Northwestern fired Fitzgerald amid allegations of hazing in the football program, and Fitzgerald subsequently sued the school for $130 million for wrongful termination. The lawsuit was settled in August, with the terms not disclosed.
After the settlement, Northwestern released a statement that noted "inappropriate conduct in the football program did occur." It added: "The evidence uncovered during extensive discovery did not establish that any player reported hazing to Coach Fitzgerald or that Coach Fitzgerald condoned or directed any hazing."
Hell of a coach, should be in the mix IMHO.
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I'd be interested in him if he was eager to get back in the game and wanted to be at VT. Wonder if he would even want to go back into D1 coaching. I mean he has to be financially set.
He is interested in getting back to coaching and that settlement has to be at or near the 130 million. Northwestern had to fire the University President who sacked him for cause before the investigation was over.
That said, he had no idea that there was a hazing program that lasted for multiple years going on his locker room. That alone makes me wary. That said, I don't think that will ever be an issue for him again. Once bitten...
In that article linked at the top there was mention about him acknowledging the issues and that he has a plan in his head of how to prevent it from happening again. Identifying mistakes, and putting a plan in place to correct the issues - sounds like a pretty core HC competency we've been lacking for a while. Now, all he needs is a school to give him a chance to coach again and put those plans into practice.
Agreed, and while wary somebody will give him a job. But I don't remember how he was actually doing as a coach. I think he had them in bowls but not really threatening to win the B1G.
Very hit or miss and last couple seasons were big miss with combined 4-20. 2015-2018 he did well, going 10-3 twice and a 9-5. The 9-5 season they went 8-1 in conference but lost their entire OOC slate.
After the portal started in 2018, it was pretty downhill. 2019-2022 they went 1-8 in BIG 10 three out of four seasons. I believe the school wouldn't make exceptions for athletes for academics which made recruiting the portal pretty hard.
Northwestern and their academic requirements just make recruiting, not just portal recruiting, a large PITA
Might actually make portal harder as they have history. Unless they transferring from UNC with their automatic A's.
Wouldn't touch this guy with a 10 foot pole. Yeah, he was absolved of wrongdoing, but how can the head coach not know this is going on? Bad leadership in my book.
He also had a good pandemic year, then fell off a cliff after his DC of several years left. He's washed and I don't think he'd elevate the program significantly compared to others.
This captures where I am on Fitzgerald. A solid no, from me, dawg.
I think most of our fans are in agreement, but he will get another job. Probably at the G5 level to work his way back up if he can. If he learned his lesson great, if not everybody will be watching his program like a hawk anyway.
As for performance, it wasn't good enough for Tech to look at him.
Good for him I guess. But I don't want a HC whose most recent headline is "cleared of wrongdoing"
A former colleague's son got a full ride to NW back in 2018 and after redshirting was slated to get playing time at corner the next year but decided to transfer back home to I think a FCS program here in Dallas (UT Arlington I think?). His dad told me he did not like the cold up there and I remember thinking he must be crazy to leave behind a full ride to NW. When the news broke I texted his dad about it and he was just like no I have not seen the story and then just left it at that. I'm thinking the real reason his kid left there was he probably went through some bullshit and then noped the fuck out of there (can't blame him).
Hard NO to Pat Fitzgerald.
im a hard YES on fitz if things fall through. its like those 80s teen dramas where the lead falls for the frumpy girl who cleans up well.
the man has almost 2 decades power conference experience, multiple 10 win seasons
im a chapo guy and justin jackson went on the podcast and had nothing but good words for him, hes a players guy and all for them getting theirs (he pushed his players to unionize back in the day)
im not worried too much now in the NIL era. i want a coach and i want a general manager, keep them mutually exclusive.
the only question is cultural: hes blue collar af but can chicagoland guy fit in appalachia?
My man!
free virgil texas
Is that last paragraph talk-to-text?
hahahaha yes... me trying to convince my kids to throw their empty pouches in the trash. Awk.
LOL. I have two kids. I've had that exact conversation.
Mine are trying to get them to put dirty dishes in the dishwasher.
He's probably worth a look. He looks like a nice dependable used car with some body damage. Maybe you could get him for a discount and use the extra money for coordinators/staff. He may not need top dollar.
It's not like any coach has a lot of experience with NIL. That's new to everyone. As for hazing, whether he was aware or not, I think you can expect that won't ever happen on one of his teams again.
The bigger question mark is more why were his later seasons so bad? I agree with the vtbaz concern about cultural fit.
Bottom line...his recruiting from 2019 on was a disaster. 247Sports shows recruiting rankings I didnt even know were possible for a Big 10 school.
His Overall Class Rankings from 2019-2022
2019 - 55
2020 - 47
2021 - 53
2022 - 56
I have read the school made no exceptions for athletes in terms of entrance criteria so I am sure that hurt him significantly.
Your last sentence was the death knoll on his recruiting.
NW is a good university and to be fair, probably the only Big10 school i would allow any of my kids attend.
That's an absolutely wild take
It's because of the absolute hatred i have for osu, pedo, big blue etc
Wisconsin is a great university, Purdue and Illinois have great engineering schools, USC is an excellent school
But a West Coast team can't possibly be in the Big.....never mind /s
Modern day college football coaches are obsessed with having control over their progam.
Do I believe that things happen that they aren't aware of? Sure.
Do I believe Pat had *no* idea this widespread hazing was happening? Absolutely not.
Hard pass on Pat.