You would promote a 70 year old coordinator who has never been a head coach before, in attempt to take the program to the next level? Think there would be a little negative recruiting against NU about how long Hank would continue to coach? Hank has been coaching for 45 years, why has no other Power 5 program seen the hidden potential you see?
Pat Fitzgerald needs to be fired
- Thread starter BigNUFan51
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You would promote a 70 year old coordinator who has never been a head coach before, in attempt to take the program to the next level? Think there would be a little negative recruiting against NU about how long Hank would continue to coach? Hank has been coaching for 45 years, why has no other Power 5 program seen the hidden potential you see?
For one, beats the status quo. I seem to recall a few successful coaches up in years. But ok, then go with my alternative.
Your alternative is the only choice. I like Hank too, but promoting him to head coach would be silly.
I love the head ball coach Fitz, but I'd love to see an up and comer like PJ Fleck at the helm. As I said earlier, I don't think there will be a change at the top until 2020 at the earliest, so this is all a waste of key strokes.
Bob, I might be missing it but I don't see many if anyone putting up a big defense of our staff. Almost everyone is at the point that some coaching changes need to happen. The Koolaid Klan must be very small.
The real debate on here is 1) should changes occur mid season and 2) should Fitz be part of the shake up. I say no to both of them and I don't think that makes me a Klan member.
Fitz goes 10-3 last year, takes the Cats to a New Year's Day Bowl and will likely have a poor record this year -- recent facts. Sooooo he should be fired. That is nuts !
Northwestern is lucky to have a guy who can put up with the athletic culture in Evanston.
100% Fitz support from this old guy.
.02
and, Go Cats !!
Northwestern is lucky to have a guy who can put up with the athletic culture in Evanston.
100% Fitz support from this old guy.
.02
and, Go Cats !!
Technically Mike has been a head coach twice before, i.e., interim head coach after the head coach departed.
Yeah, and if Wilson wins it he's 1-2 against Fitz.
Yes. I think the people making donations of millions of dollars for educational buildings is probably a different population from those making similar donations for athletics.
Actual contracts. It is fairly easy to find out the contract terms of coaches, at least for public institutions (which are most in big time college FB). Private institutions just try to be competitive with what others offer.
For example, when Michigan fired RR with 3 years remaining his BO was "only" $2.5MM, which was roughly equal to what he made in one year. When they fired Hoke with 2 years remaining, his buyout was about $3MM. I suppose it is reasonable to assume that PF's buyout terms would NOT be more favorable than those of RR (hired as a highly successful ingenious coaching star, at the time). Certainly SHOULDN'T be.
No direct knowledge, but it would be highly atypical for a buyout of 4-5 years to be only one year of salary. There's typically a sliding scale based on number of years remaining.
Yeah, you judge an 11-year coach by the most successful year out of the 11, right?
Anyway, last season (his tenth) included three blow-out losses, and no title whatsoever. And could have easily been worse since several wins were within one score (even one FG) which any little break could have turned into a loss.
Anyhow the immediately preceding 2 seasons, saw the cats win 3 and only 1 B1G games! This year we are 0-1 so far. If it turns out to be another 1-3 B1G win season it would be the 3 rd such season of the most recent 4 (8th-11th in his tenure). Not good at all, especially considering that in the previous 7 seasons, he did not win more than 5 B1G games in any season, and won 2-3 in most.
Sorry was NU put on NCAA probation? Were any players charged or jailed? Was Venturi criminally charged, convicted? he went on to a very successful assistant coaching career in the NFL, so he must not be behind bars. Someday when you hopefully get old, you might know a lot, or not.
Well I gave you already the example of RR (hired as some type of coaching semi-genius) fired with 3 years remaining.
Sometimes there is a sliding scale, but it is based on "base salary" which possibly could be only a tiny fraction of actual compensation. For example, a contract may be structured with a $500K base salary, with actual compensation reaching several millions. The buyout may be equal to the base salary through the end of the contract (but this in fact would be only a small percentage of what the coach would have earned per total comp, had he not been fired).
WTF cares what the buy-out is? It's not our money.......and it is silly to think NU will fire him after this season. Just stop.
Maybe because a modest increase in attendance can possibly pay the buyout in only a few seasons? Anyway, if you had been paying attention you'd know that others have cited a "high buyout" as a reason NOT to fire him. So, I guess it is a relevant issue for those who want to participate in this conversation. If that doesn't include you, what forces you to read/write in this thread? Just stop following this thread, and allow others to continue. You aren't more important than any of us.
Who hired those coaches? Who keeps then around through terrible seasons? As AD he can still be the "great ambassador".
Actually he's been an interim head coach before. But, yeah, it's a dumb idea because Hank is a great DC, not a head coach. I'm ok if we keep Fitz as head coach, but someone else was spot on. He needs strong coordinators and assistants. We have them on the Defensive side. We don't have them on the offensive side. Hence, what you have is what you get.
Ironic that just a few years ago the angry hoards wanted Jerry Brown fired.......now he's a keeper! Just shows what having good players can do for a coach......
Did Illinois State have better players? What about Western Michigan? Do we have no good players on offense? How many years of offensive futility do we wait until we get "good players"?
What's your point?
Seems like there are a few here that are resistant - Mike, Yesterday as examples. I don't recall your posts over time and am too lazy to look up - so if you are not a klan member, I have no reason to disagree. And I think your opinion is equally valid as the rest. I can even see a valid argument on both topics. I think #1 should start midseason. The other if Fitz does anything but capitulate to the notion that people have to go.
