We just wrapped up the on-the-record portion of lunch with Fitz. Here are some high-level bullet points of what the boss had to say:
Young guys: Really impressed with OL Jordan Knox and Dylan Senda. Physically, athletically impressive. Covey is exactly who we thought he’d be. Explosive athlete. Magee is athletic, he just needs to eat more pizza. Walters. Really talented athlete. Jumped out in winter workouts.
Coach hiring process: Cast wide net, build relationships. Had a robust search committee, including other coaches. Coordinators really involved. Braun heavily involved in Hicks and Foster hirings.
Why he kept Bajakian (my question): Great confidence and trust in Mike, for one. Great relationships with our QBs. We had some success there. Wanted to have organizational stability on that side of the ball. (If he changed DC, he didn’t want to change OC and start all over with the system.)
Process: Can’t stand pat after the season we had last year. Don’t like to do that. Great people, great coaches, it just didn’t work. Dig into the cutups. Get coaches in, talk schematics. I’d prefer to win and not have to make any changes.
Reason for last season’s failure: Turnover ratio. That’s No. 1, it’s not even close. There’s a lot of other things, but that’s No. 1.
Going outside NU tree for new coaches (my question): I asked if it was intentional. “No.” That’s all he gave me.
FYI: Owen Bergin is not the youngest Bergin!
DL and WR: We’ve got work to do in both those areas. Depth chart: I’ll talk to you in August. There are a lot of jobs open. He listed veteran WRs: Gill, Kirtz, Niro, Bacon, Kennedy. The room is really excited for their opportunities.
Lots of talk about success of hoop team. One nugget: Fitz lived across the hall from Evan Eschmeyer as a freshman.
TrueNU: Thankful for opportunities for the players. Will do it within 100% of the rules. Support for guys. I think it’s special that they can make some money off of their NIL. He’s jealous – “it would have been nice to have in the ’90s.”
Ryan Hilinski’s knee: “We’ll be very cautious.” He’s running on the field now. Every injury is different. Bodies respond differently. Ryan has worked his tail off to get to this point.
Josh Priebe: Not cleared to play yet.
Young guys: Really impressed with OL Jordan Knox and Dylan Senda. Physically, athletically impressive. Covey is exactly who we thought he’d be. Explosive athlete. Magee is athletic, he just needs to eat more pizza. Walters. Really talented athlete. Jumped out in winter workouts.
Coach hiring process: Cast wide net, build relationships. Had a robust search committee, including other coaches. Coordinators really involved. Braun heavily involved in Hicks and Foster hirings.
Why he kept Bajakian (my question): Great confidence and trust in Mike, for one. Great relationships with our QBs. We had some success there. Wanted to have organizational stability on that side of the ball. (If he changed DC, he didn’t want to change OC and start all over with the system.)
Process: Can’t stand pat after the season we had last year. Don’t like to do that. Great people, great coaches, it just didn’t work. Dig into the cutups. Get coaches in, talk schematics. I’d prefer to win and not have to make any changes.
Reason for last season’s failure: Turnover ratio. That’s No. 1, it’s not even close. There’s a lot of other things, but that’s No. 1.
Going outside NU tree for new coaches (my question): I asked if it was intentional. “No.” That’s all he gave me.
FYI: Owen Bergin is not the youngest Bergin!
DL and WR: We’ve got work to do in both those areas. Depth chart: I’ll talk to you in August. There are a lot of jobs open. He listed veteran WRs: Gill, Kirtz, Niro, Bacon, Kennedy. The room is really excited for their opportunities.
Lots of talk about success of hoop team. One nugget: Fitz lived across the hall from Evan Eschmeyer as a freshman.
TrueNU: Thankful for opportunities for the players. Will do it within 100% of the rules. Support for guys. I think it’s special that they can make some money off of their NIL. He’s jealous – “it would have been nice to have in the ’90s.”
Ryan Hilinski’s knee: “We’ll be very cautious.” He’s running on the field now. Every injury is different. Bodies respond differently. Ryan has worked his tail off to get to this point.
Josh Priebe: Not cleared to play yet.
