What a joke. At no other school would the head coach be allowed to have this meaningless of a presser after the start that we’ve had. No substance, no nothing. Everything is all hunky dory, it’s all on him, go Cats.
Fitz Monday presser
- Thread starter peatymeanis
- Start date
I didn’t read it that way, at all.
The questions were measured and reasonable, as opposed to recitations of awfulness and the making of angry demands, but they still basically asked:
What is going wrong?
How are you addressing it?
I think Fitz gave honest answers.
What did you want to have happen? For someone to ask Fitz if he is going to fire his employee, in a press conference?
What, exactly, do you think Fitz would think of such a question (as well as the questioner,) and how do you think he might respond?
Quite frankly, punching bag status aside, there has been some poor play which shouldn’t really be pinned on the DC. There is a lot of ground to improve upon.
The questions were measured and reasonable, as opposed to recitations of awfulness and the making of angry demands, but they still basically asked:
What is going wrong?
How are you addressing it?
I think Fitz gave honest answers.
What did you want to have happen? For someone to ask Fitz if he is going to fire his employee, in a press conference?
What, exactly, do you think Fitz would think of such a question (as well as the questioner,) and how do you think he might respond?
Quite frankly, punching bag status aside, there has been some poor play which shouldn’t really be pinned on the DC. There is a lot of ground to improve upon.
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Poor play reflects on the DC too. For years we heard about the focus on fundamentals by Hank and the importance he preached in our not making mistakes. Hank received credit for us playing disciplined, mistake free football.
The players didn’t just become undisciplined and mistake prone. The preparation and how they play the game is as much an admonishment on JON now as it was previously a reason for praise on Hank.
The players didn’t just become undisciplined and mistake prone. The preparation and how they play the game is as much an admonishment on JON now as it was previously a reason for praise on Hank.
Huh? What was different about todays presser vs the dozens of other Fitz pressers? You could mad libs your way through the entirety of Fitz’s script. He says the same things every time. No sense of urgency, no details about what he’s doing to fix things. How about opening up the LB competition? Adjusting the scheme so players aren’t so confused every play? Changing play calling duties in defense? Changing the way we are practicing? Maybe address why this is happening after he vowed never again in 2019?
No, Fitz gets to offer nothing of substance and people think it’s great.
Programs that are having a tough season, especially the 'big-time' programs that Fitz says he wants to build NU into, always demonstrate some sense of urgency, acknowledgment of the problems, etc. See: Ryan Day demoting the OSU DC a few games into the season. With Fitz's press conferences, you can't tell listening to them if our record is 1-4 or 4-1. Saying "it's on me as the head coach" isn't good enough because after all these years we have no idea what that actually means.
While I agree with the criticism of the state of the program at the moment, I guess I don't see press conferences as all that insightful for any coach. Coaches are trained to rarely say anything truly interesting at these things. I hope things are going on in the background to improve things, but I don't expect Fitz to break any news at a press conference.
Does this part include fielding a competitive team that doesn't have an embarrassing defense? At some point I feel like that scene in Apollo 13 where Tom Hanks is demanding a re-entry plan (I think?) immediately, and they put the director of NASA on the phone and he tries to reassure them, and Hanks has a light-bulb moment and says "They don't know". Fitz gets AND deserves a lot of leeway because of his track record on so many levels - on the field, off the field, in the classroom etc. But at some point, he's going to become Pierre the Bridgebuilder.
Saying things in public, especially specific things, leads to accountability. By saying nothing he’s able to also do nothing and face no criticism for it.
Also what has he actually done since 2019 so that it isn’t repeated as he promised at the time? Nobody knows because he doesn’t have to say anything to the media or fanbase.
There is this radical possibility that Fitz is not — and I know this will be difficult for some to believe — being deceitful or oblivious.
I am not defending his assessment of the team, but if taken at face value, he believes the Wildcats are in better shape than most outsiders believe. He has a lot of guys getting game experience, and a QB rapidly picking up the system. He sees things working well in practice, and proper effort and attitude among the players, but the success is not translating to the field on game days. In theory, as with many such teams ‘on the verge,’ a day will come when things really click, and the now more experienced Cats will become a solid to good team. He doesn’t know when that will happen. Hopefully soon. Go Cats.
In other words, he is not focused on employment issues. He doesn’t believe the problems will persist. He is focused on team leadership and development.
(Again, don’t attack me. I’m just summarizing what I perceive his position to be.)
I am not defending his assessment of the team, but if taken at face value, he believes the Wildcats are in better shape than most outsiders believe. He has a lot of guys getting game experience, and a QB rapidly picking up the system. He sees things working well in practice, and proper effort and attitude among the players, but the success is not translating to the field on game days. In theory, as with many such teams ‘on the verge,’ a day will come when things really click, and the now more experienced Cats will become a solid to good team. He doesn’t know when that will happen. Hopefully soon. Go Cats.
