SunTimes’ Article on Cats

[1060Ivy]

Well, Pat’s motivated

Unfortunately, it’s back-to-back-to-back losses not just back-to-back

Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald ‘incredibly motivated’ by early losses, but is that enough?

If “the Wildcat way” were contagious, most around the Big Ten these days would be trying not to catch it.

chicago.suntimes.com

 

[phatcat]

“The hallmark of my tenure here is that the teams that have continued to grind and work hard have improved and we’ve gotten better as the season has gone along,”*

*except, notably, 2019 and 2021.

To me, this indicates a complete denial that anything is systemically wrong, whereas, to everyone else, the wheels have fallen off. His teams are NOT getting better. This team/program is Chris Collins bad, and nothing will improve if Fitz insists on same Ole same Ole. Mick McCall had one top 80 (?!?!?) Offense in his last ten years. Offense again can't score, and JON has mad a shambles of a proud defense. Meanwhile we don't have a place kicker. Again. NOTHING is going well, yet he fiddles while Evanston burns.

Fitz is far and away the greatest coach in our modest history, and, arguably, one of our top 2 or 3 best players. We owe him a lot and I am forever grateful for his loyalty. I just want him to accept that he must change or we will become Rice.

 

[willycat]

“The hallmark of my tenure here is that the teams that have continued to grind and work hard have improved and we’ve gotten better as the season has gone along,”*

*except, notably, 2019 and 2021.

To me, this indicates a complete denial that anything is systemically wrong, whereas, to everyone else, the wheels have fallen off. His teams are NOT getting better. This team/program is Chris Collins bad, and nothing will improve if Fitz insists on same Ole same Ole. Mick McCall had one top 80 (?!?!?) Offense in his last ten years. Offense again can't score, and JON has mad a shambles of a proud defense. Meanwhile we don't have a place kicker. Again. NOTHING is going well, yet he fiddles while Evanston burns.

Fitz is far and away the greatest coach in our modest history, and, arguably, one of our top 2 or 3 best players. We owe him a lot and I am forever grateful for his loyalty. I just want him to accept that he must change or we will become Rice.

Seems that you are forgetting a coach named Barnett.

 

[phatcat]

Seems that you are forgetting a coach named Barnett.

So Roger Maris was better than Babe Ruth.

Barnett was like Moses, leading us out of bondage to the promised land. What he did was miraculous...for two years. Walker was like John the Baptist. You know the rest.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

So Roger Maris was better than Babe Ruth.

Barnett was like Moses, leading us out of bondage to the promised land. What he did was miraculous...for two years. Walker was like John the Baptist. You know the rest.

Sadly, I think given where this season is going it’s increasingly difficult to defend Fitz as superior to Barnett… and increasingly hard to be 100% sure he’s better than Walker.

 

[drewjin]

Post Parseghian, Barnett would be the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. You could also throw in Zeus, if you'd like.

 

[EvanstonCat]

Fair weather fans, Fitz? None of us are fair weather fans. Any fair weather fan stopped caring long ago. Nobody who comes to this board and spends any second ranting about NU football is a fair weather. We remain fans, but we are pissed off as all f. Because the product sucks. The coaching sucks. And the defense and offense schemes and philosophies suck. And we care enough that we die a thousand times when we lose, and a million times when we lose unacceptably to opponents we have no business losing to, and are desperate for you to do your effing job and fix it.

Working hard and improving is great. But, if you systemically have problems with your offensive philosophy, your DC couldn't coordinate his way out of a shit pile, and you otherwise have extreme difficulty outscoring your opponent (including the likes of SIU and Miami), then it's more than just hard work and effort. Get a clue Fitz. You are killing us.

Don't just ask your players to improve every week. Try improving yourself, and holding your coordinators accountable to improve. So far, I haven't seen much improvement in those departments. Regression if anything.

This "fair weather fan" is praying for AlaskaCat to come through with his moose sighting, because right now, that's the only basis for hope. Otherwise, you've given us nothing.

 

[CatManTrue]

So Roger Maris was better than Babe Ruth.

