The game has passed Fitz by
- Thread starter TheC
- Start date
You can win with his offensive approach *see Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa* you can’t win with a coach who doesn’t try to improve his roster and continue improving his coaching staff. Fitz is just stagnant. Never tries to see how he can get better, just plays safe.
LOL, you guys crack me up. The game has passed by a 46 year old head coach who despite his age is one of the most experienced coaches in the country? Put the crack pipe down and maybe watch some football so you know wtf you are talking about. Did you watch the Michigan game today?
I have been hoping he would quit this style of offense. Coach Walker realized that he had to spread the field and eliminate the TE and FB position and employ small quick wr's like Fields and Simmons, for quick routes. And a QB that could run. Our current offense has a spread with wrong personnel so it is meaningless. And unless we have a pure dropback like warren moon, it makes zero sense to mindlessly recruit pro style qbs who have 1 second to throw the ball.
So you are saying the game hasnt passed him by and you are always very high on our recruiting.
So if we have the players, and Fitz is great, then is this pounding just a mirage every week?
Fess up Corbi!
Fans wanna know
You can comment when you actually buy a season ticket and attend a game.
Your act is old.
I watched the Michigan game and saw a bunch of players that were top recruiting targets for NU.
Since I have been a season ticket holder in the recent past I guess I am free to proceed according to you. I’ll tell you what, I’ll drop a $100,000 on NU football season tickets right now for the rest of my natural life if I am promised that I don’t have to listen to cynical, curmudgeons like you who don’t know crap about football complain the whole fricken game.
That’s right, I noticed that too. I was counting throughout the game. It’s about the Jimmies and the Joe’s, not the Xs and Os. That’s why Harbaugh was able to run an offense that some on here consider out of the stone age and dominate the game. Let’s start with the QB. No QB, no chance and that applies to next year as well if we don’t do something about it.
You have analysis paralysis. Stop trying to justify everything our staff does. Open your eyes and watch the game. We suck.
Who said we don’t suck? Yes, we suck, no argument here. That’s mostly because of the players, not the coaches.
Yeah, I think this offense and Coach Jake would look much better with McCarthy at QB and Henning at WR. I have some sympathy with our coaches on offense. Not so much on defense.
Plenty of blame to go around...been watching enough to say it's unfair to put the entire blame on one side or the other...but I might argue that the adults are the ones who recruited and coached the players to help them achieve what they theoretically cannot achieve without good coaching.
This team sucks because the players aren’t good. The coaches are responsible for the fact that we have players who aren’t good.
I am not old enough to be a curmudgeon. I am not near social security. Nothing you state indicates any superior football knowledge. You won’t buy or attend. if you do you can come to my tailgate and lecture us on football. We would feed you.
Fitz could lay his offensive style when he had a great defensive coordinator who had his players fundamentally sound and it good schemes. I did not say this—-Urban Meyer did. Hank bailed Fitz out and allowed the horrible offense to get us through the season. If you look at the stats I posted last week, the team has not been in the top 75 scoring as an offense in the last 5 years. Offensive ineptitude is Fitz’s calling card. I won’t even delve into the special teams.
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I am glad you’ve finally come to your senses.The reality is that NU would have been 3-9 in 2019 if we had Bajakian as OC that season, NU would have won the Big Tem West last year if MCCall was still OC and NU would still be 3-9 this year even if someone other than MCCall or Bajakian was the OC this year. The OC Was not and is not the problem.
Corbi thinks terrible offense plus good defense is called complementary football. And if you disagree, you don’t know anything about football! And you don’t deserve to be a fan.
Are you watching the Illinois game today? Didn't think so or you wouldn't be defending the coaching staff, including the HC.
I have sympathy for the homeless, disabled and unfortunate. I have no sympathy or empathy for highly paid coaches. This is the business they chose. They decided to go to NU to coach. No one held a gun to their head. You can’t be serious.
I think what I saw Michigan do today is complementary football. Maybe you actually watched the game? I know you have no clue what you are actually looking at but Michigan’s play calling looked awfully similar to the type of offense FItz wants called at NU. You know the type of offense that according to the experts on this board does not work in today’s game. It’s about the players, not the play calling.
That’s true. Its not the OC.
It’s the head coach who insists on an archaic style offense, which has led to one fluke and a decade of total recruiting failures at the quarterback position.
It’s easy to say “Wisconsin” or “Michigan” or even “Iowa” as examples of teams that recruit better quarterbacks with similar offenses.
But
a) Northwestern has recruiting disadvantages (fan support, weather when you’re recruiting the South, academics)
b) elite quarterbacks are generally in spread-style passing offenses and don’t want to play a run-oriented attack
It’s simply not strategically smart to play a style that’s unappealing to so many targets, especially considering those disadvantages. And the results have borne that out.
Did you notice that, due to playing from behind all year, NU is actually 5th-highest in the conference in Pass play frequency?
