Why not hire a "Head Coach 1A" and relegate Fitz to "Head Coach 1B"? Coach 1B's job is to fundraise and recruit. Opposing teams would not know which Head Coach would play call that day, so there is less incentive to memorize all the predictability.
Fitz must go
- Thread starter phatcat
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Because PF would quit and nobody would ever coach NU football again.
Beyond the abysmal results of the last two years is that Fitz is one of the greatest players in NU history. He's a legend here, and I hate to think how much he's tarnishing his legacy. I still admire him as a man and as a football player, but it's hard to admire him as a coach (beyond the leading of young men - which admittedly is no small thing) anymore.
I'll echo the sentiments of others on this thread - getting new coordinators is fine, but it won't make a lick of difference if the guy at the top doesn't learn how to change.
I'll echo the sentiments of others on this thread - getting new coordinators is fine, but it won't make a lick of difference if the guy at the top doesn't learn how to change.
We will never find another coach who takes care of our players the way Fitzgerald does. Last week, I talked with two friends about this very subject. One is an NFL agent who represents several ex-Wildcats. The other is a former player who mentors current players. Fitz cares about his kids unlike any other coach. Bar none. I don’t want to lose that. Yeah, I don’t want to lose games either so I know something needs to be done, but firing Fitz would be a terrible idea. Oh, how we love to crow about how Northwestern does it the right way, but do we really mean it?
Of course NU fans are different t. At a normal program, fans would have called for Fitz to be gone midway through the 2019 season.
Pat Ryan has donated how much $$$$$ on a new stadium and a new practice facility so NU can win one lousy game? Who is the knucklehead? If Fitz doesn't bring in competent coordinators and assistants for '23 and Ryan doesn't speak up, I will wonder if he isn't just an eccentric rich guy with too much $$$$. The NU administration is a frigging joke. Giving Fitz, a guy with no B1G titles in his 17 seasons at NU a Nick Saban type contract is the hallmark of not just a knucklehead, but a down right dumbass!!!
I have met Pat Ryan twice. I even attended a road game in the press box with his family once. I am quite certain he does not remember me.
17 seasons, no titles, and has the program full circle, meaning back to the dark ages. You could get a young, ambitious, offense oriented coordinator, take the plunge for the HC position at NU easily for half the cost. Fitz is ruined to be honest and has been exposed as being not all that. If things stand pat through next season and '24 might as well stick a fork in the program for awhile.
You know, of course, I was kidding. Pat Ryan wasn’t impressed. He hates my guts. 😀
I think you’re right on the last point. If Fitz doesn’t make any changes and has a similar season in 2023 then calls for his job will be fully legitimate. Probably still financially impossible, but legitimate.
$5 million a year is a lot, especially for the results he has given us. Like I have stated many times before, my uncle, the late Earle Bruce, never made a million a year when he was coaching OSU, and he was the winningest coach in the Big Ten during his tenure there and actually played for a natty. Winning the West is nice, but the West has been weak as of late and we are in the basement. His contract was unwarranted, not only in amount, but in length.
$5-6MM really isn’t a lot in today’s college football. Fitz’s compensation is probably in the top third of the B1G, but much closer to Fleck/Brohm than Day/Harbaugh/Tucker.
Sucks for your uncle that he coached at OSU in the 1980s than the 2000s. Would’ve made a killing.
Northwestern is about to receive $100 million/year from the B1G. The Board of Trustees should go to the "admissions board" and tell them that it is part of their responsibility to allow the football and basketball coaches extraordinary freedom in offering scholarships. There may be a slightly higher "academic casualty" rate but NU has to get off their high horse and give outstanding athletes an opportunity to receive an NU degree. NU was infinitely easier than my high school and the athletic department offers fantastic support, so the vast majority of jocks can graduate. I would bet that the academic casualty rate of elite athletes would mirror that of the selected "nerds" that the admission department selects.
The powers that be do not realize the benefits that NU would receive if their men's athletic teams were nationally competitive in FB and BB. I'll reference Georgetown of 1980's and George Mason of 12 years ago that experienced increased applications from higher quality students following their BB success- academic ratings improved at Georgetown on a national basis and George Mason on a regional basis.
The academic cost of a scholarship athlete is that of a chair since the cost of the academic infrastructure already exists
I have no idea if it was tried before but I continue to see comments that a player from another school did not have the grades to be admitted. John Thompson hired Mary Fenlon, whose job was to monitor the academic progress of the players. I know that was 12 players and it might take 3-4 "monitors" for an entire FB team but all the players would benefit.
