I’ve lost all hope that we’ll win another game this year!

Just want to throw something out there... This is Jeff Sagarin's view of NCAA football. Rating is used to say, for example, that Ohio State is 7 points better than Michigan on a neutral field. Schedule is the average rating of the team's opponents.


other teams


Personally, I'd rate Illinois a little ahead of Penn State. Also Purdue ahead of Wisconsin and Iowa... But essentially its back to being a two team league!
Also notable, SIU and Miami, OH are basically as good as we are this year.

Saw a certain 2nd-string QB today with a cast on his non-throwing hand...

Just finished Bama-Tenn game. Great win at home for the Vols to knock off Bama.

Also good matchup against Wisc and MSU. Indiana-Maryland game was entertaining too.

My perception after watching different BT games today is our program is really lagging behind. I’m feeling pessimistic about us winning another game this season. A comment was made during the Wisc-MSU game how much coaching skill sets needed for success have changed recently with the portal and NIL. The comments seemed apropos related to NU. We have now been passed by other “lower rung” BT programs-teams like Illinois, Indiana and Maryland look superior to us in all facets.

Just got taken off on a cart with a leg injury. I assume he won’t play next week.

Last year as the team started to circle the drain, I thought we see more young players getting playing time. You know, gaining experience to build for the future. Well he continued to trot out the same guys game after game. Near season's end, it was apparent that apathy had set in and they were just going through the motions.

Will the same thing happen this season? If it does, I believe that it's to the detriment of the team getting better. Young players lose passion and fire to play. A lot of these guys were sold on a narrative that they could help move the program to the next level. Apathy can be contagious. How many of 4, 5, or 6-year players who play every Saturday still have a driving motivation to play on Sundays? I would wager that most are thinking more about getting their degree and moving on to the real world.

I also believe that not playing young guys can hurt recruiting. High school guys have access to so much data on teams. They know the patterns. Other coaches will make sure that they know. For example, Duke is playing a lot of 2021 recruits. Players know this.
So I say, let's inject some young guys and see what happens. To me it's a lot better to see a redshirt freshman miss a tackle or fumble the ball than some 4-year guy.

watching the Packers vs Jets, GB looks like NU.

GCG, you might not want to answer this, but do you feel Fitz has it in him to turn this ship around? There are so many glaring issues and this university is about to spend $800M on a new stadium. I think there is no real accoutability with Fitz's status and an AD with no real power.

Fans wanna know:

Looks like #8 Ryan Johnson will be out for the year now with a lower body injury.

For years, Fitz could count on our West opponents to employ boneheads. Neb, ILL, PU and MN had a hilarious clown-car coaches rotation. I_wa kept Ferentz, who beats Fitz half the time, even WI had some turnover.

Now, let's say WI and Neb simply hire their interim coaches. Where does that leave Fitz in that pecking order. Even Ferentz fields a defense.

First to worst?

I looked it up and the last time we finished with less than 2 wins was 1989, when we finished 0-11.

We lost to Duke (sound familiar?), Air Force, and Rutgers that season.

Lowlights included a 43-11 loss to Indiana, 52-27 loss to OSU, a 63-14 loss to Illinois, and a 76-14 loss to MSU.

Highlights included the individual seasons of Bob Christian and Richard Buchanan who had nice stats and earned All B1G honors.

Were any of our posters around that season? Are there any lessons you could share?

Go back say 5 years and I had a lot of faith in Fitz. Was more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Fast forward to today and he’s used all that capital up.

What bothers me most is I want to believe the guy gets the bigger picture and is a true leader, but at some point you have to start questioning that very concept if he keeps putting his adult best buds above the young student athletes in his program. That’s the direct opposite of the persona he wants to portray.

If Fitz wants to be loyal to JON, he makes enough money to build him a residence on his property and pay him to be his personal assistant.

Tennessee-Alabama, TCU-Oklahoma St. so fun.

I've done no research other than Googling "best defense FCS". Good old Dennis Thurman came up.

It is time to get real about the reason for our performance the past two years. it is not on the coordinators.

One of the commentators on the Big Ten Network was speaking about Brett Bielema as a great program builder. He specifically mentioned that he has hired two coordinators who are excellent and that Bielema deserves credit for the turnaround. Coaches build programs through who they hire as their coordinators. When the coordinators don't perform they get fired or the coach gets fired.

How many empty stadiums or stadiums filled with the opposing team's fans, and how many decommits do we have to experience before we are willing to put the full responsibility of what is happening on Patrick Fitzgerald??

If Fitz is unwilling to fire these guys, we will have to wait out the administrators. Right now the program is unwatchable except for the die-hards (myself included). But even NU has to see the problem.

Northwestern cannot allow this go on forever. Either they put the pressure on Fitz or they move on. With Fitz's contract, not sure they can move on. But let's stop blaming our coordinators! It stops and starts with the Head Coach!! And he has built a slow-developing disaster...those are icebergs ahead!

…is that it so feels like Fitz and the program just don’t care.

4-14 last two seasons.
Average margin of defeat over 19 points.

Not making changes, not acting as if it’s understood there are major problems within the program…..it’s just infuriating.

And in an era when you can lose your whole roster overnight. The image of just standing pat really feels like there isn’t any concern at all by those with the power to do anything about it.

Brett Beilema already has three Big Ten Championships! Now he has Illinois in contention with easy games versus hapless Northwestern and Nebraska coming up! Shall we crown em champs?

I was looking at the roster, and saw a new walk-on…Blake Smith…6’6” G from Blue Bell, PA.

Does anybody have any info on him?

13 listed on the roster, so at least they’ll be able t practice 5 on 5, to start the season, anyway.

I'm as interested in what has happened to Fitz in the past few years as in what's happening to the football team. Not keeping up with the game? Too comfortable now that he apparently has it made? Lost interest in coaching? Poor judge of coaching ability? Nothing, same old Fitz? People have posted various theories, but I thought to get it all in on place might be informative.