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Fitz turned down NFL job

Yup. He is his own man, and if he was thin-skinned then he never would have had the success he has had as a player / coach. People forget that he’s a South sider... they tend to let you know what they think down there in much less friendly terms than the media.

I don’t think he’d like being a NFL coach for the same reason “true college coaches” don’t: he likes recruiting and developing young men into better men.

NFL coaches spend most of their 100 hour work weeks in the practice facilities and video rooms. College coaches spend theirs rallying their team, coaching their staffs, or on the road wooing recruits and parents.

Belichick is the greatest NFL coach for a reason, and Saban is arguably the best modern college coach for another set of reasons. Fitz is a college coach and I would bet he retires as NU’s head coach or AD... and before he’s too old to enjoy retirement.
The previous 2 NU coaches have been more successful. Look at the BigTen trophies.
Fitz has had greater opportunity with a practice complex, yet still has stumbled in recruiting and has to rebuild the sand castle he created that got washed away this year.
He has not successfully attained his stated goal of a BigTen championship.
Others before him did, so should he.
 
The previous 2 NU coaches have been more successful. Look at the BigTen trophies.
Fitz has had greater opportunity with a practice complex, yet still has stumbled in recruiting and has to rebuild the sand castle he created that got washed away this year.
He has not successfully attained his stated goal of a BigTen championship.
Others before him did, so should he.

Fitz's West title is at least equal to, if not better than Walker's 3-way tie for the Big Ten championship. And we finished that season with our third bowl win in a row over well-ranked Utah.
 
Gary Barnett created a football miracle at NU and revived a dead program but he was 0-8 in the Big Ten in his final season and he didn't stay the course. Randy Walker proved Gary's feat was not a fluke by winning a shared title with a 6-2 Big Ten record, but he blew a possible Rose Bowl appearance with a loss to a bad Iowa team and then suffered an ugly beatdown at the Alamo. He was 0-3 post season, losing to Bowling Green in Detroit and blowing a 26-0 lead to UCLA at El Paso. Pat is 4-5 in bowls, won the Big West with an 8-1 mark, which is comparable to Walker's shared crown, and has led Northwestern to its greatest SUSTAINED success in history, so it depends how you measure SUCCESS. Fitz is part of Barnett and Walker's legacy since he played for Gary and Randy brought him back as a young assistant coach so I think you can say all three made almost equally great contributions, but no, Fitz has not been "less successful" than his predecessors.
 
The previous 2 NU coaches have been more successful. Look at the BigTen trophies.
Fitz has had greater opportunity with a practice complex, yet still has stumbled in recruiting and has to rebuild the sand castle he created that got washed away this year.
He has not successfully attained his stated goal of a BigTen championship.
Others before him did, so should he.
I think Fitz' recruiting woes were directly contributed to the fact that few offensive studs really had any reason to come to NU.
Now with both McCall and Cushing gone, I think recruiting will finally progress forward. And we already seen the fruits of having Cushing leave. I expect similar good fruit with the departure of McCall.

At any rate, he would be a pretty good NFL coach. His passion would gain the respect of anyone. Plus, he would have to be more accountable with an Owner. If he were a coach at OSU or Michigan, he couldn't have pulled this crap of keeping morons as coaches. He would actually be a better coach at a state school that demanded excellence on the field (See Wins)

The difference would be that he wouldn't have the blessing of a owner to carry around a deadbeat buddy that would blow a season. No endowments and geek admins who are clueless on sports and think they are bad asses because they don't wear coats when it is 20 degrees.
 
I think Fitz' recruiting woes were directly contributed to the fact that few offensive studs really had any reason to come to NU.
Now with both McCall and Cushing gone, I think recruiting will finally progress forward. And we already seen the fruits of having Cushing leave. I expect similar good fruit with the departure of McCall.

At any rate, he would be a pretty good NFL coach. His passion would gain the respect of anyone. Plus, he would have to be more accountable with an Owner. If he were a coach at OSU or Michigan, he couldn't have pulled this crap of keeping morons as coaches. He would actually be a better coach at a state school that demanded excellence on the field (See Wins)

The difference would be that he wouldn't have the blessing of a owner to carry around a deadbeat buddy that would blow a season. No endowments and geek admins who are clueless on sports and think they are bad asses because they don't wear coats when it is 20 degrees.
Absolutely!
The dopes and pollyannas on this page who claim that Fitz would be a lousy NFL coach are just Fitzphobic and afraid with losing him.

While he is a very good coach, NU has a big investment in football now so a new coach would be seamless and might not have any crazy strikeout years or awful unprepared games against awful teams.
 
Absolutely!
The dopes and pollyannas on this page who claim that Fitz would be a lousy NFL coach are just Fitzphobic and afraid with losing him.

While he is a very good coach, NU has a big investment in football now so a new coach would be seamless and might not have any crazy strikeout years or awful unprepared games against awful teams.
What works in college is different than what works in the NFL. The one successful head coach I can think of is Pete Carrol, who won at USC and at Seattle. But how'd it work out for Steve Spurrier? Nick Saban? Lou Holtz? Just a different ball game.
 
