Pat Fitzgerald agrees to a ten year contract extension

Ed Note: We’re taking a temporary break from your regularly scheduled Rutgers preview programming for some breaking news:

Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald has agreed to a ten year contract extension according to ESPN reporter Brett McMurphy

I’ll let our friends at InsideNU tell us more:

Fitzgerald’s current contract was due to expire in 2020, but the new 10-year deal will apparently keep him in Evanston for another seven years after that. The exact financial details or length have not yet been released.

Fitzgerald has been the head coach Northwestern since 2006 and it appears he will be staying on for at least two decades at his alma mater. ESPN reported that men’s basketball coach Chris Collins has also agreed to a long-term extension with Northwestern.

This is all excellent news to everyone who roots for the ‘Cats! (and honestly not a surprise)

However, my colleagues at OTE Headquarters had some pithy hot sprots takes:

Creighton:

According to Barta's law, NU is gonna suuuuuuck next year

WhiteSpeedReceiver

Ferentizian

Me:

He’s the winningest coach in school history!

Andrew Kraszspolishsomething:

Name his biggest win

Thump:

Outback bowl vs clanga

Or whatever the hell bowl that was

Andrew Krazpasczkiorisitpronouncedpoonshki

That would be the Gator Bowl, which I think is the B1G's 5th bowl slot most years?

StewMonkey13

Winningest coach at jNW is world's tallest midget

Andrew PolishMcPolishface

I'm not saying he isn't both your best coach ever and most likely the best coach you can get right now, but do these eternal contracts ever work out in sports?

Best case scenario is the guy performs as expected, which has to be pretty damn good to justify that kind of leash

More likely, sooner or later you end up counting the days until you can get rid of him

Yes, my two chief pro sports interests are the Red Wings and Tigers, why do you ask?

StewMonkey13

He's also still the 2nd youngest coach in the conference.

JimmyBuckeye

I think he is a heck of a coach

I agree Jimmy, he is a hell of a coach. GO CATS!

After some bantering about Ferentzian nepostism and other Iowa nonsense (that will be excellently debated in the comments) , my colleague MNWildcat had this to add:

MNW

@AndrewKraszseswszsksivitchz my official response is /shrug

He's won two bowl games. The most games in NU history. 'Croots at a better level than anyone we've had. Does it "The Right Way."

Tallest midget or not, it's happening, sweetheart.

Then there was a crack about gameday 2013, but fuck that noise.

Later on, MNW asked Stew this:

Biggest win is at then-#4 or whatever Iowa. How's Stanzi doing these days, anywho?

Let me tell you this: StewMonkey’s answer had absolutely no profanity and there were no sharp objects thrown between him and MNWhahaha yeah, I think you can imagine how Stew told off MNW.

Later on MNW brought up one of the more satisfying wins of Fitzy’s tenure: 2011 vs Nebraska as one of the best wins

Maybe 2009 home against a decently ranked wisconsin

That win @Nebraska my senior year was sweet.

They were top-10

God, 13 or 14 straight runs on the game-winning drive. Sexy. As. Fuck.

In Lincoln.

Into the teeth of the blackshirts.

I’m older than MNW, and I remember the 2000 Alamo Bowl very well. Nebraska just obliterated the ‘Cats to the score of 66-17. OUCH!

It was immensely satisfying seeing Northwestern running Nebraska off the damn field in the 2011 game. Turnabout’s fair play. Heh heh heh.

Look, expectations are different in Evanston. They’ve definitely been raised since Gary Barnett resurrected the program (or as some of you smart-asses in the comment section might say: started the program in 1995) and Randy Walker stabilized it.

Pat Fitzgerald has been a stellar representative of Northwestern University as a student, a College Football Hall of Fame student-athlete and now a head football coach. I think the man literally bleeds purple.

He’s also the second longest-tenured football coach in the Big Ten, and he’s in his early 40s! He obviously is doing the right thing: graduating all of his players and winning more games than not.

Would I like him to be bowling every year? Sure.

Would I like seasons following ten win seasons to not be big dropoffs? Yeah.

Would I like the team to appear and win a Big Ten championship game? I have faith that will happen eventually. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Speaking for myself, I’m happy that Northwestern football is succeeding and is in good hands.

LET’S GO CATS!