I think Northwestern has found a solid replacement for their head coach, Pat Fitzgerald. David Braun, he's young, energetic and they are playing a solid defense against a dynamic Utah team.
Las Vegas Bowl.
- Thread starter psrurock
- Start date
That NW QB shouldn’t be playing. He clearly has a concussion. Drs all over the nation are scratching their heads. Yet, kid comes back and throws two dimes.
I am just shocked N is even in a bowl game. Coach should get Coach of Year for that accomplishment considering what they went through.
Seriously. Hell of a year for the Wildcats all things considered.
Can someone give me a quick readers digest version on what happened with Fitzgerald at NW, not in a "Fitz said, NW said" way, but rather the firmly established facts. If I looked it up I'd get a long "Fitz said, NW said" article.
I agree - the full story has not been told. But NW has deep pockets so I am guessing that a lot of money was paid to someone to keep everything quiet.
A few players reported that they were hazed. NW hired a third party to investigate. That investigation came back that there may have been hazing but Fitz was unaware and did not condone it. NW and Fitz agreed to a suspension, IIRC a couple of games. Once the media found out the new NW president (?) couldn’t stand the heat so fired Fitz. Fitz has since sued. The current players backed Fitz.
It is worth noting Fitz was a college football HoF player at NW and often turned down better offers to stay at his Alma mater. PSU was probably one of those offers (at least feeler)
I think they agreed to a 2 week suspension over the summer before fall camp even started.
I just stated the facts of the case above. But it really looked like a hit on Fitz to be honest. I'll bet some sort of "hazing" that goes on in every locker room in America. That isn't to say it should be condoned, but if the coach isn't made aware of it how is he supposed to do anything? Not a single assistant coach was fired or suspended.
In Ohio, there has been a lot of conversation that Day's Ohio State team is "too soft" to beat Michigan. My guess is that it was "leaked" that Meyer used to instigate fights between players and then let them have at it. The notion being that Day, in today's day (pardon the pun), couldn't get away with that. It was a hot topic on sports radio talk a few days after UM's win over tOSU.
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The announcers suggested that the losses were not consequential and gave credit to a player who kept the team together (ala Mauti). They also said almost the entire staff knew they were going to be let go as the new head coach, who was to be in his first year as DC under Fitz, was going to put in his own staff. So interesting that they stayed as well.
We should also recognize that Utah had a lot of kids injured, kids portal out and a couple of kids didn't play in prep for the NFL draft. At one point, they were on a fourth-string lineman after the starter opted to not play, the second-teamer got hurt and the third-teamer who replaced him got hurt in the same series. In fact, the starting QB is in the Portal because Rising is coming back next year and he's already been told he'll be benched. But the third string kid just isn't ready so they played the kid in the portal.
This portal stuff is making the bowls crazy.
I wish all of the portal / transfer nonsense could open after the bowl season.
But were some of the ones playing this year the ones performing the hazing? Did they get rid of the "bad apples" or simply change the basket?
UM started his own fight in the locker room with Mike Vrabel and lost. Heard it from someone who was there (former OSU Player).
The only other thing I’d add is the hazing details are largely “he said, she said”. It’s possible they were exaggerated, overblown or even just made up by some people with grievances. Or they could have been accurately portrayed and some in the program just tried to downplay.
I would just think it’s unfair to automatically accept the accusations as definitive truth.
I played rugby in Boston on one of 9 Minutemen club teams for 4 years. I hooked and we were all about 30 or older on my 15. There some very nasty guys. 1 or 2 had criminal records as d8d one of my props. If someone would have hazed, a captain or leader would have intervened. We played teams in NYC, Toronto, the Boston area and NE universities. I was short and slow but had very quick feet to hook at the center of the scrum.
IMHO team captains would never permit severe hazing, especially at NW where the players' intelligence is so high. I call bullshit on the victims and investigators. I hope Fitz gets $20+ million from the dirt bags libs.
I’ll cut to the chase… basically The law firm investigation found Fitz wasn’t aware of said hazing, but should have been. In response, a university issued suspension was agreed upon by the president and Fitz during the summer. I think it was to be served in the 2-3 weeks pre-camp. A few days later, after the university president cow tied to the main accuser (some 5th string qb, who left last year with an axe to grind) and the muck raking student newspaper “The Daily Northwestern” dredged up a couple disgruntled players from 10-15 years ago, the university prez reversed course on what he and Fitz had agreed on and fired him.
The school president, aptly last named, Schill and the AD, Gragg, who hasn’t been much better at his job since replacing the highly popular Jim Phillips (now ACC commish), will eventually be shown the door over their bungling of this situation…probably once Fitz walks off with $50 million plus, not just in what’s owed from the contract, but for the character assassination that’s ensued.
As a former NU STH and ‘Cat by marriage, I’m glad the season turned out well for the kids and new coach. The new HC and outgoing assistant coaches (all loyal to Fitz and on the record of the “traveshamockery” that happened to him) did yeoman’s work keeping the team together.
I’m glad during the broadcast, Sean McDonough mentioned I think it was outgoing OC, Mike Bajakian, something to the effect “never saw anything close to a more mishandled, over reaction to any situation in his many years in college sports.”
As you can tell, I’m a Fitz guy (would have loved to have gotten him at IU recently, but it’s all too soon at this point). And Was he totally blameless? Probably not. But once the investigation was completed, suspension/probation agreed upon, it was time to move on.
Once Fitz gets all this out of the way, he will be set for life. And Iowa seems to be a likely place for him in a few years.
The school president, aptly last named, Schill and the AD, Gragg, who hasn’t been much better at his job since replacing the highly popular Jim Phillips (now ACC commish), will eventually be shown the door over their bungling of this situation…probably once Fitz walks off with $50 million plus, not just in what’s owed from the contract, but for the character assassination that’s ensued.
As a former NU STH and ‘Cat by marriage, I’m glad the season turned out well for the kids and new coach. The new HC and outgoing assistant coaches (all loyal to Fitz and on the record of the “traveshamockery” that happened to him) did yeoman’s work keeping the team together.
I’m glad during the broadcast, Sean McDonough mentioned I think it was outgoing OC, Mike Bajakian, something to the effect “never saw anything close to a more mishandled, over reaction to any situation in his many years in college sports.”
As you can tell, I’m a Fitz guy (would have loved to have gotten him at IU recently, but it’s all too soon at this point). And Was he totally blameless? Probably not. But once the investigation was completed, suspension/probation agreed upon, it was time to move on.
Once Fitz gets all this out of the way, he will be set for life. And Iowa seems to be a likely place for him in a few years.
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Even then it's not good. Players can switch for more NIL money. Schools have to recruit them all over every year. That doesn't exist in professional sports.
Transferring doesn't just impact sports. It has to be very disruptive to education (as if that matters).
Perhaps unionization is the only answer to bring stability to college sports. It won’t impact NIL but it could setup contracts with consistency and guarantees for all parties. You are right that this nonsense does not happen in the pros.
Since it's now essentially professional football, contracts are the only solution going forward.
LMAOROFL that about $200,000 in tuition, room, board and spending money are not valued as "paid in full."
NCAA sports are losing more value to Americans every day. We stupidly pay coaches millions and now everyone is greedy.
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