Pat Fitzgerald
- Thread starter hoopsstar12
- Start date
Again you keep comparing where you can’t make a comparison. Notre Dame has a far greater talent pool than NW. No one expects any coach at NW to work miracles. You put Kelly, Saban, or Dabo on NW and they most likely get the same results as Fitzgerald.
Flawed logic my friend. Alabama had 7 coaches since Bear Bryant ... Stallings had some success but certainly not dominant. All the others failed miserably and yet you give the credit to the institution not the mastermind coach. Same with Clemson. To say Fitzgerald’s 7 wins a year at NW are evidence that he’s the equal of Saban at Bama who quite frankly is unequalled, is just incorrect period. What I compared is kelly success at Cincy (which never won anything) against Fitzgerald’s mediocre results at a dormant program that had previously had some success and has way way more to offer in terms of location, education and conference. I am not sure where why you pulled Saban and Swinney into the conversation and somehow attributed them to my point ... but I’ll take the layup - they are both orders of magnitude better coaches than Fitzgerald who is at best unproven ... there is certainly no reason to believe he’d actually succeed at a bigger program. I mean what has he actually achieved? He’s not regularly winning 10 games or beating the conferences best teams.
I’m not saying that. Your logic is flawed comparing a head coaches performance at a blue blood with historical relevance vs a head coach on a team that had been historically average at best. Or for that matter comparing what Kelly did at Cincy at what was really a mid major conference in 2009. Look what Saban did at MSU, not much with probably better recruiting talent than you could get at NW. Ara was barely over .500 at NW and at ND he dominated.
I’m not say Fitzgerald is better or worse than Kelly, Saban, or Dabo. I’m stating that any comparison is irrelevant because of the programs and the conferences they play in. Until Fitzgerald takes a head coaching gig at a blue blood we won’t know how good of a coach he is.
NW is in the top 10. Whenever a team in front of them loses they move up. Their only obstacle is OSU.
I agree with your main points, all comparisons are opinion based and ultimately flawed. I stand by my opinion that Fitzgerald’s achievements at NW are not super impressive - he’s been given 15 seasons and has had some moderate success and some failure. However I get your points, I agree that we won’t know how he would do on a bigger stage and while I don’t agree with your view I can certainly say it’s reasonable. Now more importantly - Go Irish!
NW has played 5 games against a very week slate and owns a 1 point win over Iowa, and 8 point win over Nebraska and a 7 point win over Purdue. They may play up to 3 more games with Minnesota, Mich St and Illinois. Nothing about that suggests they are remotely worthy of playoffs over any of the top SEC or ACC teams. If they go 9-0 including beating an undefeated Ohio State then you can begin to make the argument about whether or not they should supplant a 1 loss team from the SEC or an undefeated BYU or Cincy. However I will be very surprised to see a 9-0 NW. I expect them to lose once or twice in their shortened season.
A weak slate? How about Wisconsin? It doesnt matter. If they continue to win then their only obstacle is OSU which beat Indiana by a TD at home. OSU would be favored to win. NW doesnt recruit in the top 25 so just being in the Big 10 championship is quite amazing.
The big 10 is trash this year, maybe the late start really hurt them. Wisconsin is 2-1 ... they beat Illinois and Michigan. The 2nd best Big 10 team is probably Iowa. We won’t be seeing NW in the CFB playoffs.
Clearly, Wisconsin is not trash which opens another can of worms. OSU is top 4 and there is a lot of parity with Rutgers and Maryland showing improvement. Fitzgerald is performing well against other schools with similar or greater athletes. OSU is on a different planet from the rest of the Big 10 in terms of athleticism and depth.
Wisconsin has a good team. NW did a great job defensively in that game, shutting them down, 17-7. The Badgers had scored 49 on Michigan the week before. But I doubt NW can shut down Ohio State, which has a lot more playmakers than Wisconsin does.
Wisconsin has two wins against teams with losing records and out up 7 points in their loss. Anyone claiming Wisconsin is a good team is judging the brand not this years team.
Wisconsin's still ranked 16th in the Playoff rankings, and 18th in the AP. So the voters disagree with you.
I’m old enough to remember when the same AP voters had Penn State ranked 8th ... ahem ... because I’m older than 5 weeks old. It’s ok to watch the games and make your own decisions. The only ranking that matters is the last one. If the voters knew what they were doing they wouldn’t have to vote every week. Kidding aside my friend I’d be a big proponent of no rankings until the regular season is finished. They simply bias the opinions of many people who have never seen these teams play ... including many of the voters themselves.
Yeah, but rankings give fans something to argue about LOL. But Wisconsin's hard to judge because they've only played 3 games. They did look pretty good in their blowout wins over Illinois and Michigan, before Northwestern shut them down. Personally, I'd rank them around 20-25 right now. I think #16 is too high for a 2-1 team.
Could you all imagine the absolute mayhem that would be happening on this board if we were undefeated and ranked 8th losing to a 1-3 Northwestern team? I know there still plenty to play, and NW will likely win, but to say Fitzgerald is one of the best coaches in the country is absolutely laughable. I think OP was just trolling us lol
A generation ago actually. I have had 3 kids born and subsequently graduate from college since then
Was in the top ten.......MSU was the obstacle before OSU I guess.
Like him or not , Fitzgerald would most likely be the kind of coach ND would pursue. He’s at a school with high academic integrity and he’s been a successful coach while maintaining that integrity. Personally I think he’s a very good coach even with a few bad seasons. NW does not emphasize football at all. It’s not like they are getting top recruits. He gets the most out of his players. OSU is supposed to in the upper echelon. Yet, NW gave them a tough game.
Fitzgerald supposedly loathes ND because he liked them a lot was interested in going to ND. Spent a recruiting weekend as a prospective player and was flat out ignored to the point where he allegedly left the place. This may be an over blown story but that’s the story. I do think he had a nice relationship with Ara.
Fitzgerald is a passionate guy.
I think he would be fantastic head coach at ND but I think he would probably have to try the NFL first. If he truly doesn’t truly hate ND which he might.
He may hate us but we will be fine either way. Go Cats. Lmao. Hilarious