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Geez, you missed the point of my post and jumped on me for the use of one word. Understanding, not sympathy. Is that better? I agree that football coaches don't really need or deserve our sympathy for what happens on the field.
********. The fact that this team is not even competitive falls squarely on the coaches.
Corbi also thinks that the Illinois players are just *that* much better than ours. That’s why we’re getting blown out. Same for Duke’s players! Just a lot better than our guys. Can’t do much about that!
It’s painfully obvious how unprepared this team was today. They were unprepared and they’ve quit. Both of those fall squarely on the coaches shoulders. If anyone believes Illinois players are 30+ points better than NUs then they really have no right to say they know anything about football.
Yes and no. Our offensive line coach in 3 years will make more money than I estimate 50% of the US population will make in their lifetimes. In 3 years, is there a noticeable difference in its performance? IMO, no. The OC has had two years. If he is so good, how did he miss on Hunter? Do our QBs look ready to play? Our OC has had two years of crap performance and was saved last year by a 5th year trained elsewhere. His job is to have our team ready physically and mentally with a good scheme. Has the occurred this year? No.
There is no sympathy, empathy or understanding for the coaches. There was no catastrophic occurrence this year to give some basis for those thoughts. Fitz’ offense philosophy has to be flushed. The coaches too.
did I say the coaches have no culpability? No, but let’s not fool ourselves into thinking a better coaching job would have made a material difference in the won/loss record this year. It would not have in my opinion.
No no no, don’t you get it? Fitz and his staff can do no wrong ever. If you disagree with that then you don’t know football and you don’t deserve to be a NU fan
I think Illinois sucks. Said that from week 1 when the experts on this board were singing their praises during the Nebraska game. However, I think they have a QB that can drop back without tripping, can hold onto the ball while surveying the field and can complete a pass downfield. I think they have a DL that gets penetration and Linebackers who can wrap up and tackle. We have none of those things
The guy needs to innovate and try to get the brand on track. In doing so, he will get the higher quality talent he needs to get the program back to respectability and then some. My question to you is did you watch the Michigan game today? Clemson? MSU? Why do you think you are the only one who knows anything about football or has an opinion? Seriously now, are you a HC? It was quite apparent two weeks ago that the team just plain quit, they gave a decent effort last week, only to phone it in again today. That is not a good sign. Can you tell me the last time a BIG team with a ball control philosophy won a BIG title? Michigan used it today against the Buckeyes to slow the pace of the game, but then again U of M is a higher end "brand" thus it gets better talent. Until Fitz can market the brand to bring in the better talent the program isn't going to improve. Jazz up the scheme is the only way to market the brand for these kids to want to come to Evanston. Kids want to go where they can amass crazy stats to get drafted, a quality education is second fiddle, if that, to them. Fitz has had 16 years to upgrade the brand, and even the great run of 2015-18 didn't get the job done. And let's be honest, many of our rivals in the West are getting better, and have the advantage of being state schools, with lower academic standards, etc. Fitz has a long road ahead of him to upgrade the brand and the team. The three yards and a cloud of dust thing only works when your line is full of All Americans and All BIG linemen. Our line is garbage, actually both lines are garbage. Fitz is in a pickle in all honesty. I just hope he can right the ship somehow.
Nailed it. This program has no where near
The talent (players or coaches) to run Fitz system. He has to know this. What the hell is he going to do? Only hope is transfer portal and the Hunter and Hlinski disasters don’t help.
Here we go again with the "you people don't know football" schtick.
This is the guy who thought Andrew Marty was a gamer. Who thought Mick McCall was great. Who defended JON as a great hire and talked down to those who pointed out that he's never been a successful coordinator at any level of the game. Who believes we won with complimentary football, and not because Mike Hankwitz simply saved our asses every week. Who doesn't seem to believe you can have a good offense that scores points (Michigan put up 47 against dOSU btw) AND a good defense even if you want to play said complimentary football (see Wisconsin or Michigan). Who makes fun of Bret Bilema, PJ Fleck, Mel Tucker, and Jim Harbaugh even though they have their programs way ahead of where Paddy Fitzgerald has ours right now.
I watched some football this year, and while I don't know WTF I'm talking about, I still know that we suck on both sides of the ball, both of our coordinators blow, and our program is an effing disaster right now. I know that coaches like Nick Saban even talk about how you have to stay ahead of the game, have to innovate a bit, and have an offense that can put up points.
What does it say that someone like me who knows jack **** still knows more than you?
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Ridiculous. We haven't lost a recruiting battle to the Illini in a couple decades, outside of position preferences or sibling relationships. Just says how bad our coaching and player development must be if Illinois is beating us with inferior talent. Imagine what is going to happen as Bielema begins to improve recruiting in Illinois.
Our offense has generally sucked since Fitz has taken over.
The only thing that kept us competitive was Mike Hankwitz. Now we traded the world's best DC for the world's worst. And so this year is what we get.