Are all of the coaches, trainers, etc. mandatory reporters via title IX for these types of allegations? And if so, I don't see how you could retain all football employees other than the HC. Needing to field a team shouldn't matter. Is a title IX violation, which sexual hazing surely falls into, where the standard is not necessarily innocent until proven guilty, enough for a "for cause" firing? Or expulsion/suspension? I can't see this saga stopping just at Fitz if the media keeps on the story.
Northwestern has fired coach Pat Fitzgerald
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JJE
- Bethalto, IL
Not trying to be overly simplistic, but what coach would want that job right now?
- Inept leadership (AD/President)
- Potentially gutted roster
- New stadium on hold
- Recruiting repercussions
- Likely Big Ten doormat for foreseeable future.
And probably more than I listed.
- Inept leadership (AD/President)
- Potentially gutted roster
- New stadium on hold
- Recruiting repercussions
- Likely Big Ten doormat for foreseeable future.
And probably more than I listed.
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Kafka has to be the favorite I would think... they've been in need of good offensive scheme for a while....
It’s a big ten job with rich boosters and no expectation/pressure to win big. It’s definitely not a great job, but any big ten/ sec job now is a decent job.
Rocket City Illini
- Belleville, IL
Seems like the entire staff (minus the new DC) is complicit. Why do the rest of them get a pass?
Mike Ries posted that a former NU player named Braden Jones endured this garbage under the Randy Walker regime when Fitz was an assistant - so this goes back quite a while.
Maybe NU will just bag football altogether
Loyola - 1939
Depaul - 1938
UIC -1973
Bradley - 1970
U of Chicago - 1939 - and out of the B1G -1946
Northwestern - 2023 - and out of the B1G - 2024
Note: Chicago was a powerhouse under Amos A. Stagg when they cut bait.
Just sayin.....................
Loyola - 1939
Depaul - 1938
UIC -1973
Bradley - 1970
U of Chicago - 1939 - and out of the B1G -1946
Northwestern - 2023 - and out of the B1G - 2024
Note: Chicago was a powerhouse under Amos A. Stagg when they cut bait.
Just sayin.....................
I tend to believe that the 2 week suspension will also bolster Fitzgerald's case as the assumption would be the school performed a very thorough half year long investigation, and arrived at a 2 week suspension as appropriate punishment. So the school would also have to show that some completely new evidence came to light in the past 48 hours implicating him for actions that would justify him being fired for cause, and they'd need to prove they did their due diligence in that time to investigate and vet that new evidence. The school likely could have avoided this if they instead said they were going to indefinitely suspend Fitzgerald until new evidence could be properly reviewed and investigated.
All of this haphazard thrashing about by Northwestern trying to do whatever they can to save face in this is digging themselves a pretty big hole to the point where they're going to have a very difficult time justifying their actions from a legal standpoint. And of course from a public standpoint as well. Just a freakin' mess all the way around.
people have made pretty quick jumps from accusations to evidence. I really don't know the truth here, but I suspect that some of the accusations are going to be found to have been either false or exaggerated.
For example, we've heard about the screen shots of the whiteboards. Why aren't the people in possession of them (the NU paper and ESPN) releasing them? there's some fairly major gaps in what is being said and I think Fitzee's culpability may indeed be less than we think right now.
They most certainly will not.
One who thrives on "the deck is stacked against me, just watch me do this." (This assumes that literally everyone is NOT motivated entirely by money, which I am willing to do while acknowledging that I am part of a vanishingly small minority of optimists.)
What an opportunity to earn a decent paycheck, operate in a super high-level field (B10/SEC football), work under massively reduced expectations from the norm, and have a chance to be a redeeming hero.
David Shaw would be a perfect hire for them. Kafka is a pipe dream. Maybe tommy Rees.
Correct. People forgetting how massive the ego is on high level head coaches. It's also how they consistently end up in scandals like these too.
Translation: Eww… no.
Imagine the text conversations between high school commits and their new friends who are already on the team "hey man, so if I missed a block in practice were you going to rub your crotch on me while wearing a Shrek mask?"
the national
- the Front Range
One theory I’ve heard is that there might be minors on the whiteboard and they might be potential victims. So legally, it’s pretty murky.
But I haven’t looked at the roster to see if that’s true.
If they were freshmen being hazed (and that seems likely), odds are there was probably at least one 17-year old on the board, depending on when that person’s birthday fell.
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
I chuckle at how much Northwestern paid per win since Fitz's contract extension after 2021 Citrus Bowl: between $2.5 million if Fitz gets no settlement and $12.5 million if Fitz gets entire contract paid. Similarly, each conference win cost Northwestern between $5 million and $25 million!
"If the horse is too stupid to drink, you shoot the horse and get a smart one"
Said tongue in cheek lest anyone think I would condone abusing an animal . . . .
Me reading everything about the maelstrom now occurring within Northworstern's program . . .
Not to bring back old feelings of where we were, but....who would have wanted to come to take over the Illinois program? The NW program was superior to ours for pretty much two decades and we still got Coach B.
NW is going to have minimal expectations (at first)
The pressure is basically none
The upside is that if you turn it around, you're a shoe in for a much bigger job. If we have an 8-4 type year and the recruiting trends up....you don't think that BB is going to be one of the hottest names on the market?
I don't care which job it is, a position in the Big Ten is a golden opportunity.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
It's a fair counterargument.
But is Northwestern still a Vanderbilt where they just fundamentally aren't competing in the same fashion as their conference competitors?
That's what a prospective coach will be trying to find out.
I agree that it will take time to sort out the full truth from the rumors, but I am fine with those screen shots and other “evidence” not being released to the general public. Presumably these are names of victims. Why should they be released? So people on the internet can make “informed” decisions? If the people making decisions — NW administration and later jurors, judges, etc charged with sorting out the legal aspects of the firing — have the information (or don’t if it doesn’t exist), why isn’t that enough? I think there is way too much “we deserve that information” attitude. Why? Why does anyone outside of the people directly involved with the situation need to see those names
It’s not the same thing, but I often wonder why the toxicology reports for celebrities when they die is a news story. Again, why does the general public need to know celebrity X had cocaine in his/her system or a blood-alcohol level of Y when they died.
The only reasons are to feed the media beast.
I wholeheartedly agree with your perspectives on "public right to know". It's why I'm not a big fan of the insider schtick.
You say that NW admin has these white board screen shots. But there's no evidence of that and it seems evidence that they didn't have it when they did their investigation. Perhaps they did. My point on seeing them is just that people in the know could verify authenticity. I think we all agree that ESPN and the NW paper aren't in a position to verify that. Have they showed it to the players on the team that signed that letter and asked them if it's real?
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