Fitzgerald
- Thread starter Indianaftw
- Start date
You mean one player Aaron Hernandez. I don’t think Meyer had knowledge, since that would be a crime also.
Hazing took part in every extra curricular activity in high school. It ranged from tying someone to a tree in the park and pulling their pants down to swirlies. Coaches knew it was going on. It was usually a cocky freshman that was targeted by upperclassmen. It was a war of wills. If the freshman showed they could take it, the seniors respected them and they usually became like a little brother.
I never felt the need to haze anyone other than making the freshman do the jobs we didn't want to do. Hazing can go too far and some kids don't handle even minor hazing well. That hasn't changed over the years, but the penalties have.
No kidding.
In all likelihood this is a death sentence for the Northwestern football program. What has been alleged at Northwestern is abhorrent and if Fitz new what was going on his termination is more than justifiable. However, firing arguably the biggest figurehead in Northwestern football history from an already declining program who simply cannot survive in the new NIL/Transfer era puts them in the basement for good.
Might as well flush $800 million down the toilet because it’s all for nothing going forward.
Eh I don’t know.. all big ten jobs will be attractive with the new tv deal no?
Nah. New facility. Chicago. No divisions. NIL. Portal.
I bet they hire a pretty good young coach.
All true but rest assured that the woke mob will be all over this. They can “fix” college football in Evanston.
2 out of those 3 significantly hurt Northwestern.
1. They are no longer protected in the west
2. Their NIL game is very sub-standard
3. The portal is killing higher academic institutions like Stanford and Northwestern.
They may hire a young coach but the cupboard will be extremely bare with major constraints making the job a massive uphill battle.
Larger stadiums Fewer games
Tv ratings
MLS was < 300k not including a playoffs and is now relegated to only Apple TV and a few games on Fox because no one wanted the deal
NBA is over a million
NHL was 373k not including playoffs
I echo most of the sentiment in this post, I'll give credit where it's due NW has committed more money to upgrading their facilities than I would've expected given the general lack of enthusiasm around football in Evanston. But part of the reason for the facility upgrades has been the recent success under Fitzgerald and the motivation to keep the facilities relatively respectable or risk losing him to a higher profile job. From what I've read the primary reason for the practice facility upgrades of 2018 was fear that Fitz would leverage the success of his 10 win season in 2017 into a better job.
Now that Fitz is gone you have to wonder how difficult it will be to keep the tiny private school that never really felt like it belonged in the B1G competitive. I personally think Fitz was the only thing keeping NW above programs like Indiana and Rutgers for the last decade. I've given credit to him for (in most seasons) not allowing his team to be the punching bag of the B1G (although being in the West was a huge help as well). But now they need to start from square one again and their current AD doesn't have much to be admired in choosing a new FB coach. Even if they do find another young hot shot coach that's able to win 7-8 games per year, how likely is it they'll be able to keep him. NW even had to convince Fitzgerald to stay and he's an alumni.
This may sound really "misery loves company" but now that Fitz is gone I'm definitely rooting for NW to come down to earth and join us+ Rutgers at the bottom of the B1G, they've punched above their weight for far too long and if Fitz's departure means there's another competitive conference opponent for us (even if we only play them in 2 out of every 6 seasons), thenI'm glad to see it.
What do you mean by this? I'm confused how "woke" would play into anything regarding the NU situation. Regardless, with what's happened in Evanston, something does need to be "fixed" as it was such a toxic environment their greatest head coach was fired.
The driving force behind NU’s facility expansions and coaching selections during the last few decades is now in his 80’s, and the new stadium project was likely to be his crowning achievement as an NU alumnus and benefactor. As long as he’s actively involved, and he is, I wouldn’t be so quick to write their obituary. He has the financial responses and ability to influence others that can still serve them well.
Nonetheless, this is obviously a major blow to them, made remarkably worse by the President’s U turn. If Fitz knew or should’ve known, the same thing can be said of every assistant coach, and likely most of the players, who were actually doing the hazing. Difficult to imagine how many more might leave, and how you put bailing wire on that ship and expect her to be seaworthy any time soon. Couple that with an incoming freshman class that probably could find other options and you have the potential for a numbers problem that could set them back for several years, at least.
Yes, when compared to the NFL (69,442 per game average), MLS has a long way to go. However, 26,000 is pretty impressive compared to what it was years ago.
