Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald will spend this week trying to figure out how to stop Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields, but at one time Fitzgerald hoped that Fields would be on his side instead.

Fitzgerald was one of the many coaches that recruited Fields, who was the 247Sports Composite No. 2 overall player in the class of 2018, before the dual-threat passer chose to attend Georgia. The Wildcats coach spoke about his history with Fields during his press conference on Monday.

"We recruited Justin," Fitzgerald said at his press conference on Monday. "I mean he's a rockstar person. We were blown away with him out of high school. Then all of a sudden, recruiting, you guys gave him too many stars. You know, it would have been great if you kept him where he was when we were recruiting him (laughs).

"But just a stud of a guy, and he's playing outstanding football. He's doing a great job of playing within the framework of what coach (Ryan Day) wants him to do, and then, you know, he's taking it to the next level being able to be really explosive with his feet and being really smart when he's doing that."

Pat Fitzgerald recruited Justin Fields, and loved the QB.



He shared a quick story about the process today.



"And then all of the sudden, you guys gave him too many stars. It would have been great if you kept him where he was when we recruited him." @coachfitz51 x @justnfields pic.twitter.com/kBGZy2Bb6F — Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) October 14, 2019

Fields is a Heisman Trophy candidate after transferring to Ohio State following his freshman campaign as the backup at Georgia. He has completed 69.5 percent of his passes for 1,298 yards, 18 touchdowns and just 1 interception. Fields has also racked up 283 yards and 8 touchdowns on the ground.

Ohio State opened as a 27 1/2-point favorite over Northwestern on Sunday; Northwestern has lost its last seven meetings versus Ohio State, including a 45-24 defeat in last year's Big Ten Championship Game. The Buckeyes (6-0, 3-0 Big Ten) and Wildcats (1-4, 0-3) are scheduled to kick off at 8:30 p.m. ET, with the game televised on FS1.