Barnett was like Moses, leading us out of bondage to the promised land. What he did was miraculous...for two years. Walker was like John the Baptist. You know the rest.

Who will be our Noah? To help us survive the NIL flood?

 

[phatcat]

Sadly, I think given where this season is going it’s increasingly difficult to defend Fitz as superior to Barnett… and increasingly hard to be 100% sure he’s better than Walker.

Give him a break. He needs surgery. To remove his head from his ass

 

[phatcat]

Fair weather fans, Fitz? None of us are fair weather fans. Any fair weather fan stopped caring long ago. Nobody who comes to this board and spends any second ranting about NU football is a fair weather. We remain fans, but we are pissed off as all f. Because the product sucks. The coaching sucks. And the defense and offense schemes and philosophies suck. And we care enough that we die a thousand times when we lose, and a million times when we lose unacceptably to opponents we have no business losing to, and are desperate for you to do your effing job and fix it.

Working hard and improving is great. But, if you systemically have problems with your offensive philosophy, your DC couldn't coordinate his way out of a shit pile, and you otherwise have extreme difficulty outscoring your opponent (including the likes of SIU and Miami), then it's more than just hard work and effort. Get a clue Fitz. You are killing us.

Don't just ask your players to improve every week. Try improving yourself, and holding your coordinators accountable to improve. So far, I haven't seen much improvement in those departments. Regression if anything.

This "fair weather fan" is praying for AlaskaCat to come through with his moose sighting, because right now, that's the only basis for hope. Otherwise, you've given us nothing.

I bookmarked this for later. It is spot on. Saying the players are working to improve every week is indirectly blaming the players. It means they are not good enough now to beat the three tomato cans that just knocked us over. But they should "get better". Nonsense. Other teams will also get better.

He is accepting no accountability for himself or coaches despite his throwaway line "that's on us, as coaches."

The sad thing is that there are spots of talent on this team. Deep RBs. Serviceable QB. Alleged AA at LT. Decent TEs. Couple of veteran WRs. Likely all B1G DE, couple of athletic DBs. Cant really tell much on D because JON. That might not be enough against B1G but should have been enough for the last 3 sad-sacks.

I can imagine if we miraculously upset some middlin' B1G opponent and Fitz will puff up his chest and say "see?!?!" Actually he did that after Nebraska

It's all on one man. Period. Pat Fitzgerald. If he can't or won't, it falls to another: Dr Gragg

 

[CatManTrue]

Even in its best seasons, Northwestern has lived on the razor’s edge. As Fitzgerald puts it, “We don’t win games 100-2.”

Something for the kids:

 

[Katatonic]

And if the Wildcats don’t win this season, they can be right back in the thick of things in 2023, their coach insists. Just like when back-to-back losing seasons in 2013 and 2014 gave way to the best four-year stretch in school history — 36-17 overall and 26-9 in the Big Ten.


- Fitz is really pulling at strings w/ the excuses.

As for as the '13-14 seasons, those teams were decimated by injuries, and the '14 team was still good enough to beat Wisky, Penn State and the Domers (should have also completed the quad-fecta and beaten Michigsn, but for some inept coaching).

The '14 team, even w/ all its injuries, should have finished w/ 7 wins.

This year's team is no where close to being good enough to win 7 games, even w/ a mediocre B1GW.

Close games within the conference aren't an issue, but close games time after time with programs that are at a serious disadvantage when it comes to resources, facilities, recruiting, etc. is a problem, esp. w/ the Cats being on the wrong end of those close games far too many times.

Btw, if the Cats don't end up beating the Mertz-Badgers, that'll be a whole year since the Cats have won on US soil.

 

[Katatonic]

That fairweather fan comment was also beneath Fitz.

There were a # of us who were critical of elements of the program even during the good days; there's just a lot more things to be critical about now, but many of the same old issues still rearing their ugly head (it's criminal that it's been how many years and Fitz still hasn't been able to roll out an above avg O-line).

And while Fitz is stubborn/slow - he does eventually start seeing what a # of us have been seeing/calling for (replace Colby, replace McCall, run the QB sneak instead of keep trying to hand the ball off on short yardage situations, etc.).