Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald made it clear Monday night that he’s not going anywhere.
Fitzgerald is becoming a massive coaching target around the country, and there has been some serious speculation that he could be the next man to run the Green Bay Packers.
Judging from his post-game comments after the Holiday Bowl, it doesn’t sound like there’s a chance in hell he intends to do that. (RELATED: The TV Ratings Are In For The College Football Playoff. The Numbers Are HUGE!)
“I’m not going anywhere. This is home forever,” Fitzgerald told Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt after defeating Utah.
Gary Barnett turned down Notre Dame, Georgia & UCLA. It looks like Pat Fitzgerald just turned down the Green Bay Packers pic.twitter.com/WXpiXH1egf
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) January 1, 2019
Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald to @joelklatt when asked what the next few weeks hold for him: “Hashtag Go Cats, man. I’m not going anywhere. This is home forever.”
— Matt Fortuna (@Matt_Fortuna) January 1, 2019
If Fitzgerald holds to this, then Northwestern is about to retain one of the best coaches in football. I can’t stress enough just how impressive he is at his job.
The Wildcats have arguably the toughest academic admissions standards for athletes in all of D-I sports. Yet he takes kids capable of getting into Northwestern and still wins a hell of a lot of games with them. As Darren Rovell pointed out Monday night, the Wildcats have won four bowl games and 41 games in the past five years.
That’s insanely impressive when you look at their roster compared to other major football programs.
Northwestern wins its third straight bowl game, its 4th bowl win in its last five.
Its 10th road win in the last 11 games.
Its 41st win in a five-year span, a school record.
For me, that’s the sweetest a year has ever concluded. pic.twitter.com/BSXJqUlJ6n
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) January 1, 2019
As a massive Wisconsin Badger fan, I’d love to see Fitzgerald get the hell out of the Big Ten. Playing against that guy is never fun, and that’s about the biggest compliment in the world I can give a rival.
I’m never happy when we have to take the field against him.
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I hate to say this as a Badger, but Northwestern is probably going to win a Big Ten title at some point in the next five-to-10 years. Fitzgerald is that good of a coach.
I’m not sure anybody else in the country could win at the level he does with the talent at his disposal. People who don’t understand college football will never be able to comprehend just how impressive he is as a leader.