In other words, he is not focused on employment issues. He doesn’t believe the problems will persist. He is focused on team leadership and development.
(Again, don’t attack me. I’m just summarizing what I perceive his position to be.)
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I just think he's mailing it in at the press conference because there's no reason not to. The only non-student journalist I heard today was Paul Banks, who spent a few minutes talking about the White Sox instead.
This is exactly what I came here to post. It's no secret that local interest in the the Cats has almost always been low. Well, now with Teddy and Shannon Ryan no longer employed at the Chicago Tribune, and Alden (Trib owner) doesn't seem to have any interest in filling that void, interest is only going to drop further.
You can be mad at Fitz all you want, and I'm not even necessarily defending him, but there's really no one at his weekly press conferences that's going to challenge him on anything, so what do you expect him to do?
My point is, Fitz can do all the arm waving, snorting, spitting nails at the presser he wants and it means zero. In fact, why would he ever do it as it limits his options going forward? Why say anything when you literally don’t have to. He isn’t Matt Nagy getting hours a radio talk criticism from the common man. He is already getting crucified in these parts for his “this won’t happen again” and “we had 6 quarters of shut out ball”.
I just want him to make changes, it makes perfect sense to say nothing at a presser because there is zero to gain.
Apathy. Is even better than hard questions at a real presser. The legitimate sports media has simply said that NW is not irrelevant and nobody cares what PF says or thinks.
Let PF play with student reporters, it is all he deserves.
His job reminds me of being the governor of, say, Delaware, instead of Pennsylvania, but with the same pay as the governor of Pennsylvania. He's got the pay, the perks, the notoriety of a big name coach, but none of the accountability. He's not getting crucified, because so few people care. He's not alone, the fans at Stanford and other places are as indifferent and infrequent as ours. Or like Indiana or Duke, where they are so grateful for any level of success that they tolerate bad years.
He's the best coach we've ever had and I want him to coach for the rest of my life, but, despite any challenges due to recruiting/academics, he has zero pressure compared to any top program.
Its been reported that the players do not buy into JONs system now.
I am not volunteering an answer but players have to trust a scheme and trust eachother, on any team. They dont thus Fitz made some "wrinkles".
Fwiw, Fitz was an eyelash from losing the entire team.
Those that think Fitz is some God to these players?? Only in the movies.
To his credit, he apparently listened and there will be no floodgates. We will see.
If that is true about the death chart having no changes that's just hard to believe but given who are head coaches I guess it doesn't surprise me.
Again, apathy. Who cares? We got a
Multimillion dollar d3 coach. I think that is a similar press room, right? Is there a team in the big that doesn’t draw any journalists?
The students don’t care, the media doesn’t care… I think this is how the dark ages began. Nobody cared. At this point, I dont ever listen when PF talks cuz he says nothing. Wasted time. And since he fields a team suffering due to his poor decisions, I don’t plan around Saturday’s. Call me whatever but when apathy strikes, what’s left. Peewee football when only the parents care.
Multimillion dollar d3 coach. I think that is a similar press room, right? Is there a team in the big that doesn’t draw any journalists?
The students don’t care, the media doesn’t care… I think this is how the dark ages began. Nobody cared. At this point, I dont ever listen when PF talks cuz he says nothing. Wasted time. And since he fields a team suffering due to his poor decisions, I don’t plan around Saturday’s. Call me whatever but when apathy strikes, what’s left. Peewee football when only the parents care.
I took at look at college football reference because I wasn't around when Ara was coach. His 1962 year was probably as good as any that Fitz had, not measurably better. Further, it looks like his teams tended to fade late, maybe because of depth/injuries. They'd be ranked then lose 2-4 in a row. Great, HOF coach, just didn't produce as much as Fitz has.
I tend to be a guy that values sustainability vs one-off good years. Barney led us out of Egypt, but I wouldn't trade what we've had for 25 years in exchange for an undefeated national championship in 1995. I am no longer a baseball fan, but I felt the same way about the Cleveland Indians - they had sustained success starting in 1994 after years of Dark Ages, very much like the Cats. I wouldn't trade that 25 years of good baseball for one of the three World Series that they lost
What if NU Football endowed a sports writer on the Trib? They could work whatever beat when it wasn't football season but during football season they had to give X amount of pages/words to NU. I presume this is blasphemous but it feels like a benefit to all parties. Could even be an award given to the best senior sports journalism major. Like paying for a masters...and NU gets the pub.
