Fitzgerald to USC or Texas?
I have seen a few tweets and this article from Chicago regarding potential opennings at USC and Texas and whether Fitzgerald would take one of these two jobs. I think USC is more likely as it is a private school similar to NU. The policitcs of Texas program is tough to handle for a total outsider.
September 9th, 2013 at 11:20 AM ^
I hope he stays with the Wildcats. They're not going to get a better coach than him. If he stays, there's no way he won't be viewed as anything but a deity by them when he retires.
September 9th, 2013 at 11:23 AM ^
September 9th, 2013 at 11:33 AM ^
No way. I'd be equally surprised at Fitzgerald taking one of those jobs as I would be with Hoke taking one of them. At this point he pretty much is Northwestern football.
September 9th, 2013 at 11:43 AM ^
Petersen to USC
Strong to Texas
Gary Patterson's name will be toss in the mix for both as well.
September 9th, 2013 at 1:06 PM ^
Good call
September 9th, 2013 at 2:03 PM ^
If I recall correctly, Petersen either turned down the USC job back in 2010, or made it publicly known that he had no interest in it. At this point, I'll be very surprised if he ever leaves Boise State.
September 9th, 2013 at 11:46 AM ^
You're the center of one of the top 3, if not the top, talent producing states in the sport. If that wasn't easy enough, 95% of all of these players want to go to Texas. You don't even have to recruit.
September 9th, 2013 at 11:49 AM ^
NW he seems like a lifer at NW but NW needs to upgrade the stadium/Facility to seel the deal. As for USC, Texas, coaches I think USC would get Petrino while he had a bad proformance against Tennessee but you easily blame of lack talent on Western Kentucky. As For Texas they will go after Art Briles while Baylor is getting better talent wise and better facilities Texas is still the Big fish school and can get any talent they want. As for Charlie Strong I think priority number 1 for Florida if and when they get Will Muschamp canned and yes Gator fans do want him out.
September 9th, 2013 at 11:56 AM ^
Northwestern has committed to massive facilities upgrades already, and the basketball program is also on the rise, which helps with recruiting for both teams. Fitz will stay. But the next big job that opens, his name will come up again.
September 9th, 2013 at 11:58 AM ^
I know people love Fitzgerald and the fact NW hasn't cratered, but his teams remain largely underwhelming to me. They play solid offense but almost always struggle defensively, and at this point it doesn't look like that will change because of either recruiting or a difficuly philosophy. I mean, there are schools with similar recruiting limitations that have performed at or better than NW, and I'm not sure why NW hasn't been able to field an above-average defense for years.
September 9th, 2013 at 1:55 PM ^
This is "slowly" being rectified, hence this baseless PR move about the house that Fitz built.
September 9th, 2013 at 11:59 AM ^
Why would they go after Fitzgerald when the best coach in th B1G is in East Lansing?
/s
September 9th, 2013 at 12:17 PM ^
After Texas' experience with John Mackovic (too aloof for the alums), UT will not be hiring any more yankees from the state of Illinois.
September 9th, 2013 at 12:28 PM ^
maybe a bit less so. He's an NU alum who apparently loves the school and has his system setup. If he wants to climb the ranks there are obviously institutional limitations with Northwestern but I don't think he'd leave.
OTOH, if he does leave, I see it being a Richrod-level disaster for the school in question. Fitzgerald has a niche at NU, not sure how well it would translate to a big time school like Texas or USC
September 9th, 2013 at 12:35 PM ^
...f you want to understand just why Fitzgerald isn't moving from Northwestern.
September 9th, 2013 at 12:49 PM ^
What about Pat Narduzzi to Texas or USC. Quality human.
/s
September 9th, 2013 at 1:04 PM ^
from Boise State will probably end up with one of those jobs - but even that is 50/50 - I would guess USC
September 9th, 2013 at 1:15 PM ^
Texas:
Hires Mike Gundy from Oklahoma State for his experience in handling big money donors with unrealistic expectations.
USC:
Brings Pete Carroll back from Seattle Seahawks.
