The dignity of 6-6

[Sheffielder]

Cheat or Go Home: Inside the 'Dysfunctional Hell' of Becoming a CFB Coach

This is required reading for any and every college football fan, regardless of program.

I am a vocal critic of Fitz, particularly for his pig-headedness when it comes to keeping mediocre coaches on staff...but when I consider the occupational hazards of letting the wrong snake in the door - player, coach, parent, booster or otherwise...I guess I get it.

 

[Fitz51]

Excellent read. Thanks so much for posting.

 

[Deeringfish]

Thanks for posting that! It is good for us to know.

 

[Catreporter]

This is a real eye opener. One of the assistants (who is NOT one of those some people on this board have been ripping) is my neighbor. He told me one day how much he appreciates Fitz's loyalty to his staff. He said he thought it made him work better and harder

 

[phatcat]

I fully expect Fitz to be the coach for the rest of my life. He should still insist on improvement.

 

[NJCat]

I fully expect Fitz to be the coach for the rest of my life. He should still insist on improvement.

He will continue to insist on improvement. I doubt he will deliver on-field imporvement without making improvements to his staff. Loyalty is great but only if it is earned by results on the field, and methinks one or more of his staff aren't earning that loyalty.

 

[julescat]

I think it's sort of unhealthy that so few guys from NU staff get hired away by other programs. Would allow for much greater flexibility given the way Fitz (admirably) is loathe to whack guys.

 

[Hungry Jack]

Cheat or Go Home: Inside the 'Dysfunctional Hell' of Becoming a CFB Coach

This is required reading for any and every college football fan, regardless of program.

I am a vocal critic of Fitz, particularly for his pig-headedness when it comes to keeping mediocre coaches on staff...but when I consider the occupational hazards of letting the wrong snake in the door - player, coach, parent, booster or otherwise...I guess I get it.

Hayden Fry once told him, "You recruit your own problems."

True. To some degree, coaches have a choice. But this is a systemic problem that starts with parents of high school kids (if not younger). TV money and the promise of NFL fuels the machine. The recruiting pipeline is the grease. Coaches and players that get caught in the gears get chewed up and spat out.

 

[AtlantaCat]

I fully expect Fitz to be the coach for the rest of my life. He should still insist on improvement.

For context, just how old are you?

 

[loyolacat]

I dont know....I still think of a fan as someone who roots and cares about their team Win or Lose. Who experiences the joys and sorrows along with the team and other fans. The real goal for me is to have an honest coach and good kids to root for.Other than real incompetence I think loyalty is admirable.....and desirable.I think in some ways it is a function of our now instant gratification society. If we don't win NOW then fire the guy!!!!! IF I do not feel ecstatic over my team being better, badder NOW I cant take the feeling bad for more than oh I don't know 1 game? I mean this year would have loved to have seen a BIG10 Championship instead I had to live with the fact that after being embarrassed by the the loss to ISU this team and staff stuck together to fight their way to 6-6 with some decent wins. That is admirable. Maybe for this year I can not hang it over the head of my crazy UW neighbor but so be it. There was value in what this team accomplished this year and NEXT year will be the year!!!!!(should of been born a Cub fan...I was wasted on the Cardinals)

 

[phatcat]

For context, just how old are you?

Fair question - 54. I think he will coach another 25-30 years. Hopefully I will outlive his career

 

[Deeringfish]

I dont know....I still think of a fan as someone who roots and cares about their team Win or Lose. Who experiences the joys and sorrows along with the team and other fans. The real goal for me is to have an honest coach and good kids to root for.Other than real incompetence I think loyalty is admirable.....and desirable.I think in some ways it is a function of our now instant gratification society. If we don't win NOW then fire the guy!!!!! IF I do not feel ecstatic over my team being better, badder NOW I cant take the feeling bad for more than oh I don't know 1 game? I mean this year would have loved to have seen a BIG10 Championship instead I had to live with the fact that after being embarrassed by the the loss to ISU this team and staff stuck together to fight their way to 6-6 with some decent wins. That is admirable. Maybe for this year I can not hang it over the head of my crazy UW neighbor but so be it. There was value in what this team accomplished this year and NEXT year will be the year!!!!!(should of been born a Cub fan...I was wasted on the Cardinals)

This is a good post and you made me laugh at the end.

 

[stpaulcat]

I fully expect Fitz to be the coach for the rest of my life. He should still insist on improvement.

Is he going to be the Joe Paterno of NU (in terms of age)? If that's to happen, he must HAVE improvement.

 

[Deeringfish]

Is he going to be the Joe Paterno of NU (in terms of age)? If that's to happen, he must HAVE improvement.

How much improvement? I've been thinking a lot lately about how reasonable or unreasonable our expectations are. IMO we are never going to be the dominant program that PSU was all those years under Paterno. We are not going to have 45,000 people doing a "Purple Out" let alone 90,000 or what ever their stadium holds.
So how good would Fitz have to be to be allowed to stay 20 more years? Or maybe I should ask how bad?

 

[ubercat]

How much improvement? I've been thinking a lot lately about how reasonable or unreasonable our expectations are. IMO we are never going to be the dominant program that PSU was all those years under Paterno. We are not going to have 45,000 people doing a "Purple Out" let alone 90,000 or what ever their stadium holds.
So how good would Fitz have to be to be allowed to stay 20 more years? Or maybe I should ask how bad?

If by 'good' you mean untainted by scandal, I'd say: as good as he's proven himself to be already. If you mean coaching teams to a 'good' number of championships, you'd have to ask Pat Ryan.

 

[Catreporter]

How much improvement? I've been thinking a lot lately about how reasonable or unreasonable our expectations are. IMO we are never going to be the dominant program that PSU was all those years under Paterno. We are not going to have 45,000 people doing a "Purple Out" let alone 90,000 or what ever their stadium holds.
So how good would Fitz have to be to be allowed to stay 20 more years? Or maybe I should ask how bad?

