BuffLuke80
Well-Known Member
Honestly, I remember more about him as a player than I know about him as a coach.
Please, their run of 30 straight losing seasons ended 15 years ago, not last year, not 5 years ago, 15. In college football terms, that's a lifetime, recruits the last 5 years don't see the toilet Northwestern team, they see the Cinderella that's been pimped by the media and is averaging 6-7 wins a year. It's not like Fitzgerald came in after two good years and laid a new foundation. He's maintained a slightly better record than Barnett and basically the same record as Walker in the previous decade. He's taken a program that was built up and turned around by Barnett and Walker and operates in a college football environment that's much different than even 15 years ago with scholarship limits and in an era when even marginal teams are on TV most of the time.
In fact, I'm sure you probably said the same thing about Hawkins coming out of Boise St 5 years ago since the histories are largely similar, NW just has a much tougher conference to deal with.
Wasn't this guy essentially the Northwestern equivalent of an EB type candidate? Why would we want to have the Northwestern version of EB when we can have EB (yes I recognize that he now has HC experience).
See, this is where you are wrong. In Chicago and throughout Big Ten country, Northwestern is still very much viewed as a doormat. It will take more than a Rose Bowl trip and some 8-4 seasons to erase that stigma. In fact, it will never go away, largely because their basketball team is maybe even more of a historical nightmare than their football team. As far as recruiting, please. They get the smart student-athletes who are "coachable", and who are also passed over by most Big Six schools. No major Midwestern recruits even give a glance towards Evanston.
I'd be excited if we got Fitzgerald. I just don't see him leaving though.
I believe they were split inside to Cabral, outside to Fitzgerald. I don't recall it working all that well, but may be wrong.If he was LB coach in '99, what was Cabral doing that year?
I believe they were split inside to Cabral, outside to Fitzgerald. I don't recall it working all that well, but may be wrong.
Won't Cabral get a shot? Why wouldn't he be a front runner?
Everyone associated with CU loves Cabral. However, there are two main issues that I see.
1.) Not only does he lack HC experience, but he's never even been a coordinator.
2.) Going into the Pac 12, many think we can reel in a much bigger fish.