Northwestern Football Has Fallen & Won’t Get Up For Foreseeable Future

In less than one week, Northwestern’s football program has crashed and burned right before our very eyes.

Ultra-popular head coach Pat Fitzgerald’s fall from grace in 72 hours has been epic.

For 17 years, the former All-American linebacker who helped lead his alma mater to the 1995 Rose Bowl was not only the face of the Cats’ football team, but had become the face of the university.

After all, he led the once-hapless Cats to more success on the gridiron than anyone in school history.

All of Fitzgerald’s popularity changed in a matter of days.

One week ago the university announced findings of a six-month investigation into a former player’s allegations of hazing in the football program. More than 50 people currently or formerly associated with the program were interviewed and thousands of emails dating back a decade were reviewed.

In addition, during the probe the university said 11 current or former players acknowledged there had been hazing.

Those interviews revealed extremely disturbing things going on within the Northwestern football program.

Upperclassmen performed hazing rituals on freshmen for mistakes they made during practices and games.

On video coaches were observed walking by players in those practices and games making hand signals to notify upperclassmen which young players were to make the hazing list. Yes, that actually occurred according to the Daily Northwestern, the university’s student newspaper, which has done a superb job breaking and covering the story.

Fitzgerald responded to the reporting by saying he didn’t know any of it was going on.

Come on Coach. You really expect us to believe that?

Fitzgerald is the CEO of Northwestern football and is paid handsomely for being just that.

In 2021 Fitzgerald signed a massive extension worth $57 million over 10 years.

One of the big missteps of this ugly story was the fact that Northwestern president Michael Schill initially came out and suspended Fitzgerald two weeks without pay only to later backtrack and say he was going to reevaluate the situation. A couple of days later Schill terminated Fitzgerald.

Once the word hazing was uttered, you knew Fitzgerald’s fate was sealed.

He now joins the ever-growing list of coaches who had it all only to see their jobs go up in flames and their legacies tarnished forever – Bob Huggins, Bob Knight, Joe Paterno, Woody Hayes, Rick Pitino, Hugh Freeze and Bobby Petrino to name a few.

It’s really difficult to comprehend Fitzgerald now joins that select club.

At Northwestern, Fitzgerald notched 110 victories – second to none in school annals – won a pair of Big Ten West Division titles and guided the program to five of its six bowl wins.

He was as hot a coaching commodity as there was nationwide.

Remember just a few years ago Fitzgerald was one of the names being tossed around to replace Brian Kelly at Notre Dame.

Now, people are wondering if he will ever be a head coach again.

Fitzgerald will land on his feet.

As for Northwestern, its football program is in store for not only a long 2023 season, but a future that looks very bleak to say the least.

Expect a mass exodus of players via the transfer portal as defensive coordinator David Braun, who was named the interim head coach for the upcoming season, faces an impossible task.

Northwestern will not field a competitive team this fall and could easily return to the dark days of the 1970s and 1980s when nine, 10 and 11 losses in a single season were the norm.

This is a program that had several winless seasons, including setting a NCAA Division I record for consecutive losses when it lost 34 straight games from 1979 to 1982. Remember Northwestern went 64 years without winning a bowl game.

It’s also a program that in the coming weeks and months will be dragged through the mud even more.

You have to figure there is a lot more dirt to come out regarding this scandal. Fitzgerald has already hired a high-priced attorney to fight the school about his dismissal and try to salvage some or all of the $40 million-plus he’s owed according to his contract.

Yes, Northwestern is in full damage control and usually these types of things get worse before they get better.

Speaking of getting worse, the Northwestern athletic department is in its worst shape ever.

As if canning Fitzgerald wasn’t bad enough, the university announced the dismissal of baseball coach Jim Foster on Thursday. He was shown the door after allegations of bullying and a toxic environment within the program.

What in the world is going on in Evanston?

This is a university with a phenomenal academic reputation and one which has never bent the rules let alone put athletics in front of its fine reputation.

It is not a win at all cost school.

Year in and year out the football program has one of the highest graduation rates in the county.

However, now when it comes to athletics at the Chicagoland university a lot of dark days await.

Northwestern athletics are a mess and don’t expect the NU football program to ever recover from Fitzgerald’s ouster.

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