious obstacles.

“One of the values our program is built on is ‘respond,’ so when he did come out a little shaky and he’s missed a couple games, it’s not an unfamiliar position for him,” Peterman said. “We’ve been through a lot of adversity with this team, and he did a great job responding.”

Thanks to Bachér’s play and that of his defense, NU held on for an important victory that almost certainly guarantees it a ticket to no worse than the Insight Bowl.

No matter what bowl game the Cats end up playing in, Bachér will have an opportunity to do something no other NU quarterback has done since 1948: lead his team to a bowl victory. If he does that, he will have a bona fide signature win and rocket to the forefront of the NU quarterbacking pantheon.

a-simon@u.northwestern.edu

Tags: C.J. Bacher, Column, Michigan Wolverines, Pat Fitzgerald, Steve Schnur