I just do not want to repeatedly hear that our poor teams are the result of "academic restrictions" when that problem is under direct control of NU. Poor teams should be the result of poor coaching not because of some academic restrictions. The current problem seems to be the perfect storm of poor coaching and the lack of skilled offensive talent, secondary to academic selection and coaching philosophy. The offensive deficiencies have been present for years and are now coupled with defensive liabilities.
NU can fix the admission issues and PF should change his coaching philosophy, hiring an OC to attract more dynamic players and score some points, so there is less pressure on the defense.
I cringed in the past, when I read posters laud NU's "complementary" football, accepting NU's prehistoric approach to offense, which was the primary cause of NU's embarrassing defeats by lower level teams over the years. Fix the offense and your defense will not have the impossible task of limiting teams to less than 20 points in this era of high scoring college football
I’ll answer for you: it’s been tried many MANY times. The biggest issue is that the NU faculty view every seat taken up by a football player as a seat that’s not taken up by one of the world’s most academically-qualified college students. They do not make the cost/benefit analysis of weighing the “Rose Bowl effect” at all.
I can understand that to some degree because it ain’t like NU is hurting for applications, research dollars, or endowment money, but it’s also pretty short-sighted.
Nothing personal Stream, but Fitz has been treated with kid gloves. Some folks in here loved ripping on Frost, but NU seems to have their own version in Evanston. If he cleans house, and decides to adopt a 21st century offense, then I will gladly eat humble pie, but for right now I am in full Operation Barbarossa mode. The mother of all written blitzkriegs has begun!!!
Mr. Ryan should have a word with admissions, the new President and a meeting with the faculty. I am not sure why an NU professor considers himself superior to an OSU equivalent, as OSU's faculty turns out quality grads also. Maybe the faculty should earn their salary and consider it an honor to assist academically challenged students(Grundy Steiner -RIP-would be a great example of a professor to follow)
I will personally buy the extra 97 chairs(seats) that would be required to prevent a qualified student from being admitted, by granting athletic exceptions. I can afford Tommy Bahama folding beach chairs, that the players can carry from class to class. They will be particularly useful during summer sessions. Players that qualify for admission during the regular process can rent their chairs as part of an NIL deal
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There is zero reason for hope. Next year's team will be like this year's MBB team (perhaps without the 2 non con wins). At some point we either accept being the worst P5 program for an indefinite period, or we make a change.
1) It isn’t a singular faculty member, but the faculty board that represents the faculty as a whole
2) Comes down to scale. Seats at NU are much fewer than at OSU or really any other B1G schools.
3) The faculty already views the current arrangement as “academic exceptions” for football players, as they get in with academic stats much lower than “normal” NU students. Our minimums are higher than NCAA minimums, but SIGNIFICANTLY lower than NU’s typical range.
Ultimately, the faculty board doesn’t get to make the decision anyway, there are enough trustees in general who oppose the change to ultimately stop it
Does the rising competitiveness to get into NU factor into the academic “exceptions?” If the academic profile of the student body is so much higher than a generation ago, it’s a much bigger gap to take a “barely qualifier,” right?
All of this academic/admissions excuse is hogwash. Fitz bragged a couple of years ago that we were "close" on Justin Fields..Separately, although 2 of the last 3 were duds, we had 3 straight 4-5 star inbound transfer QBs
Furthermore, has anyone noticed that the team only recently sucks? What about the 25 years between 1995 and 2020. Did admissions suddenly get tougher?
Very, very few people are asking for NU to be 15-0. We just want to not suck. We did it for 25 years. Not now. The problem is that Fitz has lost his way.
Furthermore, has anyone noticed that the team only recently sucks? What about the 25 years between 1995 and 2020. Did admissions suddenly get tougher?
Very, very few people are asking for NU to be 15-0. We just want to not suck. We did it for 25 years. Not now. The problem is that Fitz has lost his way.
I don't want Fitz to go. but I want him to turn this thing around even if it means having to make the tough calls and fire his friends. I understand loyalty to your people, but that is one of the reasons why head football coaches make a lot of money. They have to do what is right for the program.
Finally someone with some sanity and common sense. Very well said.
All you folks saying you just want Fitz to somehow turn it around, re-read the quote above. He made this screamin', f'g disaster himself. The only thing that has hidden his total inability to hire great assistants all these years is recovering UW's fumble of Mike Hankwitz. If it's up to Fitz, he'll stand pat (HHHHHH) for the remainder of his contract with the turkeys he's hired as the program sinks deeper and deeper into the 100's. If you're married, you can divorce your wife, but NU has married us to Fitz for 10 more f'g years. With stars in its eyes, NU provided no escape route. Abyss upon abyss.
