So much for the Pat Fitzgerald to the Green Bay Packers rumors. In celebrating a record setting come-from-behind Holiday Bowl victory over the #17 Utah Utes, the Northwestern head coach made an emphatic statement.
It was reported by multiple outlets on Sunday that Packers CEO Mark Murphy, who elevated Fitzgerald to head coach in 2006 when he was NU athletic director, was interested in interviewing Fitzgerald for the open Packers head coaching position.
Following Northwestern’s 31-20 win, Fitzgerald was asked about his future during the Holiday Bowl trophy presentation.
“Hashtag Go Cats, man. I’m not going anywhere. This is home forever,” Fitz responded.
He later added: “I’m a Wildcat for life.”
Obviously it doesn’t more definitive than that. While we’ve certainly seen coaches say one thing and do another this is Pat Fitzgerald we’re talking about. He’s an alum, living and working close to home, and he’s turned down plenty of big time prestige jobs already. So this narrative is now pretty much done and dusted.
While it’s the A block story of the Holiday Bowl, the B block narrative is pretty amazing in itself. Northwestern rallied from a 20-3 deficit to score a Holiday Bowl record 28 points in the third quarter.
That also marked a NU bowl game record for points in a single quarter.
This was achieved primarily on the strength of the Wildcats defense forcing the Utah offense into five turnovers in the second half. With the win, NU (who were seven point underdogs) has now won three bowl straight bowl games for the first time in school history.
Four of the school’s five bowl wins have been achieved by Pat Fitzgerald.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.