EVANSTON, Ill. — The view from Northwestern’s new practice field is how Pat Fitzgerald has always viewed his football program.

Infinite.

The brand spanking new Ryan Fieldhouse and Walter Athletics Center was just a promising vision seven years ago, but now it presides as the pinnacle of facilities in college football today, highlighted by the same gorgeous view from either the indoor or outdoor practice fields of Lake Michigan that seems to go on forever. Stand in the middle of either field and it looks the turf just drops into the water. Then if you’re facing south, swivel your head to the right and there’s the Chicago skyline. The all-glass facade on the north side where the natural light pours in is remarkable, but perhaps even more impressive is the efficiency of the building as Fitzgerald and his coaching staff look to maximize the 20 allotted hours NCAA gives football staffs to work with their players.

PHOTOS: More images of Northwestern's facilities

“Maximize” has been the name of the game under Fitzgerald. Northwestern has had just five 10-win seasons in program history dating back to 1882. The first came in 1903. The next time it happened Fitzgerald was the best linebacker in college football when he helped lead the Wildcats to a Big Ten Championship and the Rose Bowl in 1995. The other three times have happened in the last six seasons.

The arrow is certainly up on Northwestern football. January of 2012 saw the first bowl win since 1949. Last year was the third postseason win in six years. The 27 wins over the last three years is the best in the last century for this program and the 15th-most in the nation among Power Five programs. A current eight-game winning streak is tops in Power Five football heading into the fall and the feel around the complex is this is a budding Top 25 program looking to break through.

247Sports got a chance to talk with Fitzgerald last week with the finishing touches of the $270 million renovation providing ambience to the conversation, clanks of construction and beeps of vehicles. Fitzgerald heads into his 13th season at his alma mater at just 42 years old, having turned down past opportunities for a faster road to prominence at other universities to build up the only one he loves. He is 87-65 as the head coach since taking over in 2006, completely changing the culture of a program that otherwise remained mostly unchanged, utilizing pretty much the exact same facilities Fitzgerald had as a player. Western Michigan, not to mention anyone in the Big Ten, had a better setup than the Wildcats from a training standpoint.

Until now.

“To me that’s probably the most exciting aspect,” Fitzgerald said. “We’ve been able to accomplish a lot with a little. And now to be able to have a lot, I think the sky is the limit for our program.”

As a high school junior from nearby Carl Sandburg in Orland Park, Ill., Fitzgerald was in the stands when new Northwestern coach Gary Barnett said, “We’re taking the Purple to Pasadena.” He bought into that.

“I remember the chuckle in the crowd,” Fitzgerald said.

Nobody was laughing by 1995 when the Wildcats went 8-0 in Big Ten play. They tied for the league crown again in 1996, Fitzgerald’s last season as a player. His Russell athletic jersey from those days is framed in the background of this interview, on the ground ready to be hung on one of his brand new office walls. Fitzgerald has always talked about taking his program beyond what those two football teams did. Winning the Big Ten West is the first on-field goal for a team that graduates all their players every year. Fitzgerald says he hasn’t heard anyone laugh when he talks about the aspirations for his squad year in and year out.

“They think it’s their dad’s Northwestern but it’s definitely not your grandfather’s Northwestern,” Fitzgerald said. “We’re right there. We’ve just got to knock the door down. We’ve been a win away from a West championship now a couple times. Credit to the schools that won it and we didn’t get it done. We’re really close and our commitment is to do that. We’ve won the academic national championship now almost every year I’ve been the head coach. The next step is winning the Big Ten West and taking the next steps on the field and we’re going to get there.”

The new facility is built for student-athletes with all the academic rooms and tutors just steps away from the nutrition, locker room, state-of-the-art weight room with that view of Lake Michigan again and large, comfortable team meeting rooms. There’s a virtual reality room where quarterback Clayton Thorson and the offense can do things such as work on all their pre-snap checks and calls against a simulated defense. There is also a sports medicine wing where athletes receive immediate care and x-rays instead of having to travel to a nearby facility.

“It’s great for recruiting obviously, but the day-to-day is why we built what we built where we built and why we built everything for our student-athletes,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s going to be absolutely spectacular there’s no doubt about that, but it’s about work. It’s about bringing the right young men that fit the program and developing them to be the best they’ve can. I think we’ve had success because a blue-collar mentality and that needs to just continue now with the technology we’re able to take advantage of.”

Northwestern is currently sitting on the nation’s No. 28 recruiting class per the industry-generated 247Sports Composite.

“We’re not going to change who we recruit from a DNA perspective, who the young men are academically, their character, what we see on video,” Fitzgerald said. “We’re just going to continue to develop them better and use the resources we have better. Our hope is that a handful of schools we go head to head with, maybe if we won two or three battles, now maybe it is five or six. Just continue to add the Northwestern Wildcat fit with just a little more talent every year. That’s the goal.”

Fitzgerald has always been one of the hardest-working recruiters in the country. A former recruiting coordinator, he pushed for an off-field staff when he got the head job. The Wildcats have narrowed the gap on staff regarding their Big Ten peers. It’s an important trait he looks for in assistant coaches, not just recruiters but evaluators keen to the prospects that fit their vision and school. Besides Stanford, Northwestern is as tough a school for a football recruit to be admitted to anywhere in the country.

So when your board tends to be smaller than the rest of the Big Ten, losing a key battle on the trail stings more. Fitzgerald and his staff are projecting these new facilities will help win some tight ones lost in the past.

“I think we’re on a player maybe five years ago who would have said I really like your school, I really like you, I like your assistants but I’m going to go elsewhere — maybe kids are taking a deeper dive and a deeper look at us,” Fitzgerald said. “Kids want to see support. They want to play for a winner. The kids we recruit want to get a great degree from a great school and be prepared for life and they want to play for a team that competes for a championship that has the university backing, and I think the Walter Athletics Center, Ryan Fieldhouse and Wilson Field are a statement our administration is all-in with their support.”