There’s been no rush on Clayton Thorson’s recovery. While the senior has played in every game for Northwestern this season, Pat Fitzgerald and the medical staff have been monitoring him very closely.

Thorson played in his first complete game of the season in last Saturday’s matchup against Michigan. He helped the Wildcats build an early 17-0 lead but wasn’t able to piece together a game-winning drive on the last possession.

Thorson finished the day completing 16-of-27 passes for 174 yards. More importantly, he proved he could go the entire way. That’s a good thing for the Wildcats moving forward.

“I was ecstatic to have him there the whole game, he made some big throws, he’d like to have a blocking checkdown back,” Fitzgerald said. “He had some throws he would’ve liked to have had back, like he said. But head coaches and quarterbacks are all evaluated on wins and losses, we’ve lost 3 straight and we need to fix that.”

Northwestern’s passing attack has struggled with the quarterback rotation, part of the reason for the 1-3 start. But the Wildcats seem to have their starter back in place. And it comes at a good time, as they hit a stretch of very winnable games.

On Saturday, Northwestern travels to East Lansing to take on No. 20 Michigan State, a game they’ve won each of the last two years. Then they return home to take on Nebraska and travel back to Rutgers.

With Thorson healthy enough to play a full game, Northwestern has a decent shot to enter the Wisconsin game on Oct. 27 with a 4-3 record.

That’s still a long way away, though.

For now, Fitzgerald and the Cats are just happy they’ve got a starter who can go the full 60 minutes.