Northwestern has fired coach Pat Fitzgerald

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#554      

spotter

S
spotter
Why is the AD still employed? I used to think the NW president might survive, but I wonder if a complete NW administration change is needed.
 
#556      

illini80

illini80
Forgottonia
illini80
spotter said:
If that happens, I don't see how NW survives as a member of the B1G.
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Lovie standing by to rescue another B10 football program…
IMG_0948.jpeg
 
#557      

hooraybeer

hooraybeer
Pittsburgh, PA
hooraybeer
oldman said:
Recalling Beckman and Bollant, I certainly hope the current Illini administration has a system in place to monitor the way coaches treat athletes.
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I am completely confident in JWs leadership here. his background as a lawyer doesn't hurt either.

I think JW could go down as the best UoI AD of all time when it’s all said and done. could truly see him as a future B1G commissioner

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/14789030/university-illinois-hires-josh-whitman-ad
 
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#561      

spotter

S
spotter
Football is a great game ------ when coached properly.

Fitz and company completely failed in this regard.
 
#562      

BRucks

BRucks
BRucks
Lincster27 said:
In the end, though, athletics don't play the same role at Northwestern as they do at Illinois. Northwestern has never really cared that much about winning. If it did, Fitz would have been fired after last season based on record alone. None of the other sports are tearing it up in the B1G, or nationally, but that's not the point in Evanston. Hell, they don't even care about having an in-state B1G rival, and neither do we. Frankly, very few people give a damn about athletics at Northwestern. Because of that, Schill can use the results of the reviews to make symbolic changes, which may result in fewer wins. The silver lining is that nobody really cares about that, so the symbolism works beautifully. Gragg either falls on his sword, or is thrown under the bus; Schill can claim to have taken bold action based on the data from the reviews, demonstrating to the faculty that athletics is not a sacred cow. Everyone's happy, and Schill keeps his job.
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Northwestern finished 6th in the B10 in the latest winter Learfield Cup Standings vs. 13th for Illinois:
Northwestern was 6th to our 11th in the spring standings:
 
#564      

BRucks

BRucks
BRucks
oldman said:
The “new investigation” needs to find some “newly discovered evidence” that was not available for defendable reasons to the original investigator in order to counter Webb’s breach of contract argument that Fitzgerald was initially not fired because he was not aware the hazing was occurring. Right now the only believable explanation they are giving is “we did not understand the size of the public stink that was going to occur.”
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If Fitz was aware of the hazing then I have to believe that his assistants were aware as well. Only Fitz has been fired so far.
 
#565      

Mr. Tibbs

Mr. Tibbs
southeast DuPage
Mr. Tibbs
spotter said:
If that happens, I don't see how NW survives as a member of the B1G.
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I suspect many of the issues now exposed at NW have & are occurring at many places

I highly doubt they suspend all D1 sports there
fix what’s broke , deal with the crappy W-L records for awhile and move on

We did it after a scandal or two the last 60 years

no reason to quit
 
#566      

Illini2010-11

I
Sugar Grove
Illini2010-11
Lincster27 said:
In the end, though, athletics don't play the same role at Northwestern as they do at Illinois. Northwestern has never really cared that much about winning. If it did, Fitz would have been fired after last season based on record alone. None of the other sports are tearing it up in the B1G, or nationally, but that's not the point in Evanston. Hell, they don't even care about having an in-state B1G rival, and neither do we. Frankly, very few people give a damn about athletics at Northwestern. Because of that, Schill can use the results of the reviews to make symbolic changes, which may result in fewer wins. The silver lining is that nobody really cares about that, so the symbolism works beautifully. Gragg either falls on his sword, or is thrown under the bus; Schill can claim to have taken bold action based on the data from the reviews, demonstrating to the faculty that athletics is not a sacred cow. Everyone's happy, and Schill keeps his job.
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A lot of inaccuracies in the paragraph, particularly the bolded. They would not fire Fitz after one or two bad seasons this early into his enormous contract extension (his buyout is simply too high), unless there was a fire for cause.

A lot of their sports teams are actually very competitive and nationally ranked. They just won the national title in lacrosse earlier this year (for the 8th time). They have just lagged behind in the two highest-revenue sports, but as a whole, Northwestern's athletics program overall has been very competitive with Illinois (if not better in certain regards).
 
#567      

spotter

S
spotter
Mr. Tibbs said:
I suspect many of the issues now exposed at NW have & are occurring at many places

I highly doubt they suspend all D1 sports there
fix what’s broke , deal with the crappy W-L records for awhile and move on

We did it after a scandal or two the last 60 years

no reason to quit
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I agree. See PSU.

But, there will be a concerted effort by a good chunk of faculty and other hoity toity folks at Northwestern to go all University of Chicago and try to become the Oxford of North America.
 
#568      

altgeld88

altgeld88
Arlington, Virginia
altgeld88
spotter said:
I agree. See PSU.

But, there will be a concerted effort by a good chunk of faculty and other hoity toity folks at Northwestern to go all University of Chicago and try to become the Oxford of North America.
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Northwestern is approximately a century behind the University of Chicago.
 
