While everyone wants to compare Fitz to other football coaches who stayed at one school, maybe a better comparison is John Wooden. Big on fundamentals and character. I don't want to get everyone too excited, but if my math is correct Wooden won his first championship in his 15th year at UCLA and 2021 will be Fitz' 15th season as head coach. Now we just need someone on this board to step up financially and make sure Fitz gets the players he needs.
John Wooden
- Thread starter clarificationcat
- Start date
Still good news Mr. Math, I added up Wooden's years incorrectly as well and he won his first championship in his 16th year.
As complimentary as the comparison may be between the top-name HOF collegiate BB coach, John Wooden, and Fitz at this relative timeframe in his coaching career, IMHO Fitz is the second coming of Joe Pa - albeit before the pedophile decade. Joe Pa's career was defined by his longevity at State Penn and the unbridled ardor by which he mentored his recruited student-athletes in their formative years while laboring to hone their football talents.
Fitz' has stated repeatedly that his primary drive mechanism to coach at a Power 5 collegiate program (and within an academically-oriented environment such is Northwestern, no less) has been to mentor his charges to become the best career professionals that they can/might be while setting the foundations for becoming the most personally responsible/involved husbands & fathers in their later years once their individual collegiate athletic careers are over & done-with. Again, this has been his career-defining motivational mantra since he began coaching some 20-plus years ago and that original mindset is as currently strong and compelling as it has ever been. And like Joe Pa, whose coaching tenure at State Penn spanned 45 years from 1966 thru 2011, Fitz is just at the beginning of his coaching career. I can predict with utmost confidence that Fitz will continue as a collegiate football coach well into his 70's (similar to the longevity of Joe Pa or Doc Hankwitz). Fitz' accomplishment record for the past 10 head coaching years are merely prelude to what most assuredly will come in the near future. These first 10 formative years have been focused specifically at setting the achievement bar for his troops at a very high level - replete with an upward mobility track that is one of the best within the 2nd millennium collegiate game (e.g.: winning 4 consecutive bowl games, especially the last NYD-6 bowl; winning the B1G West Division Championship 2 of the last 3 seasons; garnering a GPR rate that has been the best in NCAA Division 1A for 4 years running). That's what lights his fuse every year throughout his HC career path to date, and it will continue to do so in future seasons.
So if you are looking for a more appropriate HC comparison to what Fitz is currently in the midst of accomplishing, one only needs to investigate and make comparisons to the career paths of Joe Pa or Doc Hankwitz. Without a doubt, the satisfaction level of coaching in professional ranks can't hold a candle to what coaching at the collegiate level brings to the fore.
Fitz' has stated repeatedly that his primary drive mechanism to coach at a Power 5 collegiate program (and within an academically-oriented environment such is Northwestern, no less) has been to mentor his charges to become the best career professionals that they can/might be while setting the foundations for becoming the most personally responsible/involved husbands & fathers in their later years once their individual collegiate athletic careers are over & done-with. Again, this has been his career-defining motivational mantra since he began coaching some 20-plus years ago and that original mindset is as currently strong and compelling as it has ever been. And like Joe Pa, whose coaching tenure at State Penn spanned 45 years from 1966 thru 2011, Fitz is just at the beginning of his coaching career. I can predict with utmost confidence that Fitz will continue as a collegiate football coach well into his 70's (similar to the longevity of Joe Pa or Doc Hankwitz). Fitz' accomplishment record for the past 10 head coaching years are merely prelude to what most assuredly will come in the near future. These first 10 formative years have been focused specifically at setting the achievement bar for his troops at a very high level - replete with an upward mobility track that is one of the best within the 2nd millennium collegiate game (e.g.: winning 4 consecutive bowl games, especially the last NYD-6 bowl; winning the B1G West Division Championship 2 of the last 3 seasons; garnering a GPR rate that has been the best in NCAA Division 1A for 4 years running). That's what lights his fuse every year throughout his HC career path to date, and it will continue to do so in future seasons.
So if you are looking for a more appropriate HC comparison to what Fitz is currently in the midst of accomplishing, one only needs to investigate and make comparisons to the career paths of Joe Pa or Doc Hankwitz. Without a doubt, the satisfaction level of coaching in professional ranks can't hold a candle to what coaching at the collegiate level brings to the fore.
Last edited:
