Sports

Northwestern Football Coach Pat Fitzgerald Says He’s Not Leaving

(Photo by Steven Branscombe/Getty Images)

David Hookstead Sports And Entertainment Editor
Font Size:

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.

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.

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.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Northwestern Football (@nufbfamily) on

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.

Follow David Hookstead on Twitter