September 9th, 2013 at 1:21 PM ^
I hope he never leaves NW, he's one of the few likeable coaches in the conference.
September 9th, 2013 at 1:42 PM ^
Coach Fitzgerald's roots at Northwestern and in Chicago run incredibly - almost ridiculously - deep.
He was born in Orland Park, a near suburb of Chicago. He graduated from high school there. He married his high school, hometown sweetheart. Chicago is where his family still lives, where her family still lives, and Pat and Stacy Fitzgerald's three sons have never known any other home but Chicago, where they were born and are being raised.
Pat Fitzgerald didn't just play for Northwestern - he is the *only* Northwestern player, ever, to be honored with a major national player award (winning the Bednarik Award and the Nagurksi Award back to back in '95 & '96). Fitzgerald later became the first Northwestern player to win a place in the College Football Hall of Fame since Ron Burton's senior season in 1959. I was an undergrad (HPME) at Northwestern for the epic '95 and '96 seasons before coming home to Michigan for MD/PhD, and I can tell you Pat Fitzgerald was a hero at Northwestern as a player. Think of how Nebraska fans felt about Ndamukong Suh, and you get how Northwestern students felt about Fitzgerald. Except imagine if Nebraska had gone 47 years without ever making it to any Bowl game whatsoever and then Suh leads them to the Rose and Citrus. *47* years waiting.
Pat Fitzgerald's first two one-year coaching positions were under former NU coaches (then at Maryland and at Colorado) before heading to Idaho for a year - and as soon as Northwestern offered him, he came straight back. Northwestern was the first long-term position (as linebacker coach) that he ever held, before his mentor and friend Randy Walker suddenly died of a heart attack two months before the '06 season began. That's when Northwestern chose to pass up both the OC and DC to make Fitzgerald, the hero of the epic '95/'96 seasons, the new HC. And then he went on to be the winningest coach and first bowl game winner in Northwestern history.
Northwestern's current administration is smart enough to know what they've got in Fitzgerald and has the will and the money to do something about it. Everybody talks about $TEXAS money? UT only has a six billion dollar endowment. Northwestern has *seven*. Northwestern may be the smallest school in the B1G but only Michigan has a bigger financial warchest: behind UM and NU; third place U. Minnesota checks in at barely a *third* the size. Northwestern has more in the bank than Iowa, Nebraska, MSU, Indiana and Illinois *combined*. And Northwestern's spending it - $220 million on a new athletics complex that will headquarter the football team on a spectacularly beautiful stretch of beachfront Lake Michigan from which you can watch the Chicago skyline light up at night.
As we all know, Schembechler turned down the chance to become the richest coach in college football history at Texas A&M, to stay at Michigan. Now imagine if Schembechler had been born and raised and married in Washtenaw County, won the Heisman two years running for U. Michigan as a player, and had been Bernie Oosterbaan's protege instead of Woody Hayes'. *That's* what Fitzgerald means to Northwestern, and what Northwestern means to Fitzgerald. We're talking about a coach born in Chicago, raised in Chicago, met and married his wife in Chicago, raised all his kids in Chicago, has never had any long-term coaching position anywhere but Northwestern, is the biggest player hero in living Northwestern memory, is the biggest *coach* hero in living Northwestern memory, and has an administration who both has the will and the financial means to keep him happy.
Nothing is impossible; but if you had to create from scratch the biography of a coach that is *least* likely to be poachable, Pat Fitzgerald is it. I suppose it's possible some school might be able to poach him; but I think it's more likely that thirty years from now, they name the football practice facility Fitzgerald Hall.
I don't think Pat Fitzgerald wants to be the next Bill Walsh or Jim Harbaugh. I think Pat Fitzgerald wants to be the next Tom Osborne - or Bo Schembechler. And I think the B1G is richer and better for it.
September 9th, 2013 at 1:47 PM ^
Move along, nothing to see here.
^^^^
BTW, Awesome post about Fitz!
September 9th, 2013 at 6:07 PM ^
Thank you!
