Northwestern Football Hazing/Pat Fitzgerald Let Go

Jiggafini19Deux

Jiggafini19Deux

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irishfan

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Jiggafini19Deux said:
That was ten years ago. He took over a 9-4 team at a football school and was a Belichick lieutenant. This is Northwestern we're talking about. Kafka played there and is an easy name to throw on a clickbait article that Feldman churns out whenever a coach gets fired.

Kafka can get NFL HC offers by staying with Brian Daboll to coach Daniel Jones and winning NFL games. Money isn't an issue either.

The portal, NIL, the high academic standards at NU all have to be taken into consideration compared to what O'Brien faced going to PSU at that time. A lot of coaches are trying to get into the NFL now because of the portal and NIL. It would be a very puzzling move to make for a guy like Kafka whose trajectory is way up.
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Before O’Brien’s first season, PSU was given a 4-year bowl ban and a yearly scholarship reduction from 25 down to 15. The NCAA also allowed all PSU players to transfer out and have immediate eligibility. I believe they had under 70 scholarship players each of his two years there.

I probably wouldn’t make the move if I were Kafka and offered the job but I also wouldn’t have left for PSU if I were BoB and it worked for him despite walking into a horrible situation.
 
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Jiggafini19Deux said:
www.inforum.com

Former Bison football assistant coach David Braun reportedly taking over Northwestern head coaching job

The former NDSU defensive coordinator, in his first year with the Wildcats, is expected to be named acting head coach after the university fired head coach Pat Fitzgerald on Monday.
www.inforum.com www.inforum.com

They've chosen an interim who has never been there prior to now. This is his first season. Joined from NDSU.

Interesting choice.
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Was he officially named interim? I think the original statement was something like he would be the liason managing the day to day, seemingly with an interim still to be named.
 
Jiggafini19Deux

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irishfan said:
Before O’Brien’s first season, PSU was given a 4-year bowl ban and a yearly scholarship reduction from 25 down to 15. The NCAA also allowed all PSU players to transfer out and have immediate eligibility. I believe they had under 70 scholarship players each of his two years there.

I probably wouldn’t make the move if I were Kafka and offered the job but I also wouldn’t have left for PSU if I were BoB and it worked for him despite walking into a horrible situation.
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I understand the comp, but in the end Northwestern Football is not Penn State Football and we're in a totally different era. If Mike Kafka thinks Northwestern is his destination or a step that will get him to his destination, that's on him to determine. I think it would be completely nuts to leave the NFL with his current trajectory to go to Northwestern.

He may very well want that, but I have my doubts.
 
Jiggafini19Deux

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SouthSideChiDomer said:
Was he officially named interim? I think the original statement was something like he would be the liason managing the day to day, seemingly with an interim still to be named.
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Not yet.

However, if they are going to start to save face they're going to need to go with the fresh face. That's him. He hasn't been around long enough to be implicated.

You'd think anyway.
 
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Jiggafini19Deux said:
Not yet.

However, if they are going to start to save face they're going to need to go with the fresh face. That's him. He hasn't been around long enough to be implicated.

You'd think anyway.
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No doubt. I'm just in the camp of thinking they might want to go with somebody more established for the interim year. A lot of names were thrown around. Bronco Mendenhall, David Shaw, Jason Garrett, Ken Niumatalolo, etc.
 
Jiggafini19Deux

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SouthSideChiDomer said:
No doubt. I'm just in the camp of thinking they might want to go with somebody more established for the interim year. A lot of names were thrown around. Bronco Mendenhall, David Shaw, Jason Garrett, Ken Niumatalolo, etc.
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The current staff doesn't have anyone who was hired by Fitzgerald prior to 2018, but he's got a lot of new faces to the staff going into this season. It's very unfortunate.

I don't know how plausible any of those names actually are. They have so many moving parts right now.
 
stlnd01

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SouthSideChiDomer said:
No doubt. I'm just in the camp of thinking they might want to go with somebody more established for the interim year. A lot of names were thrown around. Bronco Mendenhall, David Shaw, Jason Garrett, Ken Niumatalolo, etc.
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Shaw or Ken would actually be a really good hire for them. And currently unemployed?
 
Irish#1

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Jiggafini19Deux said:
I don't understand why he'd do it for any other reason other than sentiment. It's crazy. He went from 2016 Northwestern GA to 2022 OC of the NY Giants. You've coached with Reid and Daboll, you've coached Pat Mahomes and won a Super Bowl.

From Northwestern's point of view, they need a clean start and have to hire outside their purple cabal.
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Don't underestimate the lure of the title HC whether it be in the NFL or college.
 
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Jiggafini19Deux said:
Pat Fitzgerald is a former all american player and is the winningest coach in school history. He has equity built up there. He may as well be bigger than the program itself. Northwestern has poured money into athletics in recent years and they've made their choice. Regardless of his recent record, they were going to suspend him two weeks and tried to bury this with a Friday news dump then backtracked on that punishment. I don't understand how doing that plays into the conspiracy that they wanted to cut him loose because of a couple of bad seasons after Covid. They have completely fumbled this situation, which leads me to believe they're nowhere near as clever as we're giving them credit for in terms of any possibility they're trying to force him out.

If that was the case, they don't try to bury this and then backtrack on a two week suspension, they go all the way last week and fire him.
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Given their football history, that's a pretty low bar. lol

You're right, they fumbled the way they have handled this. Probably should have waited to gather all the facts before they did anything.
 
ulukinatme

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@Plankton 's "Purple (Shower) Reign" gets my vote.

tumblr_m7tcl7gv9c1qhhrf5o4_400.gif
 
Jiggafini19Deux

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Irish#1 said:
Given their football history, that's a pretty low bar. lol

You're right, they fumbled the way they have handled this. Probably should have waited to gather all the facts before they did anything.
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That wasn't the point. The point is he's a larger than life figure there and had equity among donors and fans. This president and AD are fairly new hires. Most people have felt that he'd be there forever and the only thing that would cause him to leave would be a scandal. Well, here we are.

They love him there. Most of the students and faculty couldn't name a player on the team but everyone knows who he is. Everyone. Yeah, their football history is shit, but he's won there when nobody else ever has AND he played there.
 
Irishdrunk

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He is not a god like Paterno was. 1 win last year isn’t great even by NU standards. No question BOT were advised and signed off on his termination. He was a great collie player- coach not so much.
 
Jiggafini19Deux

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MacIrish75 said:
It’s like I said yesterday. Ole Darrell took his side early and is dug in.

Meanwhile Greeny has been radio silent.
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According to his Twitter feed, Greenberg was on vacation in Japan last week.

I am more interested in hearing from Schill and Gragg. I don't think their alumni, journalists or otherwise, are obligated to having to be heard from. I don't know why anyone would care.

Rick Telander was on the radio today. He played football at NU. He wasn't carrying water for anybody. Kalyn Kahler from The Athletic was also on. She wasn't apologetic.
 
MacIrish75

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Jiggafini19Deux said:
According to his Twitter feed, Greenberg was on vacation in Japan last week.

I am more interested in hearing from Schill and Gragg. I don't think their alumni, journalists or otherwise, are obligated to having to be heard from. I don't know why anyone would care.

Rick Telander was on the radio today. He played football at NU. He wasn't carrying water for anybody. Kalyn Kahler from The Athletic was also on. She wasn't apologetic.
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Greeny is probably the most notable and visible NU alumni in the sports journalism world (edit: Wilbon right there, too). His silence speaks volumes, IMO.
 
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