As an aside, I still think moving Fitz up to Asst AD might help negotiate the contract issues.
The chatter about firing Fitz is just silly. I would sincerely argue that he's top 5% in his field in most categories - program ambassador, quality recruiter with concern for talent and character (which counts to me as a fan), compliance watchdog, etc. I'd argue he "needs improvement" when it comes to Xs and Os and game management, which he could easily cover by asking for $ to basically buy a pair of expensive coordinators (or at least one) and some assistants who might not stay in Evanston forever because they're actually good enough to get poached. Let's be honest here, this is singularly what we're talking about here.
The funny thing, to me, is that we'd be willing to spend $200MM+ for new facilities and not $1MM per year on better coaches...and no I'm not just talking about giving the current coaches a raise, since we've established they'll stay as long as they're not invited to leave.
The funny thing, to me, is that we'd be willing to spend $200MM+ for new facilities and not $1MM per year on better coaches...and no I'm not just talking about giving the current coaches a raise, since we've established they'll stay as long as they're not invited to leave.
I think if we look at the overall body of work, Brown isn't all that. And this year??? I know - playing with backups...but aren't these the kids lined up to start next year? If they are so bad, then why is that?
I hope you're right about this, but even if this is the case, there are some fundamental changes he will have to make in his coaching style and philosophy that will be needed for NU to become a relevant B1G program. To wit, how to coach STs and the delegation of in game decisions iro clock management ,eg.
My point is, it is never as simple as "fire all the coaches". Many wanted Brown fired but he turned into a pretty good coach when he got better players.
Not saying that coaching isn't a problem on offense, but coaching probably isn't the only issue.
Seriously, Bob? You know that one is a true Freshman? You don't think a years experience will help him? And another was slated to play safety, not corner? First the position that a career DC be promoted to head coach, now questioning why a true freshman isn't performing as well as the 4 year starter he is replacing.....you can do better than that!
You are only as good as what you have done recently. If the secondary implodes and plays craptastic ball, I will turn on Jerry and right quick. That's what being a fickle fan is all about.
At least in the case of Brown, we had evidence that he could do it. 1995 and also coaching Divisional Championship Minnesota Viking teams. Kinda beats the resumes put up earlier on our offensive staff.
Sure, we have some that are not true freshman - and were not developed. Who decided to make these position changes???
Oh Jesus you are a lost soul, aren't you? It is not typical for NCAA violations to result in criminal charges.
You should consider keeping your fingertips off your keyboard. They are typing some stupid junk.
I think the secondary would be a strength of the team with our regular cast. We lost our top two corners and a starting safety coming into his own. None of the starting secondary were elite level recruits, so I think Brown deserves some props along with the players.
The Freshman haven't looked entirely out of place. They do play noticeably further off the WR's and I'd like to see us more aggressive realizing we might get burned now and then.
The primary problem IMO is the lack of development in the O line. I realize it takes longer for most of them to be contributors, but it speaks volumes that we have no viable replacements for a couple of guys that are struggling week in and week out. These a decent recruits with decent offer lists yet they haven't got a cup of coffee yet.
Fitzphile is at least 2 times more important than you and your cheerleader, xyklonbob. Don't mess with one of the titan posters of the Rivals network!
Of course the donors differ but you're moving the football on us. First it was NU lacks donors with enough money. Then it changed to NU lacks athletics donors. Now it's probably going to shift to football donors.
Like I said look at the names on the new athletic facilities. The Ryans are still there but Dr Jim Feel Good has expanded the rolodex
Are you the Thanos of WR or a hero like Thor? I think we need to compare posters with their likeliest comic book equivalent. It is the most rational thing to do when Shivas Stupor, Xanaxbob, and Syphilis are all on the same thread!
Answer the question or is it that you don't have any idea. I'll ask one more time, list the charges against those NU coaches. Or maybe you just need a nap.
Almost every team's fans other than maybe Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State think that their head coach screws up clock management and in-game decisions. I watched the bowl game between Alabama and Ohio State a couple of years ago and thought that both coaches mismanaged the clock. We have won more close games than we have lost and we have won many more games than our talent would predict, which suggests that our in-game coaching is not bad. I thought that he held on to his timeouts at the end of the Nebraska game because with 3 timeouts he could keep Nebraska from running out the clock if we didn't recover the onside kick. We need to be able to convert on 3rd and 4th down without having to burn a timeout.
As for special teams, give me a break. Our coverage teams are better than they ever were under Walker. It's not even close. Our punting is finally good and our punt returner is actually doing a nice job, which is what everyone has been bitching about for the past few years since Mark left the team. Vault has returned a couple of kick-offs for touchdowns. Our kicker, a senior who has previously had some success, is struggling. It happens. We've had some good field goal kickers under Fitzgerald, which suggests that he can coach the position. In my opinion, the issues that need to be addressed are why our offense has been consistently average or below average and, more importantly, why our offensive line has been consistently below average.
Fitz gives a pretty cogent analysis of Mitchell's woes in the conference call today. Says Jack naturally hits a draw, but when his mechanics get screwed up he pushes it to a fade. Gives an analogy with a golf swing. Sounds like he knows what he is talking about. Whether or not Jack can fix it mid-season remains to be seen.
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