September 9th, 2013 at 3:46 PM ^
It was Walker who wanted Fitzgerald to succeed him, and NW did the right thing and honored Walker's wish after his unexpected death even though Fitzgerald was only 31 at the time. If Fitzgerald stays, it would definitely be out of a sense of loyalty to NW.
September 9th, 2013 at 4:22 PM ^
UT system has a $18.2B endowment; NU has a $7.1B endowment.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57567214/20-biggest-college-endowments/
September 9th, 2013 at 6:05 PM ^
The combined UT System endowment value combines the total endowments held by the nine separate regular universities of the UT System, four separate medical schools, and MD Anderson Cancer Center. UT Austin itself only has access to a small fraction of the total - the 1.2 billion dollars held by UT Southwestern Med, or the billion dollars held by MD Anderson, can't be used to pay for the Longhorn's football coach.
Last year, when Yahoo Finance confused the UT System endowment for the UT Austin endowment, the VP of Finance for UT Austin wrote a letter explaining that only $6 billion of the 2012 $17.1 billion system total was available to UT Austin (and where I got the $6 billion number) [1]. That's still a very impressive number, but less than Northwestern's (or Michigan's) total.
[1] http://www.readthehorn.com/news/62073/article_claims_ut_sitting_on_moun…
September 9th, 2013 at 1:44 PM ^
Who said that Jon Gruden bought a place on Lake Travis.
September 9th, 2013 at 1:47 PM ^
Maybe we finally see Chris Peterson finally leave Boise. Maybe now is good for him because it seems all those years of good Boise runs maybe coming to an end or at least slowing down.
September 9th, 2013 at 1:57 PM ^
Jack Del Rio to USC. Almost happened before while he was @ Jags.
Strong to Texas although I could see a darkhourse like James Franklin getting a shot.
September 9th, 2013 at 2:14 PM ^
Briles would do well there if paired with a good defensive coordinator say Pat Narduzzi.
I see USC going after Kevin Sumlin, getting turned down and having to settle for Del Rio.
September 9th, 2013 at 3:13 PM ^
I can't see him leaving. He's a deity to their fanbase, has his program on the upswing, and the school is rewarding him with much-needed facility upgrades. He may not win a national title there but they seem poised to contend for division titles (especially after the 2014 realignment), and maybe grab a Big Ten title at some point, which is fantastic by their standards.
September 9th, 2013 at 6:12 PM ^
I'll add, people forget that Gary Barnett was not a Big Ten guy... he left NU because his dream job became available. NU is Fitz's dream job.
September 9th, 2013 at 3:25 PM ^
I'm tempted to say that Fitzgerald is an NW lifer, but I'm sure he notices the extreme disparity in resources, facilities, and fan interest between NW and bigger name schools when he takes his team on the road. I could see him wanting to move up.
Also, the blatantly fake injuries during NW's game at Cal shows that Fitzgerald is not above the kind of shenanigans that would be commonplace at USC or Texas.
September 9th, 2013 at 4:00 PM ^
The fake injury thing has become commonplace across the country. Really, it's a pretty clever way to counteract a no-huddle offense (which, itself, can considered exploiting the rule book by not giving the defense a chance to substitute). I don't see it as in the same vein as giving guys cash under the table.
September 9th, 2013 at 5:32 PM ^
I'm not comparing it to hundred-dollar handshakes or other recruiting shenanigans, but it's not that far removed from switching jersey numbers or deflating game balls, which were among Kiffin's tricks at USC.
I don't think no-huddle offenses exploit the rule book. There's no rule or expectation that defenses should be given time to substitute. Trying to catch the defense flat-footed or force them into a penalty is part of the point of a no-huddle. If an offense can do that and still execute properly, then more power to them.
September 9th, 2013 at 3:36 PM ^
September 9th, 2013 at 6:10 PM ^
Pat Fitz is the best coach and wherever he goes will end up as one of my favorite teams... I like him at NU because they're rad, but Tejas is fine and USC can be cool
September 9th, 2013 at 6:30 PM ^
I hope he stays just makes the conference better!
September 9th, 2013 at 8:08 PM ^
Why would Fitz quit Michigan? He is our #1 back and is a senior. Oh.... wait......