B1G 2012 // Northwestern's Smartest Guys in the Room

I'm as cool as a cucumber in a bowl of hot sauce

The Head Coach -- Pat Fitzgerald

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If you try to knock me you'll get mocked
I'll stir fry you in my wok
Your knees'll start shaking and your fingers pop
Like a pinch on the neck from Mr. Spock

The Skinny

With a seventh season upcoming, Pat Fitzgerald is now one of the longest tenured coaches in the Big Ten. Think about that for a moment. Five years ago, the B1G was being led by the likes of the Vest, Paterno, Carr, and Ferentz. If anyone had, "Fitzgerald will last longer than 75% of those men," in the B1G coaching tenure pool, you look like a freaking genius. However, my gut tells me that most of us didn't even notice that Fitz has been there this long. As a relative outsider to the coaching hierarchies in the B1G, I am still trying to wrap my mind around a world where Northwestern has the more experienced coaching staff than Nebraska, Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State.

All of that aside, Fitzgerald deserves a few kudos. For a guy who was thrown into the Head Coaching role after tragedy struck the Northwestern program, he has revived interest as a whole and if you were to ask the Northwestern faithful [insert obligatory joke about all 5 of them], there is definitely a sense that he can be the one to break through and win a bowl game. With a winning percentage just north of .500 and four consecutive losses trips to a bowl game, Northwestern has made a small name for themselves. Above all else, Northwestern has proven year after year that they are not a team to be overlooked. With the pelts of Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska and many others who were in a position to succeed, Fitz has created an environment where his team can and will win anywhere you ask them to.

Of course, none of this would be fair without at least a small look at the downside. Fitzgerald is definitely a strong offensive mind, and despite his defensive foundation gained through his playing days, Northwestern's defense has been something to be desired. I'm not sure if it's true, but I heard once that Fitz was getting testy with a reporter and basically said that his defense had held teams to less than 50, so everything was on the up and up. Obviously he wasn't serious, but it does beg the question on why it hasn't been fixed. And while we joke about Northwestern's inability to, you know, win a bowl game, sooner or later that has to be discussed. With smart kid schools like Stanford doing it big time, you got to wonder what is holding Northwestern back from making that next jump. While I do not believe for a moment that Fitz is on the clock, one can only hold on to the status quo for so long, right?

Quotable

I'm humbled and appreciative of the commitment shown by Northwestern. With this support from our administration, our coaches and players expect to compete for championships.

This is directly from the nusports.com Pat Fitzgerald profile interview. It is extreme coachspeak and probably was written for him by some grad assistant or media relations director. Nonetheless, I really liked the sentiment because it seems to embody what Fitz is trying to do at Northwestern. He expects them to compete with everyone, and while the results have not gotten to the place he wants (yet), he's going to set the bar as high as possible. So good for him.

Twitter Trend

I'm not gonna lie. I love when coaches actually have Twitter accounts. Generally speaking, you can learn a lot about who a coach is and how ridiculous his interactions with the, 'social media,' world is. With that said, Fitzgerald (@CoachFitz51) seems to be pretty boring. There are a ton of, "Let's go Cats," and "Congrats [fill in NU team] on the great win." If I had to choose my favorite moment, it's gotta be last night's twit pic via the Chicago Cubs, because anytime you get a guy who looks like he doesn't want to be singing the 7th Inning Stretch in the booth, you gotta link to it.

Northwestern University head football coach @coachfitz51 sings tonight's 7th inning stretch: twitter.com/Cubs/status/19…

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) May 8, 2012

The Name Game:

The Coordinators!

Mick McCall -- Offensive Coordinator

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