They should hire Paul Chryst or Jim Leonhard, TONIGHT!
Both are available and both would be upgrades.
Why would those guys want that job now, under these circumstances?
There’s a non-zero chance the AD walks the plank over this, too.
Because it's still a B1G job with no expectations and if you're Jim Leonhard, it's a head coaching job.
Why would Matt Rhule go to Baylor?
Because it's a step up, you can build a program in your image, and no one expects ANYTHING from you for at least two years. And at a place like NW, the most they'll ever expect is a bowl game.
Oh, and it's also a nice payday for your family.
You have a new facility and a stadium on the way. Sure it's an absolute DISASTER right now...but some people can lead in these moments. I think either guy would stabilize things and they could have relative success.
For some people...this job is better than following a successful head coach. Hell Ryan Day has had great success and there are folks who want his head on a spike because it's not Urban. Zook couldn't follow Urban either. Whoever follows Saban is going to be against it on Day 1.
This isn't as terrible as it seems if you look long-term.
The bar is low at NW, and it has gotten even lower now. You just have to run a drama-free program, look like you have a clue, and run a modern offense. They will be thrilled.
They are expecting mostly losses, so if you can entertain them while that's happening and not look like modern football has passed you by, they will be in your pocket for years.
It would be difficult enough for them to make an outside hire under normal circumstances, given that fall camp is a month away. That's not much time to assemble a staff.
With a hazing scandal in at least two different sports, which will likely lead to more investigations and may well cost the AD his job? Forget it.
If the AD is even allowed to hire a football coach right now, it won’t be an outside hire. They’ll promote an interim coach for the 2023 season and then try to get their new guy next winter.
That's where I was going at first, too, but beginning to think you can't hire from within. If Fitzgerald knew and condoned, and thus was fired, or if the school determined at a minimum the problem was so bad that he should have known, and thus fired him -- then what does that say about the rest of the staff? Who is the adult in the room?
If they hire from within, that's basically telling the kids who've been hazed "you know those coaches who didn't say a word under Fitz? Well, don't worry about it. We've given them a stern talking to. They got your back now."
Get Barry Alvarez. He's done this kind of gig a bunch. Kidding, but kind of not.
Yeah, it's definitely a weird situation. Maybe they can find an Alvarez-type guy to be a stopgap, but still, who would be his assistants?
There's so little time that I think they'll end up holding their nose and keeping the rest of the staff intact for the season - and then clean house in December.
Which is what most schools would do...and I understand why. I just think you've got a shot to change the narrative now and get a head start on the '24 season.
Plus I don't think NW is getting a better coach than Paul Chryst in December.
Now maybe Chryst doesn't work because he would bring a staff and it's too late for that. With Leonhard, he could keep most of the assistants for a year before making changes.
Or wait and hire whoever wins the MAC or a coordinator from a B1G Championship Game finalist...which is more likely to happen.
But if they hire these guys now...that's one less suitor for Moore and Minter later 😁.
That might be true down the road, but they’ve got a massive scandal on their hands right now, which won’t go away just because Fitz has been fired. There may be other sports programs that need investigating (baseball appears to be one), possibly lawsuits at hand, and very possibly other firings to come.
If I’m a guy like Leonhard or Chryst there’s no way in hell I’m wading into that mess now.
I'd pass on it now, if my agent asked if I was interested. Beyond the elephant in the room no coach wants to inherit, who are you going to get to come with you in mid-July to fill out a staff? Wouldn't be an all star cast. Only people available are those who aren't already working (read: people no one wanted enough to hire)? And I can't imagine you'd want to retain any of the current staff, given the alleged state of the culture. You may not have the choice, anyway--the university probably wants to clean house. Assistants, S&C staff.
Let them hire some stop gap retread they pull out of retirement -- Gary Barnett still ambulatory? -- and throw your name in the hat during real search when it starts in earnest.
There are plenty of really good coaches available and not working right now. It's simply not true that if they aren't working, no one wanted them.
But what is true is it isn't a good, stable, drama free situation. And a collection of good coaches doesn't make a good cohesive staff. And good coaches don't want to go someplace that's not a cohesive staff because it's harder to succeed.
