Northwestern has fired coach Pat Fitzgerald
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Another zoom notification. What a joke. Man up, terminate your vacation and show up in person. With leadership like that it’s pretty easy to see how quickly this has turned into an epic train wreck.
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
The biggest mistake was Northwestern leadership assuming the student journalists were taking summer break. Kudos to the students for being the only adults in the room and doing the legwork even the independent consulting firm decided to avoid.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
The president will probably survive; has only been there 10 months. Bad look to can him if they don't hemorrhage donors. If fundraising suffers, well, he gone 'cause that's what a university president is employed to do. The AD is a hot mess, from what I gather from 'Cats fan/alum commentary, but my gut tells me he'll stay. He arrived only several minutes ago, and after Phillips' successor departed under a cloud. The athletic department has apparently been a dysfunctional mess since Phillips left, and it has gotten progressively worse.
So, yeah. They're likely effed for a long while either way. So be it.
Who knows what exactly was in that report, or if the president of the university even read the entire thing or just the exec summary? The guy is the former dean of the Univ. of Chicago law school so not a lightweight. I consume long studies; the exec summary, particularly if for broad consumption, is often odds with the substance in the back. But I can't imagine the two-week suspension he handed down was the result of his reading accounts of the "car wash" and dry-humping and Shrek masks and assuming those tales would never see the light of day. Then again, university presidents are often not known for character and courage. I think back to how fortunate we were to have Ikenberry and Weir as president/chancellor when I was on campus.
In any event, the university hired the law firm to conduct the inquiry for a specific purpose and gave it a clear mandate. It's unlikely that the purpose/mandate was the pursuit of truth. (And yes, I realize that "truth" is a quaint term.) The administration sensed the stench and that the university needed to dispose of it at minimal all-in cost. And, remember, the president had been there for all of two months when that inquiry was commissioned last November.
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Some of the other names that Rittenberg mentioned earlier today in an article as possible replacements for Fitz that weren't mentioned in this thread already:
-Tulane head coach Willie Fritz
-Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell
-Eastern Michigan head coach Chris Creighton
-Army head coach Jeff Monken
-Former Navy head coach and current UCLA director of leadership Ken Niumatalolo
-Marshall head coach Charles Huff
-Tulane head coach Willie Fritz
-Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell
-Eastern Michigan head coach Chris Creighton
-Army head coach Jeff Monken
-Former Navy head coach and current UCLA director of leadership Ken Niumatalolo
-Marshall head coach Charles Huff
I would not enjoy having to play an option team every year with a running clock on 1st down...
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
We might wrap up an Illini-Northwestern game in about an hour and a half if they were playing triple option.
Willie Fritz would be a clever hire and I bet he'd take it too.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Could we be returning to the "norm" for Northwestern football for people older than about 35? Illinois currently leads the all-time series 57-54. However, before Bielema got here we had gone 4-14 vs. NU since 2003 ... yikes. So, entering that 2003 season, we led the all-time series 53-40, lol.
Looking back at these results, it's kind of funny and noteworthy that - while many modern Illini teams have lost to Northwestern, sometimes by embarrassing margins - pretty much any time we have been worth a damn, we beat them.
2021 and 2022: Bielema arrives, and we get 2 straight wins after 6 straight losses.
2010 and 2011: 2 straight wins in our first-ever back-to-back bowl win seasons, sandwiched in between 2 straight losses before that and 2 straight losses after that.
2007: Beat them in our Rose Bowl season after 4 straight losses, and we would follow it up with 2 straight losses.
Then from 1998-2002 when we were pretty decent, we won 3 out of 4. I think Fitzgerald was a very good coach, but I wonder just how much of a "success story" Northwestern would have been over the past couple of decades if the state flagship program hadn't been completely asleep for most of that time, lol. I still maintain it's a VERY difficult job.
Looking back at these results, it's kind of funny and noteworthy that - while many modern Illini teams have lost to Northwestern, sometimes by embarrassing margins - pretty much any time we have been worth a damn, we beat them.
2021 and 2022: Bielema arrives, and we get 2 straight wins after 6 straight losses.
2010 and 2011: 2 straight wins in our first-ever back-to-back bowl win seasons, sandwiched in between 2 straight losses before that and 2 straight losses after that.
2007: Beat them in our Rose Bowl season after 4 straight losses, and we would follow it up with 2 straight losses.
Then from 1998-2002 when we were pretty decent, we won 3 out of 4. I think Fitzgerald was a very good coach, but I wonder just how much of a "success story" Northwestern would have been over the past couple of decades if the state flagship program hadn't been completely asleep for most of that time, lol. I still maintain it's a VERY difficult job.
The independent investigator was the former Inspector General for the State of Illinois, she also conducted the Mike Madigan "independent" investigation that didn't find much in the way of wrong doing before the Feds ultimately indicted him. My guess is she didn't look too hard.
You're probably right, and she was likely paid not to look to hard. "If it wasn't for those meddling [Daily Northwestern] kids!"
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
In such cases to ask the question (about dark doings in the locker room) is already to have answered it.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
its impossible to be independent when Northwestern is paying her for her report .
She gave them exactly what they wanted, and paid her for. A half a$$ed investigation
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Or perhaps a thorough investigation that left certain stones strategically unturned.
I though the OL guys involved with the naked car wash were wet and soapy?
I’m going to hell, sorry. In all seriousness, what an awful situation for all of the hazing victims. I hope everybody involved gets brought to light and fired.
If indeed the emphasis is on their academic standing, and FB is indeed a lower priority, then I could easily see the President surviving this... Not so sure about the AD tho...
Tennessee avoids bowl ban, fined over $8 million
Tennessee avoided a bowl ban but has been fined more than $8 million by the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions stemming from violations committed during the tenure of former coach Jeremy Pruitt.
Not directly related to NW
Fines matching previous bowl earnings make sense however if you turn a program around in a shady way u might set up your future. I am wondering if other schools will try that model
Rittenberg did mention that there are a lot of parallels between Fritz and Dave Clawson at Wake Forest. Fritz was nearly the pick for Georgia Tech after last season before they decided to remove the interim tag for Brent Key. Rittenberg also said that with Fritz being 63, Northwestern would likely be the last move of his coaching career.
I hope they hire Jeff Monken he makes a ton of sense there. If any team was gonna run the option NU is the best fit for it.
Illinivek23
- Gurnee
But he's not the AD - he's the Combes Family Vice President for Athletics and Recreation.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
lol.
I note he worked in the Univ of Michigan athletic department for several years, so he's accustomed to institutions having a sustained history of sexual abuse of student-athletes while successful football coaches look the other way.
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