What works in college is different than what works in the NFL. The one successful head coach I can think of is Pete Carrol, who won at USC and at Seattle. But how'd it work out for Steve Spurrier? Nick Saban? Lou Holtz? Just a different ball game.

Harbaugh.
 
What works in college is different than what works in the NFL. The one successful head coach I can think of is Pete Carrol, who won at USC and at Seattle. But how'd it work out for Steve Spurrier? Nick Saban? Lou Holtz? Just a different ball game.
Off the top of my head,
1. Bill Walsh. Nuff said
2. Pete Carrol
3. Tom Coughlin (turned around BC and beat ND)
4. Barry Switzer
5. Jimmy Johnson
6. Dick Vermeil
7.Chip Kelly (does 2 ten win seasons count?)

Of course, Harbaugh.

Including Harbaugh, there is probably 20 Super Bowl appearances between those I mentioned. Probably more actually. So, not so sure about the selective memory??? C'mon Fitzphile, you are NJcat aren't ya?

Historically, this pattern probably stays just as consistent as I know Paul Brown won a National Championship at OSU.
 
Add Al Groh who had a winning %, Steve Mariucci, and Dennis Green who had a winning record. Fitz, didn't really have the accomplishments that most of these dudes had in college but I can't see Fitz with a losing record in the NFL.
 
Absolutely!
The dopes and pollyannas on this page who claim that Fitz would be a lousy NFL coach are just Fitzphobic and afraid with losing him.

While he is a very good coach, NU has a big investment in football now so a new coach would be seamless and might not have any crazy strikeout years or awful unprepared games against awful teams.
Again, you make great points. There is a broad path of coaches who went to the NFL. In fact, which coaches in the NFL never coached in college???? The narrative portrayed here by pollyannas is simply myth. They claim Saban and Holtz. Big deal! Yes, there are failures and I'm not so sure Saban would have been a failure but the leash is short in the NFL. Can't keep awful coaches around like McCall, so Fitz would have to stay accountable as said previously in the thread. No morty cheering him on and asking for his autographs. Funny.
 
Just not against OSU. I hope he gets hammered today.
Not a very good start for Jimbo. Patterson misses on deep shot, and Mack Jones doesn’t. Hard to root for Saban but. . .
 
Does that mean he hasn’t won at Michigan? Or that he hasn’t won certain cherry picked games to try to prove an extremely weak point?

He hasn't won any championships and he hasn't won against dOSU. That is all that matters for Michigan.
 
Goal posts, moved.
How so?

Michigan is a blue-blood football program. They expect to be national championship contenders every season, to beat their arch rival Ohio State, or at the very least to be in regular contention and win their bowl games.

Hairbag has done none of these aside from the bowl win in his first season. If they lose to Alabama, then he should be on the hot seat.

I’m surprised he isn’t already. OSU has regularly embarrassed him and that is the ultimate test for any coach in that rivalry.
 
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Terrible take.

GCG is spinning his wheels on this one. Harbaugh has done nothing to enhance Michigan football. He’s treaded water. Nothing more. While Wisconsin and PSU have bypassed UM on his watch.

There are 7 historical blue bloods in college football. USC ... Texas ... Okla. ... ND ... UM ... OSU and Bama. When any of those programs fail to contend and get embarrassed along the way ... like UM ... you can point the finger at coaching. Poor coaching.

GOUNUII
 
Well, Michigan has DOMINATED Rutgers on his watch so there is that, and he did manage to knock Notre Dame out of the playoff this year, but I would say he has underachieved TO MICHIGAN STANDARDS and having to break in a new QB next year will make it tough to change that narrative.
 
Just like Turk, something isn’t true just because repeated over and over.

Hardballs has been a huge disappointment. You responded to Hungry that repeating the same thing over and over doesn’t make it true. Yet what Hungry posted was factual and just didn’t fit your narrative.

Maybe your definition of successful is different than most. It’s certainly different to most Michigan fans. So, he doesn’t lose to the the ISU, Akron or Army teams on the schedule. Michigan is not Northwestern. Yet up until NU’s putrid season he hadn’t done much better than Fitz during this same period. How has Hardballs done at Michigan?

Zero Playoff appearances
Zero Big Ten titles
Zero Appearances in the B1G Title Game
0-5 against OSU and lost most of them by about a million.
1-4 in Bowl games, including an embarrassing loss to an Unranked South Carolina team they led by 16 in the 4th and a pummeling by Florida last season.
2-10 against top ten teams.
At least 3 losses every season
6 losses by over 21 points
Losing to little Brother twice, including a blocked punt as time expired.

Hardballs also has a losing record after 3 seasons at Stanford. He rode that season to a NFL gig.

Give it up GCG, he has had one exceptional year in college football and that was at Stanford. It’s ok to be wrong.
 
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