Booger McFarland sees Pat Fitzgerald as the best fit for Penn State

Booger McFarland believes Pat Fitzgerald is a perfect fit to be the next Penn State football coach. A former Northwestern coach, Fitzgerald has been out of the profession for the past three seasons after being fired amid allegations of team hazing under his watch.

Northwestern and Fitzgerald later settled a lawsuit after the coach sued the school for wrongful termination. That has opened up the door for him to potentially return to coaching, and McFarland thinks Penn State should take a shot at him.

“If the Penn State people can get past allegedly what happened at Northwestern, and I know he’s been vindicated based on the lawsuit, if the Penn State people can get past that, doesn’t it make a lot of sense?” he said on Pardon My Take. “Pat Fitzgerald makes so much sense. I listened to him talk for 30 minutes on a podcast and I was ready to suit up. I was ready to go outside, pack it up and head to the Northeast and get cold and frozen and play for Pat Fitzgerald.”

Fitzgerald was the coach at Northwestern for 17 seasons from 2006-22. He directed the team to a 110-101 record in that span, including a 5-5 record in bowl games.

The highlight of his tenure were trips to the Big Ten Championship in both 2018 and 2020. However, Fitzgerald was a mere 4-20 across his final two seasons with the Wildcats.

With Fitzgerald in the clear from the former hazing allegations, there’s no reason for another team not to hire him if they think he would be a good candidate. The coach has spent the past three years since his firing as a volunteer assistant at Loyola Academy, a high school in Wilmette, Illinois.

The coach has been getting some buzz and was recently spotted at a practice for the New York Giants. It appears that the Nittany Lions might not be the only ones interested in him.

Other candidates besides Pat Fitzgerald who have been named for the Penn State opening include Iowa State coach Matt Campbell and Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea. They would replace James Franklin, who was fired by Penn State midseason and recently accepted the job at Virginia Tech.

Among all the names available, however, it’s Fitzgerald that stands out most to McFarland. His experience in the Big Ten certainly makes him an interesting choice, and we’ll have to wait and see how it plays out.