Pat Fitzgerald shares how he has been received by potential employers after settlement with Northwestern

Pat Fitzgerald has what happened at the end of his tenure at Northwestern behind him now, with a $130 million wrongful termination lawsuit settled back in October. Now, that being the case, he’s beginning to gain some traction as a possible coaching candidate again in college football.

Appearing for an exclusive on the ‘College GameDay Podcast’ on Thursday, ESPN’s Pete Thamel asked Fitzgerald how he has been received by any school potentially considering him for their open job right now around the sport. He said it’s been very positive so far with everyone he has talked to at this point, with the focus more so being on his success, as a program and as a team on the field, while he was with the Wildcats.

“Yeah, I feel very fortunate. Like I said earlier, to Rece’s question, I feel fully vindicated,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s been great working through this process. You know, there’s been conversations with a lot of folks. It’s been face-to-face. It’s been on Zoom. It’s been phone calls. Been received very well. You know, you don’t win the amount of games that we won, graduate 100% of your players like we did, and run, in my opinion, a world-class program the way that we did, and, you know what, also learn from areas where we can improve and get better. And, I think, when people look at what we did collectively, they see a complete package, a program that competed for championships. Yeah, did we have some dips? Well, yeah. It’s the reality of college football, but we fought through them…I think people look at that going, yeah, maybe you had a couple tough years but you got it corrected, you got it fixed.”

As far as options go, Fitzgerald is among the most experienced, with 17 seasons spent on the sidelines at his alma mater at Northwestern. He finished as the school’s all-time winningest coach at a record of 110-101 (.521), with six seasons of eight-plus wins, with three of those being 10-win campaigns in Evanston. He also led the Wildcats to 10 bowl berths and a pair of appearances in the Big Ten Championship as recently as 2018 and 2020.

Fitzgerald, based on his resumé, is a very viable candidate to be a college coach again, especially with his lawsuit having been settled. He’s now pitching himself for a chance to coach somewhere, too, with him having the chance to be back in the sport next fall.

“I know how to build a program. I know how to run a program. We know how to compete for championships, and graduate guys and develop guys to be prepared for life,” Fitzgerald said. “To answer your question shortly, it’s been perceived, I think, in a very positive fashion. And, just hopeful that this is going to work out and find a right fit for an institution and for me, and we can just go win championships, and then the next step would be just to sustain it.”