Not accurate. A good anecdotal sample would be to look at where recruits/players landed for the kids that left in the immediate aftermath of Fitz’s firing. Those players were highly in demand on a national level.
Recruiting Braun vs. 51
- Thread starter Baz=Heisman
- Start date
I was talking about past recruits under Fitz. Many of the guys who ended up at NU had other BIG offers (and other P4 offers). The recruits NU is getting now have MAC offers.
The entire recent history of NU football was highly dependent on the quality of the transfer QB and the Defensive Coordinator.
Hunter Johnson was rated the #1 player in the state of Indiana's class of 2017. He had offers from Clemson, Florida, Michigan, Miami (FL), Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Penn State and Northwestern, to name a handful. He chose Clemson. After a year of backup duty, with Trevor Lawrence arriving, Johnson transferred to Northwestern, where everybody expected great things from him. On paper it was a phenomenal recruiting feat for Fitzgerald and staff. In 2019 Johnson flopped and to make things much worse, NU's backup QB, TJ Greene, was lost for the season in the opening game at Stanford. That left Aidan Smith who hadn't played a down in several seasons behind Clayton Thorson. The result was bad. An embarrassed Fitzgerald proclaimed that would never happen again.
In 2020 Peyton Ramsey grad-transferred in from Indiana and was the only NU QB to throw a pass that season. Mike Hankwitz was still the Defensive Coordinator. NU won the Citrus Bowl.
Looking ahead to 2021, the QB room consisted of the untested Andrew Marty, the shell-shocked Hunter Johnson and a new double threat named Carl Richardson. Fitzgerald scored another transfer portal coup, landing Ryan Hilinski from South Carolina. Out of high school he had offers from Oregon, LSU, Ohio State, USC, UCLA and many others, including Northwestern. Hilinski had been the Gamecocks starter as a freshman, throwing 400+ passes, with 11 TDs and only 5 interceptions. However, he played little as a sophomore, before entering the portal. On paper, a good pickup. Unfortunately, with Mike Hankwitz retiring, Jim O Neil's first season at Defensive Coordinator was an unmitigated disaster. Northwestern had a terrible season.
In 2022, NU had the same QB (Hilinski) with Brendan Sullivan the #2. Jim O'Neil's defense was again a disaster.
In 2023, Fitzgerald replaced O'Neil at DC with the capable David Braun. The defense improved immediately. Fitzgerald also brought in the quality QB transfer Ben Bryant, a grad student who had led Cincinnati to a 9-4 record, throwing for 2700 yards with 21 TDs against 7 interceptions. Despite the turmoil caused by Fitzgerald's dismissal and the inexperienced Braun at the helm, NU went 8-5 and won the Las Vegas Bowl.
The O'Neil tenure is the single most glaring misstep by Fitzgerald. Other than that, the QB transfers have all looked like good/great moves in the offseason. Something for the haters to consider. Yes it is true that our high school recruits at QB have not panned out since Thorson.
14 of the 18 recruits in the ‘25 class have P4 offers.
Not close to the level of Fitz’s last class but let’s not say it’s MAC level.
Yes, I stand corrected. Although, it’s a lot of BC, Duke, Iowa state, Kansas, Ill. I don’t follow recruiting closely so I can only hope it all works out.
It’s above MAC level in that there are guys in the class a MAC school could definitely not get
Yup, PF was bringing in all those QBs and WRs over his last 5+ years…
It did look like Sullivan had a chance before he was apparently leapfrogged by Lausch and transferred. Jake did seem to improve QB HS recruiting. Not as much as people wanted to see but better than it had been as is shown by the fact that Lausch is now the starting QBand despite growing pains, appears to many to have a fair upside
A couple maybe. Otherwise it is MAC level. And pretty hard to compete in new BIG consistently with that level of talent
I know I'm going to catch some crap for this, but in going back over the last 5 years of QBs, I think Hiliniski should be given a chance right now. I know he's not Lujan's guy and its hard to believe he's even on the roster, but his numbers aren't that bad. He just had the misfortune of being the starting QB when Jim O'Neil was the defensive coordinator - meaning we were behind in nearly every game.
If he is interested in playing football, Hilinski may be our best option and may actually perform pretty well.
LOL, some guys never learn. You’d change your mind after about one half of football. Hilinski can’t play behind this OL.
Why was our OL so bad if Fitz was an A+ recruiter in all positions except for QB?