No one else is getting fired unless they had direct knowledge of what happen and ignored it.
Read the president's statement. He said there wasn't evidence that Fitz knew, but as the leader of the program...it's his job to know.
They're not going to clean house right before a season, and they shouldn't. Again, if they know that others were involved...pack their shit and get them out. But we firing the trainer, academic advisor, and everyone who had anything to do with the program right now?
Will never happen. But the guy in charge had to go.
And again, I point to Matt Rhule. We are acting like this is Notre Dame. Sure the block is hot today, but once that season starts, no one is going to be thinking about or talking about little ol Northwestern.
Bob Huggins was shitfaced and driving a vehicle with a bag of empties. That story was HUGE and went away a week later, until he brought it back into the light yesterday.
Part of the reason that Fitzgerald wasn't on a hotseat prior to the allegations was because he actually won some big games for Northwestern as their coach. You can say that the bar is low but after cashing some big checks people are going to want to see improvement and wins. With the admission standards at NW, I doubt that you can simply hit up the portal for some quick fix wins. NW looks like a big no thank-you to any established coach.
He wasn't on the hot seat.
If he was...they would've fired him after last season. They've won like 3 games in the last two years.
He was there as long as Pat Ryan wanted him there. No more, no less.
I honestly thought he was football coach for life.
(Ryan's life, that is.)
Zook couldn't follow Urban either.
Minor point, but Zook took over for Spurrier at Florida (Urban was hired to replace Zook).
Northwestern was, and is even more so now, one of the least desirable head coaching jobs in the country
Except it's not.
It used to be pre-Fitz.
But not anymore, for one, it's in the B1G. If anything, the past year has taught you that there is NO job in the B1G that is even close to the least desirable in the country.
Northwestern isn't even the least desirable job in the B1G, IMO.
Again, in the 90s? Before Fitz was a player? Absolutely. But they've been to two B1G Championship Games in the last 5 years.
They have a $275M facility with an $700M stadium on the way.
It's Chicago. It's a great academic school. There are plenty of things to like about Northwestern.
Oh wow, they have a nice stadium? Crazy! /s
Northwestern is insanely hard to recruit due to their academic standards and just got a hell of a lot harder to recruit
Nobody with a reputation is touching that job until they're sure all the skeletons are out.
Jim Leonhard has a reputation?
What job is Paul Chryst getting that is better?
lol Matt Rhule had MUCH more of a reputation. He was a hot name at a G5. AND THAT WAS AT BAYLOR!
This isn't Luke Fickell (if he were still at Cincinnati) that we are talking about.
We are talking a fired HC who might stumble into a G5 job and a guy who has never been a head coach before.
But if they're a true outsider with no existing ties to the program, all the skeletons are someone else's fault. Look at Bill O'Brien following Paterno. He went into a dumpster fire with rock bottom expectations, exceeded them, and parleyed that into an NFL HC gig.
Someone is going to be willing to take that chance on NW. It's a dumpster fire, but they can say it's all the previous guy's fault (and better yet, it would be true), and if they have even modest success they'll be a hero and on the short list for a bunch of top tier college jobs.
Another great example.
Was OSU bowl eligible during Urban's first year? If not. There is another one of a guy taking over a program after a scandal.
Rhule, O'Brien, Meyer...Tennessee just landed Heupel when their program was a shitshow. The first three facing significant penalties when they took the job, something, to this point, NW isn't facing.
There are only but so many head coaching jobs and obviously even fewer in the B1G or SEC.
David Shaw
Another strong option that is available right now.
They won't have a better pool than they do now and there is no competition.
Hell, get a guy under contract and have him start after the season (joking).
Doubt he would ever go there, but you have to ask.
I thought one of the issues with Chryst was that he just didn't want to do the work of the job anymore--at a place where it was all relatively in place. If true, a train wreck rebuild doesn't sound like his deal.
Chryst I could see, because after the big expectations at Wisconsin and not fully delivering, he probably wants low profile, plus he’s entered into that back half of career as well. He also seems to be a stand up guy overall.
David Shaw also, even though I’m sure he’s fed up with the stresses of coaching, would be an ideal cultural fit as well, and he’s also available.