The book was Meat On The Hoof: The Hidden World of Texas Football. Published in 1973. I remember it being more coaching staff abuse than player hazing. There were no limits on schollies back then, so they could abuse players to see who "really wanted it." Can't imagine how powerful Darryl Royal was then. UT won SWC titles every season 1968-1973.
MLS also included give away tickets that be up to 10% of tickets distributed (which is how MLS counts attendance). Also that number is skewed due to a few large attendence like Atl and Seattle.
Cutting to the chase.
Soccer especially European soccer is popular in the US but MLS is not.
Been listening to Jake & Kevin Bowen. Jake's guess is NFL assistant coach. Kevin's is SEC defensive coordinator. Gregg Doyle was on this morning, and guessed ESPN talking head (via agent connections).
Fitz is a coach, and he’ll want to do that again, even if he does some tv work for awhile. He’ll get a big settlement by using the University’s report against them, then he will go be a coach again. His road back will likely be considerably quicker than NU’s. Some obvious parallels with our ham - handed approach to firing Knight, absent the defiant coach aspect.
They will hire a coach that spends much of their time selling and demonstrating how this is a new day in Evanston with an elightened staff.
The AD and Pres come away from this looking foolish for jumping the gun and not waiting for more of the evidence to come in before ruling.
Fitz will end up somewhere like the SEC or Ahia where the standards are different.
As i said earlier there are elements on campus that want to be sure the program is new and enlightened. Some will quickly argue that the volume needs to be turned down on athletics.
Actually, there are several parallels, most notably the waffling of the athletic director and President in meting out “punishment”, as well as the media storm that swirled around that process. I assume most people here are familiar with what occurred then, though obviously not everyone is. Nothing funny about that . . .
I don't see what that has to do with the stadium - hasn't construction already started?
The headline was a tad misleading. There is a group of Evanston residents that have been fighting the rezoning that would allow concerts at the new Ryan Stadium. They are saying that this is a reason to pause the project in its entirety and look at the overall viability of the project.
WGN reporting this
Group of Northwestern faculty asks for delay in Ryan Field renovations due to hazing scandal
Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald was fired on Monday in the wake of the hazing scandal surrounding the football program.
wgntv.com
This one touches on the rezoning angle
Ryan Field rebuild looms as Northwestern faces scandal
Residents and elected officials had mixed reactions to Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald's firing amid a stadium rebuild process.
evanstonroundtable.com
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Northwestern Players Furious With How Pat Fitzgerald News Delivered
Northwestern players are furious with athletic director and president after finding out about Pat Fitzgerald on twitter, then short zoom
www.outkick.com
Ah ok. So it doesn't sound like construction has started?
Unless all the $800 million funds have already all been allocated towards the new stadium, I would think there has to be a serious talk about whether or not the stadium is currently practical. Given that Northwestern is about to take a substantial step backwards and may totally never recover from this, recouping some of those funds, if possible, doesn't seem like a terrible idea.
No . . . It’s still very much a drawing board issue, with seed money committed by Pat Ryan and other monied alums.
I don't think Fitz's firing will have anything to do with the new facilities.
If it does, they might as well drop out of the B1G now, because their current stadium is an embarrassment.
I don't think an $800m stadium is needed for a team heading in the direction that Northwestern is currently headed and in all honesty may never recover from and guessing many donors now have that same thought waking up this morning. We're talking about Northwestern here, not Colorado or another state-run university who can retool their roster in a year exercising the transfer portal. The player and staff turnover from this fallout is going to be enormous and Northwestern simply won't lower their academic standards to allow for a bunch of undergrad transfers to make the Wildcats as competitive within a year or two. That isn't how they operate.
No,
Faculty members are behind this pause.
The NU Daily is all over this despite the summer staffing levels
There are accusations right now about the Baseball coaches and abuse.
This is only the beginning.
$800 is not a lot for a stadium anymore, but I understand it's not going to have a lot of seating.
Look how much they're getting from the B1G. They can easily afford it.
Just the opposite is likely to occur . . . The person / people driving the new stadium will push forward as they fully understand the need to evolve and get their facilities up to a high level. The practice facility represented the beginning of this and the stadium is the next step for them. Lots of money and influence leading that effort.
If faculty gets involved, I think it may be the end of NU in the B1G.