#569      

NJJ871

N
NJJ871
altgeld88 said:
Northwestern is approximately a century behind the University of Chicago.
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I have a funny story (try to keep it very brief) about UofC football...I got my MBA from Booth, and later on (late 90's) was interviewing and the inteviewer had a UofC football on the credenza behind his desk. I asked if he played there, and he said something along the lines of "that's funny, I keep it for irony as they don't have a team, haven't since WWII." I said "sure they do, a friend of mine played QB there". He then questions whether I really went to Booth as I would know that they don't have a team. I almost walked out, which given that he apparently thought I was a liar and I would never have worked for him anyway would have saved us both some time.

UofC brought back football in 1969 after 30 years without a team, albeit at a DIII level instead of the Big Ten, but they play football none the less. I should have punted his "ironic" football out of the window.
 
#570      

PeoKicker

PeoKicker
PeoKicker
NJJ871 said:
I have a funny story (try to keep it very brief) about UofC football...I got my MBA from Booth, and later on (late 90's) was interviewing and the inteviewer had a UofC football on the credenza behind his desk. I asked if he played there, and he said something along the lines of "that's funny, I keep it for irony as they don't have a team, haven't since WWII." I said "sure they do, a friend of mine played QB there". He then questions whether I really went to Booth as I would know that they don't have a team. I almost walked out, which given that he apparently thought I was a liar and I would never have worked for him anyway would have saved us both some time.

UofC brought back football in 1969 after 30 years without a team, albeit at a DIII level instead of the Big Ten, but they play football none the less. I should have punted his "ironic" football out of the window.
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That guy is an idiot. I am a good friend with their former coach from the late 90s early 2000s - Dick Maloney. The program is alive and kicking and having winning records. At one time, the team was mostly Chicago area kids but now there is more national recruiting.

As a side note, the UofC men's soccer team won the Div III soccer championship this past year. They had a female coach; first time for any men's team any sport, if I remember correctly.
 
#571      

NJJ871

N
NJJ871
PeoKicker said:
That guy is an idiot. I am a good friend with their former coach from the late 90s early 2000s - Dick Maloney. The program is alive and kicking and having winning records. At one time, the team was mostly Chicago area kids but now there is more national recruiting.

As a side note, the UofC men's soccer team won the Div III soccer championship this past year. They had a female coach; first time for any men's team any sport, if I remember correctly.
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The bolded is definitely true, I think the remainder of the statement is true as well.
 
#572      

Second place is 1st loser

S
Second place is 1st loser
#573      

BWBW

BWBW
BWBW
NJJ871 said:
I have a funny story (try to keep it very brief) about UofC football...I got my MBA from Booth, and later on (late 90's) was interviewing and the inteviewer had a UofC football on the credenza behind his desk. I asked if he played there, and he said something along the lines of "that's funny, I keep it for irony as they don't have a team, haven't since WWII." I said "sure they do, a friend of mine played QB there". He then questions whether I really went to Booth as I would know that they don't have a team. I almost walked out, which given that he apparently thought I was a liar and I would never have worked for him anyway would have saved us both some time.

UofC brought back football in 1969 after 30 years without a team, albeit at a DIII level instead of the Big Ten, but they play football none the less. I should have punted his "ironic" football out of the window.
Click to expand...
My Uncle Mick was head coach for a few years.
 
#574      

altgeld88

altgeld88
Arlington, Virginia
altgeld88
NJJ871 said:
I have a funny story (try to keep it very brief) about UofC football...I got my MBA from Booth, and later on (late 90's) was interviewing and the inteviewer had a UofC football on the credenza behind his desk. I asked if he played there, and he said something along the lines of "that's funny, I keep it for irony as they don't have a team, haven't since WWII." I said "sure they do, a friend of mine played QB there". He then questions whether I really went to Booth as I would know that they don't have a team. I almost walked out, which given that he apparently thought I was a liar and I would never have worked for him anyway would have saved us both some time.

UofC brought back football in 1969 after 30 years without a team, albeit at a DIII level instead of the Big Ten, but they play football none the less. I should have punted his "ironic" football out of the window.
Click to expand...
Love that story. I'm a Booth (GSB) alum, too. Coincidentally, an RA I worked with at UIUC had gotten a scholarship to play football at Univ Chicago in '83. Blew his knee out freshman year and had to drop out. Great guy. Talented artist.
 
#575      

illinistephen

I
illinistephen
Mr. Tibbs said:
I suspect many of the issues now exposed at NW have & are occurring at many places

I highly doubt they suspend all D1 sports there
fix what’s broke , deal with the crappy W-L records for awhile and move on

We did it after a scandal or two the last 60 years

no reason to quit
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There is a bit of a conundrum here though. I think that as long as there are enough players to fill a roster that NW will play the season. But if what's broken is a systemic culture of assistant coaches and players sexually hazing freshman and underperformers, then how do you fix it without purging all of the perpetrators from the team? And doing this even if it means dropping the roster below reasonable limits of fielding a team or position group(s).
 
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