This is a very savvy post. We're living through a pretty good age of NU football now. Things could go south (a la Purdue) very easily with the wrong people in charge. Competition is much greater than it was when Barnett (Saint Gary) caught lightning in a bottle 20 years ago.

 

[stpaulcat]

If by 'good' you mean untainted by scandal, I'd say: as good as he's proven himself to be already. If you mean coaching teams to a 'good' number of championships, you'd have to ask Pat Ryan.

Fitz gets old and gray
On the Northwestern sideline
Until Paddy says?

Oops, confused. It's not Thursday.

 

[hdhntr1]

I think it's sort of unhealthy that so few guys from NU staff get hired away by other programs. Would allow for much greater flexibility given the way Fitz (admirably) is loathe to whack guys.

Maybe but it might also be that all the best were hired away and we were left with what they did not want. Every one of the new hires would need to be a stud or staff in general would just get worse.

 

[hdhntr1]

I dont know....I still think of a fan as someone who roots and cares about their team Win or Lose. Who experiences the joys and sorrows along with the team and other fans. The real goal for me is to have an honest coach and good kids to root for.Other than real incompetence I think loyalty is admirable.....and desirable.I think in some ways it is a function of our now instant gratification society. If we don't win NOW then fire the guy!!!!! IF I do not feel ecstatic over my team being better, badder NOW I cant take the feeling bad for more than oh I don't know 1 game? I mean this year would have loved to have seen a BIG10 Championship instead I had to live with the fact that after being embarrassed by the the loss to ISU this team and staff stuck together to fight their way to 6-6 with some decent wins. That is admirable. Maybe for this year I can not hang it over the head of my crazy UW neighbor but so be it. There was value in what this team accomplished this year and NEXT year will be the year!!!!!(should of been born a Cub fan...I was wasted on the Cardinals)

I don't think we are going for instant gratification to be wanting improvements in the OL. How many years has it been?

 

[stpaulcat]

How much improvement? I've been thinking a lot lately about how reasonable or unreasonable our expectations are. IMO we are never going to be the dominant program that PSU was all those years under Paterno. We are not going to have 45,000 people doing a "Purple Out" let alone 90,000 or what ever their stadium holds.
So how good would Fitz have to be to be allowed to stay 20 more years? Or maybe I should ask how bad?

Look at this historically (20 years)--we've had a very good to great offense, until recently. Now we have a good to great defense. Should it not be possible to have both? We've done both, but not really together since Barnett. Instead of looking at this in terms of having a championship team every year, look at in terms of fielding both a very good to hopefully great offense and defense each year. That should be possible since we've proven to be able to do both. If we're focused on the championship alone, we'll never get there since that's being focused on the goal rather than what to do to achieve it. One can believe anything they want, but there's got to be the recruiting, player development and smart coaching to get there.

 

[gocatsgo2003]

Look at this historically (20 years)--we've had a very good to great offense, until recently. Now we have a good to great defense. Should it not be possible to have both? We've done both, but not really together since Barnett. Instead of looking at this in terms of having a championship team every year, look at in terms of fielding both a very good to hopefully great offense and defense each year. That should be possible since we've proven to be able to do both. If we're focused on the championship alone, we'll never get there since that's being focused on the goal rather than what to do to achieve it. One can believe anything they want, but there's got to be the recruiting, player development and smart coaching to get there.

That's the challenge for every single college football program outside of the top 5-10, which are consistently able to build sufficient depth to avoid too many "down" years due to personnel drop-off (due to graduation, injury, transfer, etc.).

 

[Smokejumper]

That's the challenge for every single college football program outside of the top 5-10, which are consistently able to build sufficient depth to avoid too many "down" years due to personnel drop-off (due to graduation, injury, transfer, etc.).

I used to think NU was alone in having so many "touted" players (at least for NU) unable to perform over the years - due to injury, retirement, lack of development, passion for music, baseball, hernias, etc - but this quick write-up on Oregon and five touted recruits that helped lead to Helfrich's demise made me feel that the playing field is much more level and competitive for teams 10-100.

And it feels so subject to random chance. Yes you can scout players better than other programs and yes you can develop players better than other programs, but sometimes a player injury/retirement or a talent at a key position that simply doesn't click can undermine a team's success on the field. And in this age of concussion awareness, i think we will see many more players retiring early in their careers - and a much more competitive "middle tier" in college football than ever before.

https://n.rivals.com/news/five-highly-ranked-helfrich-recruits-that-didn-t-pan-out

 

[loyolacat]

I don't think we are going for instant gratification to be wanting improvements in the OL. How many years has it been?

Totally agree...that is part of the fun for me is evaluating where we need to get better....but I assume that they are all giving their best including the coach...and I am incredibly disappointed when they lose and over the top when they win......but I am still going to games when they have a bad year and focus on the team getting better.
It was interesting to watch my brother and nephews and assorted others that I brought to the game Saturday. My son and I were the only two NU fans....It was my 72 yr old brothers first college game and it was not long before they were just into the game and not rooting for anyone and just enjoying the exciting plays and ups and downs with out having any investment in who won (could of been the Jamisons?). I mean honest to god if we had lost would that 54 yd touchdown run by JJ have been any less exciting. I guess I enjoy the whole process and have a high tolerance for the being disappointed. As I said I was wasted being a Cardinal fan butttttttt my Cub friends tell me that is going to change,

 

[Catreporter]

sometimes a player injury/retirement or a talent at a key position that simply doesn't click can undermine a team's success on the field.

Like the loss of Mertz, DePietro and Park the last two years likely hurt development of our O-line.