Coaching Carousel (Football)

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#77      
BashCtIllini
Indy Illini Fan said:
Chesney taking the UCLA offer while it’s still on the table …

Penn State search is a 💩 show …
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Guys like Chesney scare me the most. He followed Curt Cignetti. He didn't build JMU. He's never been at a P4 conference. He's spent his whole career at tiny schools.

I'm sure he's a very good coach, but it's more than just coaching to run a big time program. He's going to have a heck of a lot of on the job learning. Also with so many tiny schools on his resume, I doubt his network for assistants is too deep with P4 experience. An awful lot of risk there.
 
#79      
redwingillini11
Maybe he’s not built for this era and it doesn’t work out. But maybe that was just him at Northwestern. I’m pretty nervous that he may be the one to turn MSU around.
 
#81      
BZuppke
What is there to fear from Fitzgerald? I don’t really understand it. Did he do a good (great?) job at NW from a wins/losses standpoint? Yes. But he was no Cignetti. He will most likely make them solid but as for recruiting, Bret will always have the advantage. BB started pushing Fleck, Wisky and others out of Illinois and horseteeth won’t have any great advantage trying to draw Illinois kids to MSU. The real challenge for him is becoming competitive with scUM. That’s their measuring stick. Good luck.
 
#82      
Fighter of the Nightman
BZuppke said:
What is there to fear from Fitzgerald? I don’t really understand it. Did he do a good (great?) job at NW from a wins/losses standpoint? Yes. But he was no Cignetti. He will most likely make them solid but as for recruiting, Bret will always have the advantage. BB started pushing Fleck, Wisky and others out of Illinois and horseteeth won’t have any great advantage trying to draw Illinois kids to MSU. The real challenge for him is becoming competitive with scUM. That’s their measuring stick. Good luck.
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Yeah, the guy is obviously a good coach, but it's worth noting that his last four seasons at Northwestern were 3-9, 7-2, 3-9 and 1-11. The one successful season in there was the goofy shortened COVID season. It's highly debatable how much of his success in earlier years is transferrable to the current climate, but I guess we will see!

Also, I loved while looking this up that I got to see we have now won 4 out of 5 games vs. Northwestern, with 3 of those wins being easy victories and the lone loss being the weird, fluky shootout in 2023.
 
#83      
BZuppke
He was 110-101 in 17 seasons as Northwestern's head coach
 
#87      
stevej64
BZuppke said:
What is there to fear from Fitzgerald? I don’t really understand it. Did he do a good (great?) job at NW from a wins/losses standpoint? Yes. But he was no Cignetti. He will most likely make them solid but as for recruiting, Bret will always have the advantage. BB started pushing Fleck, Wisky and others out of Illinois and horseteeth won’t have any great advantage trying to draw Illinois kids to MSU. The real challenge for him is becoming competitive with scUM. That’s their measuring stick. Good luck.
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Really happy he didn’t end up on our staff in any capacity. I don’t understand the love for him in here. If you don’t think he knew what was going on I don’t know what to tell you. Do you think Bret wouldn’t know that was happening in the locker room here?
 
#88      
Illini in Italy
ugottabjoshinme said:
Penn State looks like a disaster right now. You'd think after being one of the first to let their coach go, they'd have someone lined up. They probably just assumed Cig would bolt Indiana for Happy Valley.
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Will Ferrell Lol GIF
 
#90      
IllinitripleJ
Fighter of the Nightman said:
PSU obviously is a great program historically with incredible resources if the right guy is in charge, but ... I have always liked that Illini Basketball isn't solely reliant on one "legend" for our historical success. Sure, Lou is a legend ... but John Groce is the only Illini coach in the last 50+ years to not win a Big Ten title, with 4 of the 6 in that time winning multiple Big Ten championships, 4 of the 6 earning a #1 seed, 4 of the 6 making at least one Elite Eight appearance and 2 of the 6 reaching a Final Four.

I feel like programs like Nebraska football, PSU football, Indiana basketball, Syracuse basketball, etc. who are SO reliant on one legendary coach who elevated them into the stratosphere during his tenure often then slide back down to Earth and have an identity crisis, lol. Some programs correctly leverage the legend to maintain elite status (e.g. Duke basketball), but man ... I think PSU is about to have their Nebraska football moment.
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Nebraska had two legendary coaches in Bob Devaney and Tom Osborn and they coached from 1962 through 1997. Nebraska was actually pretty crappy from the 1930s until Devaney took over in 1962. Frank Solich who took over after Osborn and coached 6 years was actually pretty successful. He got them to the championship game in 2001 against possibly the best college football team of all time, the 2001 Miami Hurricane team. Solich's overall record was around 10-3 per year. One year he went 13-1 and one year he went 7-7.
 
#93      
BZuppke
My issues with Fitzgerald have more to do with the type of person he is than the hazing (although I would think moms would have a concern with that). My issue is his smarmy frat boy petty BS. Like using all 3 timeouts to try to ice a kicker before the half. Bush league bser. I would have been horrified if we hired him.
 
#96      
JJE
I think James Franklin is the worst, but I have to think he’s enjoying the absolute disaster this search process has been.

There’s about a 5% chance that whoever comes in after Franklin does a better job than he did… And I think he’s gonna take PSU to the cleaners for the next couple years recruiting that area.

I for one think it’s hilarious.
 
#99      
BillyBob1
BZuppke said:
My issues with Fitzgerald have more to do with the type of person he is than the hazing (although I would think moms would have a concern with that). My issue is his smarmy frat boy petty BS. Like using all 3 timeouts to try to ice a kicker before the half. Bush league bser. I would have been horrified if we hired him.
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One thing I will remember him is several years ago, NW had a large lead against Illinois and scored another touchdown. Which is fine, but he went for 2 on the conversion.
 
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