Oline has been dreadful for a decade plus. Not sure it was recruiting misses, poor evaluation, poor development, poor coaching or some combo. It’s been incredibly frustrating to watch QB after QB running for
Their lives.
Fitz could recruit defensive players but not much on the other side of the ball
I never said he was an A+ recruiter. OL is unique in that it takes five guys working together. It takes not just getting top guys but also getting them solid in fundamentals and working together. We were definitely bringing in a higher level of recruit over the last few years including 4 stars in Skoronsky and Tiernan and several other high rated guys. But they never got the blending together part. More recently we have also had a mass exodus after the firing of Fitz
Anybody remember when OL was our strength??? And who were the coaches at the time???
OL are often big, smart guys - perfect for NU. Unless you have terrible position coach and a HC that believes offense is a necessary evil of playing football and values only slightly higher than K.
Yup. Under GB and RW. Fitz just lived in the Stone Age and held us back. It doesn’t matter if you recruit well on defense when you can’t score on offense - unless you’re going to get 2 defensive TDs a game (very unlikely).
No, I am not guessing. I've watched him play and so has this coaching staff. That's why he is not playing.
I reiterate what I said in another thread: stick to basketball when it comes to trying to break down numbers. The last time we saw Hillinski he couldn't throw the ball. I don't mean he couldn't throw under pressure, I mean he consistently could not execute even little screen and swing passes that involved no decision making, just a backyard pitch and catch. Unless that has improved radically in practice, it's a no.
Please don't fall back on "the coaches know what they're doing."
That puts you into a logic corner where "The guy who is playing is always the guy who should be playing."
I'm not saying Hilinski is definitely better than Lausch and Wright. I'm saying he might be better, if his heart is still into football.
When the QB situation is as bad as it appears to be (alongside the OC situation) we should be re-evaluating our options.
If Hilinski doesn't give a crap, then he's obviously out. However, If he is competing in practice, he should probably get his chance. He's 24 years old and has never been "bad" - he's just been mediocre. If he flops as a 6th year senior, so be it.
Did you even bother watching Hilinski the last time he got on the field? Hilinksi never was in the conversation to play this year even after Sullivan transferred. Lausch is not only the most productive of the bunch right now, he also has the most potential for growth and is the only one with eligibility left beyond this year. He is improving but obviously that improvement is not linear. Playing him is a no brainer not only for the now but for the future. We will just have to live with the ups and downs.
I'm not sure if Lausch is mroe productive than Wright right now, but I am pretty sure that Wright's mistakes are usually extremely dangerous, repeated bad decisions into heavy traffic whereas Lausch's mistakes are usually being too slow or underthrowing guys from time to time. One guy's mistakes make it hard to move the ball when there are too many of them, the other guy's light games on fire really quick.
Sorry he is more of a statue and behind this OL hard to see it working out well
It has had ups and downs for sure. Under Cushing, the OL often started out each year very poorly but generally improved as the season went on. One of the issues was back then we were always spread Os so it required mobile guys to take advantage of where the holes were. JJ for example, did pretty well behind it. Recruiting definitely picked up under Anderson but it was harder to see the results on the field., That said, Hull became a 1000 yd rusher
Hilinski played in garbage time in one game this season, I think.
Before that he played one series in the bowl game against Utah when Bryant was injured. That was Dec 2023. Sullivan was not available if I remember correctly.
The only other time Hilinski played in 2023 was against UTEP, where he came in for Bryant with NU leading 21-7. He threw a short pass to Himon that broke for an 85 yard TD. Then Lausch came into that game.
In 2022 he was the starting QB for 5 games, suffered a concussion against Wisconsin in early October and never regained the starter's job from Sullivan, playing a few series in the last two losses.
Thats was 2 years ago.
Easier to recruit top talent after having multiple winning seasons and Big Ten West Championships. Too early to tell for Braun, but he needs show he can win consistently to get better recruits. Duke is beating us out a lot of guys and it’s cuz they beat us every year! Winning solves everything
Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. Braun better figure it out quick. Gonna need significant portal help next season.
Any year we need a portal overhaul we’re screwed with our slow rolling admissions department
You’re 100% correct. Really hoping Jackson has some influence.
Also, you can’t miss on the guys you bring in. We brought in 3 OL and only one is of BIG Ten quality (and he got hurt). 😕
I’m also frustrated that we didn’t replace Tyus and Gill. While not All-Americans, we miss the depth they would have provided.
Oh no! We’re trying to hold the line on having real standards in this f’d up era of college sports!! 🙄 (Having standards is a good thing.)
