I may be a Boilermaker but I am a huge fan of Coach Fitzgerald. He is a classy guy and is a very good coach. He represents your school with class and dignity. I hope Notre Dame doesn’t try and steal him from you.
I hope Fitz stays at Northwestern
- Thread starter fred rerun berry
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I agree with you and I am nervous about it. believe it or not, there are some NU fans on this board who are foolish enough to think we might be better off if he left.
Grass is greener on the other side! More to life than football 
! Our players realize this! We will never be Georgia!
! Our players realize this! We will never be Georgia!I agree with both positions - I want him to stay, and there is no way the Irish hire him.
I hope he coaches at NU for the rest of my (hopefully long) life, I'd like like him to be more proactive or at least reactive to problems instead of, um...standing Pat
I do not think he has any interest in leaving for another college job and that even if he did, ND would pay his buyout. I hope he is here for a very long time and believe, barring burnout, he will be. There are a disproportionate number of negative nellies on this board, but Fitz knows that he is beloved by the NU community, from administrators to fans to students. We know what we have here and he does too.
Agree here. My take on things: ND will not seriously pursue him.
There is more than one current problem with the program.
It isn’t just Jimmies and Joes; the current staff hasn’t been successful designing an offense and defense suited to the strengths of the players we have.
But yes, recruiting also hasn’t produced the number and level of skilled players we were hoping for. Clearly, vastly upgraded facilities alone aren’t a panacea.
We also lost far more to the transfer portal than we gained, with the notable exception of Robinson.
And frankly we still have to be a developmental program. We can make noise when we get a critical mass of experienced and more talented players. That doesn’t mean we were exceptionally young this season, but we clearly were in a developmental trough rather than peak. Between graduation, the NFL and the transfer portal, the talent level dropped precipitously.
Of course most of this falls on the coaches, and ultimately on Fitz.
Fitz clearly isn’t perfect. He needs to fully and honestly assess what isn’t working and make changes - probably a lot of them.
The only thing that I think is ridiculous is the notion that he cares more about his buddies than winning. I’m sure he works his *** off, job security notwithstanding, every day to win. I’m sure he’s made bad decisions about what will facilitate winning. I think he’s committed enough and smart enough and hard-working enough to choose to reassess decisions and directions to discern what’s working and what isn’t. I hope that reassessment will lead to positive changes.
I’m not surprised he has an ego. If he chooses to do a thorough re-evaluation, his long association with NU will have him positioned to make real improvements.
Yes, we can do much much better in recruiting over the past 4 years than sucking up last or close to last place in the bigten. Yes, there is no evidence that Fitz knows what he is doing post-Hankwitz. And he has displayed contempt for the players, program, fans, and himself by giving his Coordinators passing grades. Yes he would have been terminated at every other P5 program after this repeated nonsense.
It's quite foolish to want to keep him.
here the grass is NOT green. It is scorched and brown. Same coordinator pest will be allowed to make sure the ground is scorched again next year. Bad!Grass is greener on the other side! More to life than football
Will JON become the assistant head coach now?
Fans wanna know
Not to mention ND thinks they're still relevant, so they'll be looking for a "big name."
You can't exclude Robinson from the equation. Overall, I don't think it's accurate to say the portal was a net negative for NU from 2020 to 2021.
Clair was no worse than Bowser and Drake in their post-2018 forms. Robinson was an upgrade from McGowan, and while Leota is better than Meiser and Pooler, combined I don't think the loss is more than Robinson's gain. Our only B1G win was with a transfer in Hilinski. Assuming Richardson, or god knows who, would've beaten Rutgers is a stretch. The only way the portal hurt us was opposing teams using it more effectively.
I respectfully disagree about the net effect of the portal, while enthusiastically agreeing that the most dramatic effect was the more effective use of it by some opponents. I think we’ll have to really up our game there, but we are much more likely to be structurally limited in our ability to do so than the likes of MSU, etc.
The Irish are almost certainly just going to "up" their very popular, very solid recruiting and result-oriented Defensive Coordinator for the job - Marcus Freeman.
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Not sure I would go with “almost certainly.” Swarbrick seemed to pretty clearly express a preference for guys with head coaching experience.
Do you EVER make any sense?
I could tolerate any insurance seminar. For days, I could sit there and listen to them go on and on with a big smile on my face. They'd say, "How can you stand it?" I'd say, "'Cause I've been with Turk. I can take anything." You know what they'd say? They'd say, "I know what you mean. The fake on the lake guy. Whoa."
If they get Fickell (which I hope they don’t), they probably keep Freeman too since he just came from Cincinnati with Fickell and they are good friends.
Feels more like Freeman would be a perfect candidate for HC at Cincy in that scenario.
Theres an argument to be made that the McCaskeys and the Bears want Fitz more than Notre Dame does
Both teams certainly deserve him. And although there is love for Fitz here with us fans and the admin, I couldnt imagine our admin opening up Fitz' contract to keep him.
Fitz and ND would be oil and water. Imagine if he took his approach to PR there and his eff you attitude to fans and alums. Imagine if he didn't fire his coordinators after the season we just had. Imagine if he hired a guy like JON and his track record into any role. They would crucify him.
Fitz has it made here. He's untouchable. He answers to no one and can survive 3-9 seasons without any pressure. He can hire his buddies. He'd be insane to leave.