It's a new era of college football with all the transferring going on that we have never done much here and NIL deals that the Cats can't match being in a pro town. I hope Fitz can figure it out. Coaching changes may be needed but I'm looking at the talent on the field right now being deficient on both sides of the ball, Not sure great coaching can fix that although I have been really disappointed in the offensive play calling. As for Fitz's overalklk coaching resume, never in my wildest dreams would I have conceived of the sustained success we have had with 10-win seasons and 5 of 6 bowl wins over some power conference teams.
Hire Chryst as DC
- Thread starter PURPLE Book Cat
- Start date
His record against some pretty good Iowa and Wisconsin teams has been pretty good. He beat a pretty good Stanford team, too.
His record in bowl games is 5-5, and he has won the last 4. Opponents in bowl games are typically decent or good opponents.
He also lost to a bad Stanford team. We now have a losing record to Wisconsin under Fitz thanks to the last two years without Hankwitz. Iowa plays right into our hands under Ferentz, but if they hire the right head coach they’ll pummel us just like Illannoy has begun doing.
Meanwhile he has a losing record versus MSU, 1 win against PSU, 1 win against Michigan - and those programs were pretty mediocre-to-bad for a while. He of course has 0 wins against OSU - we blew a couple of winnable games in 2013 and 2016, while the rest of the matchups were blowouts (3 TD+ losses - aside from 2020 where we gave up 500 yards rushing, and Hank exposed Fields for what he is).
He also has a lot of ugly nonconference losses. And, oh yea, a losing record against Duke.
A better head coach, given the same support that Fitz was, would have a better record than him over the past 16+ years. He has blown a lot of games and doesn’t have many signature wins.
The main thing he has going for him is his record in bowl games. But we likely won’t be making one for a while.
Two years. Sheesh. Otherwise, he's been fine, winning bowl games and West division championships, but keep screaming for Fitz's head so we can bring in the next Coach Beckman or Coach Cubit. Maybe Lovie Smith is available.
Fitz isn't a good coach until he beats OSU how many times out of 10 games? 2 games? 4 games? 6 games?
Should we have fired Coach Walker after your 2002 season? Lots of people were freaking out here back then as well.
"We blew a few winnable games in 2013 & 2016." Every team blows winnable games. EVERY TEAM!!
"A better head coach, given the same support that Fitz was, would have a better record than him over the past 16+ years." Do you realize that this is an ABSOLUTELY MEANINGLESS STATEMENT that can be made for every coach who ever coached, including Bill Belichick and Nick Saban?
"He has blown a lot of games and doesn’t have many signature wins." Fitz has one of the best records in one-score games in college football. NU is actually tied with LSU for #1 in winning percentage in one-score games over the past 16 years at the beginning of the season. Of course, that can be a result of winning close games against poor teams, but usually these close wins were in the B1G.
He's had enough signature wins to attend 10 bowl games, win 5, and win two West division championships, even with a QB coming off of a serious knee injury and Larkin having to hang it up early in the 2018 season. Oh, he got B1G COY that year as well. Well deserved, too! His biggest win against a ranked team at gametime was #4 Iowa (9-0) in 2009, otherwise it's beating final poll #5 Stanford in 2015. His bowl record has been excellent considering we were the underdog in every single game except the 2018 Auburn game where we won easily with a pounding running game at the end.
We have serious problems now that need to be fixed, but I'm not thinking about firing Fitz just yet. That would be silly and would go a long way toward ensuring that we never get a decent coach again. Coach Collins is ripe for firing, though.
Agreed, but were we really underdogs against Kentucky? I seem to remember we were higher-regarded going in, but we had to gut out the victory once Thorson went down.
Fair criticism and I'm glad you raised the issue. I will say this much. If you find or maybe already know some of the emails or texts that got Gruden fired you might ask yourself if you really believe Gruden would not have made like comments to members of his own staff who might also have responded in kind. I'm sorry but I really do not want to say anymore on the subject. If anyone wants to know for sure I expect they would have to make an open records request to the NFL and New York Times.
So let may take a different tact. I am a huge sports fan of multiple sports. I believe in Northwestern University. The operative word being "University." An exciting and diverse community that I was lucky enough to be a part of and that includes the athletes that I also respected as students unlike some of the other institutions that I attended. As long as Fitz or any other NU coach for that matter graduates his players as Fitz does and cares about them as people then no coach at Northwestern of similar character should be let go solely as a result of wins and losses if academics are to be respected. I do believe Fitz cares about his players as both athletes and students.
Anyone, even the best of us, can have blind spots. I believe Fitz made a mistake in not promoting from within when Hankwitz retired. Even though Fitz knows infinitely more about Football and his team than I do, I still have my opinion.
I would be very happy to see NU beat Maryland tomorrow and I hope that is what happens.
Like I said, it doesn't matter. It would be such an upgrade to have a competent head coach regardless of his background at DC.
You have position coaches for the tactical. Even at the high school level, there are advantages in having an offensive coach involved in the defense.
Oh I’m on board now. I started another thread about hiring Tennessee’s DC as our new OC.
Who are you thinking for our new special teams coach?
A few questions:
1) What is Fitz’s record without Hankwitz as his DC? (i have another thread where I quickly calculated it, it’s not good)
2) A lot of those close wins were versus bad teams. We also had a number of close losses to teams we had no business losing to (and we were nearly blown out by SIU!). Who cares if we have close matchups against crappy teams when we’re regularly blown out by a bunch of B1G teams?
3) I don’t think I’ve come out and said we should fire Fitz. But his seat should be warm. How many 1-11 or 2-10 seasons will Pat Ryan tolerate? Is he really happy with what we’ve seen from Pat the past four seasons? Even with 2020, this is the worst four year stretch in a long time.
4) Can we all agree that Jim Phillips ultimately screwed our two main revenue programs with those ludicrous 10 year extensions? He’s not even here to deal with the fallout.
He'd probably still do a much better job than our current DC.
That's the real LOL part of this.
I think we can find a DC that actually has experience coaching defense and who is competent for a lot less that $1.5-2 million a year.
LOL! My apologies, but I envision you as looking like your avatar.
You can envision me as dumb, knuckle-dragging cat lover if you wish.
Well it’s either his judgment of coaching ability is either absolutely dog shit or that good coaches don’t want to come work for him.
Chryst wouid not be a good DC. Wisconsin defense was at its best under Dave Aranda who is now the head coach at Baylor. Aranda recruited my son at Wisconsin and definitely knew talent and how to recruit. He is a very good DC.
A voice of reason. How did I know it wouid be my old friend "Glades"
