I think we are about to see a return to the pre Gary Barnett days, and it won't be short lived. People don't remember how bad it can get.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Worse than 1-11?

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They were 4-20 the last two years. They were already there.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

four bowl wins (all against power 5) and two B10 championship game appearances over the last seven years is a lot of recent success. I guess you could respond that three of the last four were terrible but pre Barnett era cat fans would be embarrassed to complain about only one west division championship in four years. and they had some decent names as coaches, like Dennis Green and Ara Parsaghein. Heck, Barnett and Walker were both under .500 as coaches.

I never thought much of Fitzgerald as a coach but his success is pretty remarkable and he wasn't using it as a stepping stone.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

THIS

The transfer portal killed them faster than Fitz did.

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his success always seemed to be built around a QB who started too early in his career and took his lumps but then excelled as a game manager in the last 1-2 years. His recent QB have been a mess of overrated local talents and transfers who had nothing.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

The second B10 championship game was a COVID year fluke. The first one was a great team though.

Fitz was great at beating cupcakes in the OOC. That's the major difference between him and Barnett and Walker. Fitz had a conference record that was trending towards what they had.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

They had two first round draft picks on that 20 team and beat a ranked Purdue on the road. I don't think it was a fluke, like some of the baseball in 20. They beat 4 ranked teams.

I thought a usual Fitz season went like this: 2-1 OOC with one of those being a terrible loss. .500 in conference, including one signature win they had no business winning. Bowl game.

Northwestern simply cannot hope for better than that. Even I-L-L can aspire to be something greater but that is the best NU can ever be regularly. I've always said, Fitzgerald isn't great but he is the best NU can hope for and NU is the best job at which he can be nominally successful. They were a perfect match, like when two fives marry each other.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Other than Pat Ryan, who gives a shit if NU football is good or bad?

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julia louis dreyfuss

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Would

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They beat 1 ranked team that year and that was Wisconsin at home and Wisconsin finished 4-3.
Fitz was 65-76 in conference and 45-25 out of conference and they didn't really play a killer OOC schedule often. So yeah, they probably did to 2-1 a lot of years OOC but in conference they were already on the way to a sub .450 conference record unless he pulled out a miracle this year.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Have you never listened to PTI???

Wilbon gave a circumspect but honest assessment of the situation on PTI last week, but given the format he didn't talk at length. But Tony Kornheiser had Wilbon on his podcast on Monday, where he talked at length about the situation overall, from his position as a trustee of the university for the last 15 years, and from his position as a Medill grad and former reporter for the Daily Northwestern. He probably talked for 10 minutes on the topic, being questioned by Kornheiser and retired Post colleague Liz Clarke.

We all know that Wilbon at this stage in life is perpetually alternating between being a pompous name-dropper and an old man yelling at clouds. He was neither here. His former Post colleague Christine Brennan is also a trustee. Somehow the Daily students contacted her. It sounds like the decision to suspend Fitzgerald was made by the relatively new president, but the decision to fire him was made by the trustees.

Wilbon referred to himself as "a former journalist, I am not a journalist any more" and that seems to have let him find space to act, including being asked by either the University president or the other trustees to speak to the team in his role as a trustee after Fitzgerald was fired and after he spoke to the interim head coach. (Northwestern only has two African-American male trustees.). He said that he also met with the Daily Northwestern students and gave them his unconditional support and praise. He also briefly mentioned the baseball situation, and said that he will be spending a lot of time on campus this fall both with the athletic program and at Medill. (Reading between the lines, the AD is in what Kornheiser would call a "gots to go" situation.)

Finally, what was really interesting was that Wilbon went to Kornheiser for advice as to what was appropriate to say and do publicly. For as much as they yell at each other, their relationship is really brotherly after nearly 40 years.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Shots fired at MUD... you hate to see it

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Not just football, baseball and other sports, too. This hazing culture was pervasive.

This was going to be the year that I finally went to a home game.

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I "won" tickets to an OOC home game this year at one of the high school raffles. UTEP or Howard.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

He was making $5 MILLION PER YEAR without having to produce anything other than an occasional winning season! If he tried to move up from NU, he probably would have been hired into a program where he actually would need to deliver 10 or 11 per year on a consistent basis, something he likely isn't capable of doing (most coaches aren't). In other words, using NU as a stepping stone would only have resulted in Fitz stepping in it.

As I mentioned several years ago on this board, I had some tense interactions with Coach Fitz a little more than a decade ago. He can be engaging publicly, but he also has a vindictive, megalomaniacal side that he displays privately. He struck me then as a bit of a buffoon and a bully, and recent events have only served to confirm that impression.

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Our daughter was a prof at Nebraska, and is still a big fan of the football team. So I might still go if they play them at home.

Huskers should win this year.

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My wife's whole family is from Nebraska. Do you know what the "N" on their helmets stand for?

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Nowledge.

Narcolepsy?
Necrophilia?
Narcoleptic necrophilia?

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I did no that

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ok I figured as much

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

It's a great family football experience in Lincoln.

Go Mitch Krenk

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You shouldn't have failed his starters

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I have a feeling Matt Rhule is going to be great for their program.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

That's interesting. I'll have to do a deep dive here to see what it was all about. I guess it's no surprise that he's a vindictive bully and megalomaniac, but it is disappointing to hear it.

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Can you summarize the issues for those of us unwilling to brave the search function?

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