Which is why we should be thankful our favorite son has worked out so well. Imagine if Fitz had never improved upon his first-year record in 2006. That's essentially what's happened in Lincoln during the Frost era.
Yeah 1000%.
This past 2 decades has been a time of stability, building, and winning at a time of mass upheaval in college athletics.
Things were so uncertain around the time that Fitz started: we had attendance woes, were decades behind on facilities, still hadn't won a bowl game.
All this as mass realignment was ongoing and about to start hitting the Big Ten. And now NIL and professionalization of the sport loom.
Our big boosters starting from the Ryans on down as well as Schapiro and Phillips made a strong commitment to building the AD up to this point, but without Fitz at the helm of the football program, things would be a lot less certain.
Taking us from 10 years of success to nearing 30 is a critical change to the brand of the program. We don't need to be a football factory, but we're no longer seen as a dreg of the sport like Kansas. The Dark Ages are in the distant past and by the time Fitz's career is done will be the ancient past.
And with Fitz in place, it's had a halo effect for the whole AD, we've already raised and spent $400+ million on the main facility, basketball arena, and the other facilities along with potentially another $400 million upcoming on the football stadium.
And all of that while the football program has improved to the point where expectations are reasonably high around here after winning the division twice and 5 quality bowl wins under Fitz along with plenty of weeks ranked and ranked finishes.
A lot of people involved in getting us to this point, but we now have an AD that's at the quality of a Power 2 league like what the Big Ten will be when USC and UCLA get here.
And Fitz still is motivated to do a lot more here.