I don’t think anybody is saying it would be productive to fire him now, but I think we’re all expressing that what we’ve been getting isn’t acceptable and varying degrees of skepticism he’ll turn it around.
Stakes are too high. Braun/Lujan CANNOT lead us into the New Stadium world
- Thread starter olsh
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For the bigger schools, most are in or around cities closer to 100-300/400 K range and not as backwater as you suggest. Those are nice size that are not as subject to that shrink and anchored to the Universities and often providing services to those Universities, Just look at the BIG, Cities include Columbus, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Madison, Iowa City, Bloomington IN, State College I could go on, (You got me on W Layfayette with 44K) Other conferences are often similar for the larger schools, Even the 70-80K towns and surrounding areas have enough holding them together to be interesting places to live, Just saying they have a choice of nice cities of various sizes. It isn't either a town of 20k or a megalopolis
Any mediocre to poor O could work in tandem with Hank’s D. As we saw with Bajakian.
Frankly, given how our FCS OC is doing with his elevation to the B1G leagues, there is no clarity on how Braun may have fared as a P4 DC.
Sometimes, you just know after one game. Like we even knew after just one play with JON.
As many have noted in this and other threads, the probability is strong that our coach will be gone after this year. Unfortunately, as has been mentioned as well, there will be a mass Exodus along with him and our ability to get a large number of transfers even with a high profile coach is doubtful. Could be a tough couple years.
He had no reason to want to leave after getting that deal. He would not have gotten it elsewhere. The NU job involved no media or fan pressure. It was the cushiest situation in college sports. Fitz isn’t a bad guy but you act like we were paying him peanuts and he was doing us a favor by hanging around.
I agree! Our fans need to stop making excuses for awful seasons and hold the coaching staff accountable. I’m hoping that we raise expectations as a fanbase after Braun is fired and we are onto the next hire.
I did not say he was getting paid peanuts or could have gotten that contract somewhere else(likely the cost of getting him to go elsewhere would have been expensive and contained many of those terms however) , but you made it sound like he had been coaching under those terms for a long time. He did not have that deal until the last couple years he was at NU. It was the 5 to 10 years before that that he stayed at NU even though he could likely have done much better elsewhere. In fact there were numerous opportunities including in the pro ranks, He was not poorly paid prior to the new contract but there was a fair amount of uncertainty For example in 2018 he earned about $3.6 mill.. By the time he got the new contract he had earned the extension and at that point (because of the new contract) there was no point in looking elsewhere. But again, that did not occur until Jan 2021. It gave him the security to know he would be coaching his sons
Pat Fitzgerald Salary, Contract, Net Worth, and More | College Sports Network
Pat Fitzgerald is one of the longest-tenured head coaches in the nation, and his salary, contract, and net worth are amongst the best in the Big Ten.
collegefootballnetwork.com
But reality is in this new world and after what they did to him, you might find that a number or items you dislike about the Fitz contact will be required to land the top tier guy you think we have to have, (Lest than 7 year contract? See ya, Guaranteed salary at or above all but the blue bloods. Escalation clauses guarantees etc.) It will probably all be necessary, just to get the guy to come. Fitz put in 15 years before he got those terms but the new guy is likely to get them from day one
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He had the best exit opportunities at the exact same time we gave him the big contract.I did not say he did but you made it sound like he had been coaching under those terms for a long time. He did not have that deal until the last couple years he was at NU. It was the 5 to 10 years before that that he stayed at NU even though he could likely have done much better elsewhere. In fact there were numerous opportunities including in the pro ranks, He was not poorly paid prior to the new contract but there was uncertainty For example in 2018 he earned about $3.6 mill.. By the time he got the new contract he had earned the extension and at that point (because of the new contract) there was no point in looking elsewhere. But again, that did not occur until Jan 2021
Pat Fitzgerald Salary, Contract, Net Worth, and More | College Sports Network
Pat Fitzgerald is one of the longest-tenured head coaches in the nation, and his salary, contract, and net worth are amongst the best in the Big Ten.
The point is, NU can be an attractive job. We have money to spend, we are in the P2, and there’s a level of pressure unheard of in the rest of the P2. Our fans are (too) patient.
We also have more constraints on that coaches ability to succeed than anywhere else, Whoever comes is betting their career on being able to succeed in one of the 4 or five most difficult scenerios in college FB. Only ones that come even close are Vanderbilt, Wake and maybe Stanford and Duke (although the ACC has some paths to success that are less daunting that what NU faces
I am very curious to see how the courts will eventually handle one of these NIL contracts that’s for multiple years with a noncompete clause. Personally, I would write the early ones to make the noncompete applicable only in conference. If tested and successful, I might try to even expand it from there. But it seems to me that these NIL contract should span for more than one year to put some teeth into them.
You mean all the very poor athletes that a number of the people on this board claim are the reason that we have the results that we have?
Remember we had a team of D coaches in place on D to support him. We really did not have that on O when Lujin was brought in
Braun was the best alternative we had at the time and 2023 bought him at least a couple years,
Pretty hard to get someone to move cross country for anything less. Generally for example the would not suggest you buy if you are not intendng to be there at least 5 years
I doubt he had the constraints at Colorado State that he would have had at NU
Thanks. Just saying with the supposed additional value of the NU degree, harder to get guys to move on prior to getting degree. Of course many get it in 3 but still...
Barnett went from OC to HC Walker took a step up in level. Both got significant promotions that might not have been available elsewhere
Unfortunately, many of them might stick around because of the value of the degree. And that could limit the new coaches ability to bring in those transfers he needs
You friggin people act like we’re the first school to grab an FCS coach. Jim friggin Tressel was an FCS coach too, my goodness
That's what happened on Vassar on the basketball team. They could take away all his playing time but they could not force him to transfer.
But they also switched him over to an academic scholarship so he wouldn't take up a roster spot.
Great run here. I counted 11 posts in a row. Could be a new record for the Joe DiMaggio of Wildcat Report.
No, he still occupied a roster spot. There were threads about it.
https://www.insidenu.com/2015/11/2/...rthwestern-transfer-scholarship-chris-collins
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NIL can also be taken these days. Not many football players want to be told they’re not playing football and stick around.
For that season, yes. They canceled his scholarship after the 2015-16 season and moved him to an academic scholarship for his final two years at NU.
The ironic part of it all was Collins didn't fill the 13th scholarship slot heading into either of those years.
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I suspect that the 13th roster spot was never filled because Vassar's 4-year athletic scholarship was binding and guaranteed his free ride at the school and NU would have trouble making the legal claim that he had been moved to an academic scholarship. NU may call it what they wanted but actions speak louder than words.