With three of the last four seasons being terrible and all the other news of the past few weeks, there is no doubt that the program has A LOT of work to do before we even play another snap of football. So, it got me thinking, from a professional perspective, is right now the most stressed Fitz has been at any point in his career? Think about it...
- In three of the last four years, our team has been dreadful. Take out the weird 2020 year and we have gone 2-25 in conference since the beginning of the 2019 season. We also have had some terrible losses to teams like Southern Illinois.
- He is looking for a new DC and other position coaches. Fitz loves continuity with his coaching staff, so replacing three coaches, including one coordinator, at one time has to be upping the stress level.
- From a combination of bad on-field results and the firing of coaches, we are doing everything we can to hang on to as many of our verbal commits as possible.
- This isn't really unique to us, but we have already had many players enter the portal and a couple others announce they are leaving early for the NFL. There is a lot to replace, especially on the defense.
- The 2023 season is a really big one for Fitz. He gets lucky with about as easy of a schedule that you can ask for and he needs to take advantage of it and win AT LEAST 4-5 games. Though I would argue getting to a bowl game with that schedule really should be the expectation. And as he looks at that and knows significant on-field improvement is needed, he has as much uncertainty with his staff and team as he's probably had during his entire tenure. Not exactly comforting.
So, is right now the most stressed Fitz has ever been in his professional career? I say yes. And I know some will say that Fitz has the best job in college sports since his seat never gets hot, but I feel quite confident that if he has another year with 3 or less wins (4 or 5 may not even be enough), that seat is going to start getting hot.
- In three of the last four years, our team has been dreadful. Take out the weird 2020 year and we have gone 2-25 in conference since the beginning of the 2019 season. We also have had some terrible losses to teams like Southern Illinois.
- He is looking for a new DC and other position coaches. Fitz loves continuity with his coaching staff, so replacing three coaches, including one coordinator, at one time has to be upping the stress level.
- From a combination of bad on-field results and the firing of coaches, we are doing everything we can to hang on to as many of our verbal commits as possible.
- This isn't really unique to us, but we have already had many players enter the portal and a couple others announce they are leaving early for the NFL. There is a lot to replace, especially on the defense.
- The 2023 season is a really big one for Fitz. He gets lucky with about as easy of a schedule that you can ask for and he needs to take advantage of it and win AT LEAST 4-5 games. Though I would argue getting to a bowl game with that schedule really should be the expectation. And as he looks at that and knows significant on-field improvement is needed, he has as much uncertainty with his staff and team as he's probably had during his entire tenure. Not exactly comforting.
So, is right now the most stressed Fitz has ever been in his professional career? I say yes. And I know some will say that Fitz has the best job in college sports since his seat never gets hot, but I feel quite confident that if he has another year with 3 or less wins (4 or 5 may not even be enough), that seat is going to start getting hot.