However, Jim Leonhard, while he didn’t get over the hump as Wisconsin’s interim, should want to land a spot where he can come and win quicker to rebuild his HC resume. His career as a HC would likely tank at Northwestern because it’s such an incredibly tough place to win consistently, and then you add in a scandal to pull the program out of. Leonhard, I believe would be unwise to take this job, even if his cultural mantra, knowledge of B1G west and recruiting footprint makes sense. I could see Leonhard taking over a MAC program kind of like Fleck did at EMU or Fickell at Cincy, but not stepping into NW to try and build up an already handcuffed recruiting culture in a major conference that now has a scandal as well.
EDIT: Bronco Mendenhall maybe another guy to look at
Guess this means Shrek was fired too. As far as I'm concerned, he's an innocent victim in all this.
Hey, it's no coincidence Shrek be-friended a donkey long before he met Cameron Diaz.
Shrek made lists because he was forgetful. And those bastards twisted it...
When I was at Northwestern in the early 90s, this type of power play/sexual hazing was par for the course in the fraternities. At no time did any of my peers question whether hazing should happen, it was accepted as an unavoidable part of that culture. If you didn't like it, you didn't pledge.
Kids today are not afraid to question things like this. We were idiots, they are not. I think Fitz didn't adjust. He'll have a good amount of free time to reflect on this.
I've said this for years...Fitz is stuck in '96 when he played and he never broke away. Ran his program like that and it was only a matter of time before it caught up to him.
I just rewatched that RIVALS: Michigan vs. Ohio St. on BTN...I forgot the part about Woody. How with the war, everything was changing around him - especially young people. Bo was able to adapt and had to because of Michigan's campus and Ann Arbor in general. But Woody never adjusted, lost touch with his players, stopped winning like he did when he started, and we know how it ended. In disgrace.
Fitzgerald is a GOD at NW. He's every bit of Woody Hayes to that school (obviously not even close beyond that school). But he never adjusted.
I always felt like he knew (just not because of some white board), just like the frats you mentioned, it sounded like a rite of passage for NW football players. It was barbaric and disgusting. It was time for him to go a long time ago.
I'll say this though, this stuff is A LOT more prevalent than we realize. This in no way is an isolated incident at NW. Hopefully all coaches in all sports look inward and end this stuff before they are also, "reflecting."
NW baseball says “hi”
Wingdings suggests Sherrone Moore should be on the shortlist for the job.
Maybe after the year is over, but I can’t imagine anything but an interim hire until the end of the ‘23 season.
No one with a brain should go near that ish until the smoke clears. You could sink a promising career there.
I’d love to to know what Wiltfong is smoking. Why would Moore, who has already turned down HC jobs, ditch being OC for a CFP contender for a dumpster fire of a program when he can play out this season and likely get a significantly better job?
Moore can do so, so, so much better than NU. That would be a career killer.
What happens with the assistants who knew about this? Can they really stay on? NU may be looking for more than a HC, and fast
If someone was on the staff and acted in an improper manner, they should be terminated.
If someone was on the staff and aware of these activities and said nothing, they should be terminated.
There must be accountability. Coaches and staff must be held accountable for their actions, or inaction.
Braun was just hired in January so he's probably safe, but the rest, uhhh....
They are all tainted they all go
This is just the tip of the iceberg folks.
Iceberg being ... Northwestern athletics? College football culture in general?
Fitzgerald was hired in a similar time frame. NU football coach Randy Walker died of a heart attack June 29, 2006. Fitzgerald, an assistant on staff, was hired July 7.
So June 29th I was at Mustard’s Last Stand. That’s where I was when I heard the news.
They have decent Chicago dogs. I just order from there over the weekend.
Wild - right outside the stadium?!?
Wow, so you were almost literally in Ryan Field when it was announced! Kind of weird.
Except this staff goes too
Randy Walker, good coach, better person. RIP, sad to see Fitz take a fall from Grace, but damn, as a head coach you know everything that happens on campus with your team, even if a rumor pops up, in this day and age where there is social media, and no curtain to hide behind you need to act, or you go down with the ship.