Somebody, somewhere has got to have a father-son talk with Fitzgerald. NU must lose both the OC and the DC. The new OC and DC must be chosen with great care. That means Fitz will not be making these selections himself. Here's hoping the contract from hell doesn't prohibit that. The new OC and DC will have authority to replace the existing staff. Might take a few years to get competitive again after Fitz, JON and Jake have been soiling the field for years, but it will be a start in the right direction. NU gets competitive again and Fitz is saved from himself.
Academic restrictions VS, no media pressure, no fan/alumni pressure, etc.
You give us 6 wins a year by year two or three and you write your own ticket.
Just don't lose to FCS teams and don't get blown out by Iowa. Get a FG kicker and NOT go for it on 4th down every time. Shopping in Chicago is much better than Toledo or Waco, TX. This isn't that hard.
Not that hard unless your name is Pat Fitzgerald.
BWHAHAHA!!! You talk as if NU football players come from broken homes with single parents who he has rescued. Do you know how many players have parents who are attorneys, MBAs, Doctors, and are economically sufficient?
Its not like many of these players had no hope until they met Pat Fitzgerald. I know many parents from the 2017-2020 era teams and I can assure you PF was NOT the featured mentor of the player. Kids who get NU grades come from good families. The Slaters, Skowronek's, Butlers, Healds, Larkins, Thorsons, Jacksons, Snodgrasses, and more are classy people who had the wherewithal to give their son's first class educations.
There are men on this team whose parents can pay the freight to go to NU without football. So any insinuation that Fitz is this special 'daddy' figure is bullshit. 99% of the men on this squad have their own connections and are not "lost' souls. He recruits from good middle class+ homes of young men who are focused. To say he 'cares' about kids like no other is like saying out of 100+ DI coaches; Fitz is the ONLY one who cares is just ignorant.
This program doesn't have off field problems because of the type of homes these players come from. I've met their dads. As men, most are (in many ways) a lot more exceptional than Pat Fitzgerald.
I am not ready to believe that Fitz is an idiot. I think in the past, he was set in his ways, but it was generally working for him. He wasn't going to win any BCS titles doing things the way he was, but he was putting out a competitive program built in the image of what was important to him. I can understand why he thought what he was doing was working and he didn't want to change. This time is different though. He is now fielding totally uncompetitive teams. He's been too successful during his lifetime to not understand that things are fundamentally different now and the status quo can't continue.
I am totally in favor of giving him a chance to change and make changes. I'd like to think he's smart enough to do that. He has his last mentor, Randy Walker, to use as a good example. Coach Walker recognized that things were not working well enough and made a drastic change to how to play offense at Northwestern. Fitz needs to see this as a great challenge - the kind of big challenges that makes careers interesting. If, however, he speaks more platitudes this offseason and doesn't change anything, then I will admit I overestimated him. That would be sad if it happens, because I really want to believe he is better than that.
I am totally in favor of giving him a chance to change and make changes. I'd like to think he's smart enough to do that. He has his last mentor, Randy Walker, to use as a good example. Coach Walker recognized that things were not working well enough and made a drastic change to how to play offense at Northwestern. Fitz needs to see this as a great challenge - the kind of big challenges that makes careers interesting. If, however, he speaks more platitudes this offseason and doesn't change anything, then I will admit I overestimated him. That would be sad if it happens, because I really want to believe he is better than that.
Not nearly as attractive as you suggest. Better than it was when Barnett came? Definitely with better facilities, finances and school commitment but still one of the toughest places to be successful. If your target is one of those quality young coaches, remember that they like to think that they are putting themselves in a position to be successful and preparing for that next step up. And a stint at NU could easily jeopardize that. They might get some longevity but it could also easily end their future opportunities. Now they might get a guy nearing the end of their career but what is the chance that they still have the energy needed to get the job done? Just saying that it is nowhere near the plum job you seem to think it is.
Are you legitimately questioning if Northwestern is a more attractive job now than it was when Barnett arrived on campus?
Where did I question that it was now better than when Barnett took over? I specifically said it was a whole lot better situation because of facilities, finances and administration commitment than it was then. I could add that we have had some some recent successes. That said, it is still one of the toughest places in the country to be successful (if success is measured in wins and losses or setting oneself up for future opportunities) And that is a huge factor for young coaches looking to make a change
While I can see him changing one of the coordinators after this year, I have serious doubts he would do both.
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