Now 64-67 all-time in Big Ten play. Was waiting until we beat them to post that this season. This also guaranteed he'll finish this season below .500 in the Big Ten.
For all the Pat Fitzgerald lovers out there.
- Thread starter TC4THREE
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Not sure how someone achieves player-level "Pat Fitzgerald lover", but this is pretty impressive:
www.sports-reference.com
He's shown that he's a perfect fit for that school, and he's given them a LOT to celebrate.
Northwestern Wildcats College Football History, Stats, Records | College Football at Sports-Reference.com
Check out the Northwestern Wildcats College Football History, Stats, Records, Polls, Bowls and More College Football Stats at Sports-Reference.com
www.sports-reference.com
He's shown that he's a perfect fit for that school, and he's given them a LOT to celebrate.
He's fine.....FOR THAT SCHOOL. I don't get all the pining over him over the years. Still, half of his 16 seasons will result in losing Big Ten records after this year. Some here act like he's Nick Saban just limited by his coaching at Northwestern. He's an average coach. Has good, disciplined football teams when they have alot of upperclassmen. When they don't, they are below average.Not sure how someone achieves player-level "Pat Fitzgerald lover", but this is pretty impressive:
Northwestern Wildcats College Football History, Stats, Records | College Football at Sports-Reference.com
Check out the Northwestern Wildcats College Football History, Stats, Records, Polls, Bowls and More College Football Stats at Sports-Reference.com
He's shown that he's a perfect fit for that school, and he's given them a LOT to celebrate.
Brought an IU type program to some prominence. Played in the B1G champ game and we haven't!
Remains to be seen if he can turn it around from this year.
Remains to be seen if he can turn it around from this year.
The only thing I’ve ever said is that he does a good job not having players you can target to completely break their back. Then AJ Hampton just got worked over
Like I said, all his success is relative to him being at Northwestern. Still, Northwestern won the Big Ten three times in the 15 seasons before Pat Fitzgerald (and not once since) so I think people are off pretending he picked up a program that is as bad as IU's historically. Barnett and Walker had elevated that program a great deal prior to Fitzgerald taking over.
Pat Fitzgerald can thank Morgan Burke for his success. Should have never happened.
His success against us is certainly a big reason he's viewed in a better light than he should be.
Who's acting like he's Nick Saban? I haven't seen that. Every post I've seen seems to indicate he's done an admirable job of helping to keep that program relevant, after it arose from the ash heap in the 1990's. And, that's exactly right.
And, yes, it's correct to say he's done a great job.....FOR THAT SCHOOL.
As has Kirk Ferentz at Iowa, and Paul Cryst at Wisconsin.
None of those guys have achieved "Nick Saban" success, nor do they have to. They're still damn good coaches, all 3.
The ash heap huh. Like I said, they won 3 Big Ten titles in the 15 years and 2 coaches prior to him. Haven't won it with him though. Would love for Purdue to go to the "ash heap" of 3 Big Ten titles.
what???
Uh, yes! Brother, they hadn't had a winning season since 1971, and it was fairly common for them to have Les Miles-like 0'fer seasons.
Then, Gary Barnett was hired, completed resurrected the program, and took them to the Rose Bowl in 1995.
Is this news to you?
This is not a program with a winning history or tradition. Barnett changed the mindset, and Randy Walker (RIP) and Pat Fitzgerald have done a helluva job of not letting it slip back to where it was. That's a huge deal.
I'm not sure what you're disagreeing with other than you're trying to attribute the accomplishments of Walker and Barnett to Fitzgerald.
When Fitzgerald took over, Northwestern had won 3 Big Ten titles in the prior 15 years. He didn't inherit the program from the ash heap. Barnett did. Then Walker continued it. Fitzgerald has just kind of took over and done ok.
Bottom line. 15 years before Fitzgerald. 3 Big Ten titles. 16 years of Fitzgerald. None. Overall a losing conference record. Half his seasons have been losing seasons in conference. He's done ok but the program he took over was not bad. The year before he took over they were 5-3 in the Big Ten.
I'm not sure you can resurrect a program as low as Northwestern got without cheating.
Gary Barnett cheated his ass off and they were able to climb out of a gigantic hole. On top of the cheating they had a gambling scandal and a point shaving scandal from the darlings that Gary attracted by cheating.
In the sixteen years before Barnett arrived 1976-1991 Northwestern won 26 games, that's an average of 1.625 wins per season. Historic suckage.
WD
Gary Barnett cheated his ass off and they were able to climb out of a gigantic hole. On top of the cheating they had a gambling scandal and a point shaving scandal from the darlings that Gary attracted by cheating.
In the sixteen years before Barnett arrived 1976-1991 Northwestern won 26 games, that's an average of 1.625 wins per season. Historic suckage.
WD
I just heard the song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” on the way home.
Well, and I would say "ditto" to that first part of your post; not sure what you're disagreeing with.
Huh? Fitzgerald came AFTER Barnett and Walker, so it's a bit bizarre to attribute their success to him. My point was abundantly clear when mentioning them: Barnett changed the mindset, and Randy Walker (RIP) and Pat Fitzgerald have done a helluva job of not letting it slip back to where it was. That's a huge deal.
Yes, Barnett brought the program out of the ash heap. That was exactly my point. Walker and now Fitzgerald have done an admirable job of not permitting it to slip back into complete irrelevance (like Kansas, or IU).
You sound like the Fitzgerald version of the local Brohm-haters. You can find some metric in which he hasn't equaled the prior two successful coaches, and means he shouldn't get some love and respect for what he's done. That doesn't make sense.
This whole thing is a straw man argument. He’s a good coach whose teams always play hard, he seems like a great guy, and he’s won the B10 west 2 of the past 3 years.
absolutely nobody ever in the world has said he’s as good as Saban. And I can’t recall any Purdue fans particularly pining for him.
absolutely nobody ever in the world has said he’s as good as Saban. And I can’t recall any Purdue fans particularly pining for him.
Now Brohm actually did take over the Purdue program from the ashes.
I would point out that that Fitz played a big role as a player and assistant coach in Barnett and Walker’s success.
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The way I see it, if Fitz would have been willing to jockey himself into schools with more recruiting gravity and history of winning, perhaps he would look more like a genius coach than he currently does.
Counter point concerning Saban; would he have looked as good as he does if he would have stayed at Michigan State?
So, when you weigh the should I stay or should I go decision, both men could be equal coaches. Not saying they are, just could be.
The downside of moving on to a high demand school is by God they paid for results and they want their results now. What looks like a career growth move could end a brilliant career early.
So, laying all of my what-if conjecture aside, I'm glad we have coach Brohm and that our program is trending in a good direction. I am glad our school has the patience to let him build the program. I hope he stays and that it continues.
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