I re-watched the video....I thought Fitz was honest.....I also believe Fitz would not throw any player or coach under the bus,,,,so why expect it.....He has players who he thinks are practicing hard but are making mistakes in games...the positive is they are playing a lot of guys.....the depth chart is an invention for the satisfaction of the public,,,he is not going to bench a guy in public.....he always does if after the fact.....Of course I want more info,,,I would like to be a fly in the locker room...but if Fitz has to act to , as he sees it protect players and coaches, or satisfy angy fans I am with Fitz and as a fan I am just going to keep rooting for the team and if I have to take my lumps as a fan....so be it...all the way with FIxgerald. As for the coverage...too much going on to cover the Cats playing poorly.
You mean sports media has said that NW is not relevant, and can you blame them living in a corporate run state. In this post modern world, money is everything, with market research and algorithms being the basis of how everything runs. Coach has carved out his little empire here, where he doesn't really have to produce a whole lot other than making a bowl game to make the fan base happy. The low enrollment, and small alumni compared to the other Big Ten teams doesn't generate viewership, meaning for the networks not a lot of $$$$$. It is pretty hard to really build a strong program in the long term when even the student interest doesn't seem to be there. It is really sad, that one of the founders of the conference, and one of the top schools in the nation can't get enough student interest.
He’s also done things like call out WRs in post game pressers for not making catches, etc. There’s also a huge spectrum of things in between saying nothing and throwing players under the bus - not a binary choice
Actually consider bringing in MORE local students instead of making it extraordinarily difficult to be admitted. I would guess a very low percentage of NU non athletes participating in football in HS.
Exactly, you need to expand the fan base with tying the University to the region and the State. It does not help being an exclusive clique in the eyes of the locals if getting butts in the seats and expanding the fandom(profits) is the number one priority.
I will give the AD time, but he seems to be a behind the scenes guy and I am not sure who is in charge of marketing these days since Mike P left.
Face it, the 25 year span of terrible football (until 95) hurt our fan base growth. We have had a lot of success since then and only Jim Phillips was doubling down on marketing the program(s). Taylor and Murphy did nothing in this area. I think the new stadium will be a visible commitment and potential "renaissance" , but we have years of neglect to dig out from and we need the continued marketing push to grow. I guess we will see, perhaps the new president will reassess the athletic department and direction that is needed.
If I'm being honest, no matter what we do, I have a hard time believing we'll ever be able to have what we had in 95-96 where we were filling the stadium with NU fans. Phillips put a lot of marketing into trying to tie NU to Chicago with billboards and a lot of spots on local sports radio. Whether you agree with that approach or not is a separate debate, but there was significant effort put into getting butts in seats. And the reality also is that compared to professional teams in Chicago and other major college football programs, tickets to NU games are pretty cheap, so it's not a price issue.
Short of having a top 5 team or a dynamic Heisman level type player that people want to see in person, we'll always have a hard time consistently filling our stadium with NU fans. It's why I full support going down to a stadium with 35k - 40k seats. With a small alumni base, especially locally, and Chicago being a pro sports town, it's just the reality of the situation. Not that at all different from other smaller private schools in major metros (i.e. Stanford, TCU, Vanderbilt, etc.).
Short of having a top 5 team or a dynamic Heisman level type player that people want to see in person, we'll always have a hard time consistently filling our stadium with NU fans. It's why I full support going down to a stadium with 35k - 40k seats. With a small alumni base, especially locally, and Chicago being a pro sports town, it's just the reality of the situation. Not that at all different from other smaller private schools in major metros (i.e. Stanford, TCU, Vanderbilt, etc.).
This is totally accurate. Having lived near Stanford until this year, that stadium was only full because it was a usc UCLA Oregon or notre dame game. Student section was definitely never full. And they shrunk the stadium down from 80k to 50k.
Btw for those curious. The stadium redo was done in 2006 for a whopping total of $90m. Wow
This expanding the student enrollment to expand the fan base is rubbish. The enrollment is, essentially, as large as it's going to get. All of the small privates, excepting Notre Dame, have struggles with attendance. Our attendance is comparable to Stanford and TCU, and better than Duke, Wake, Vandy, BC. Heck, we don't do much worse than other B1G schools like IU or MD, or ILL. See link page 6. Our usual disclaimer is "yeah but it's opposing fans. True, but it's the same for these others as well.
Also, for the sake of the argument, what would any of you recommend to expand it by? We admit, say, 2k kids a year. Would you double it? Then, after several years of increased enrollment, if a proportional # of students attended, we'd have - what? Another 1500 kids attending. Big deal.
I'm as frustrated as anyone with Fitz. But we're living in the Golden Age of NU football, even if it does feel like a golden shower this year.
Also, for the sake of the argument, what would any of you recommend to expand it by? We admit, say, 2k kids a year. Would you double it? Then, after several years of increased enrollment, if a proportional # of students attended, we'd have - what? Another 1500 kids attending. Big deal.
I'm as frustrated as anyone with Fitz. But we're living in the Golden Age of NU football, even if it does feel like a golden shower this year.