Pat Fitzgerald is a football guy. You don’t have to listen to many press conferences or watch many games to figure that out.

So when the Northwestern head coach is asked whether or not he’ll take a conservative approach to the remainder of the regular season with the B1G West title no in-hand, what do you think his response is going to be?

It didn’t take long for Fitzgerald to shoot down the idea of him resting players or taking a more conservative approach in Northwestern’s final two games. He made it pretty clear that the Wildcats will be playing to win, even if the games against Minnesota and Illinois don’t matter in the standings.

“It matters to us, every game matters to us,” Fitzgerald said Monday. “It’s a B1G West game. We’ve talked about going with a championship approach now for a number of weeks, mentality wise and the way that we prepare and play.

“Champions win football games. You do that by the way that you prepare and do it by the way you execute and do it by the way you play.”

Northwestern is 6-4 on the season with a 6-1 mark in B1G games. It locked up the West title with a 14-10 win over Iowa at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday.

The question posed to Fitzgerald is fair. Since the Wildcats don’t have any College Football Playoff hopes right now, it may not be a bad idea to rest a few guys and ensure their health for the B1G Championship Game, with a trip to the Rose Bowl on the line.

But Fitzgerald isn’t interested in that approach. Instead, Northwestern will try to win as many games as it can and worry about the B1G title game later.

Like I said, Fitzgerald is a football guy.