Pat Fitzgerald did more than ANNIHILATE the Penn State Nittany Lions today. He also DESTROYED two of the most brain dead narratives that surround his program right now. The first is the idea that Northwestern football is not winning because this team is not “hard nosed” or “TOUGH” enough. We’ll SHRED that idea to pieces in detail here as Fitzgerald is as much of a “player’s coach” and “guy’s guy” (Or “blokey-bloke,” for my readers in the U.K.) as he’s ever been.
But first first we need to put to rest the other theory surrounding NU football that is dumbing us down. The idea that Northwestern is going back to “the dark ages” of pre 1995.
Gary Barnett, not Pat Fitzgerald, and not Randy Walker, is the man who built NU football in the modern era. Of course, Fitzgerald did do his part as a player too back then. He was an accomplished middle linebacker when he played- winning AP Defensive Player of the Year twice from at one of the most smash mouth positions in a very smash mouth game. Since 2006, when Fitzgerald took over the program, he has consistently branded himself as a hard-liner, no-nonsense, tough-talking kind of guy.
Throw in his military style haircut and the incessant U.S. Armed Forces propaganda embedded within Northwestern football, and you have a program that markets discipline, values grit and espouses tough love.
Yes, NU was 2-9 in their last 11 before pulling a monster upset in State College today, but it’s not due to any of these intangible assets and abstract ideas.
What’s been wrong with NU doesn’t have anything to do with toughness, determination, heart, soul, leadership and chutzpah. It’s all about the drop off in talent.
And that’s where we need to quiet the Northwestern fans on Twitter claiming that Pat Fitzgerald was leading the program back to the dark days of the 1970s-1994. I’ve seen this idiotic misnomer on social media. Going 5-7 (with one of those losses being in overtime and another on a last second hail mary) is nothing remotely close to the dark ages.
Having a pretty bad first couple of games, followed by a very unimpressive win over a lowly FCS team, is not the dark ages.
Not even close.
These people really have no idea what those dark ages in Northwestern actually were.
From 1976 to 1981 Northwestern went 3-62.
That’s worse than what the Illini are under Tim Beckman. That’s much worse than what would happen to Illinois if Beckman was given a long term contract extension. From 1982-1993, NU was 31-109-3. That’s worse than the state of DePaul basketball. Yes, for those readers in Chicago, think about the state of Blue Demons basketball over the past decade and that’s what the Wildcats used to be.
So the idea of comparing where Pat Fitzgerald is at now with anything remotely close to that era is preposterous. The Wildcats held a Christian Hackenberg led offense in check all day. Hackenberg is a future NFL first round pick, and today they made him look like a freshman. Pat Fitzgerald’s team didn’t just win; 29-6 in Happy Valley is a statement victory. Teams returning to a gloomy history don’t perform like this.
Factor in that Pat Fitzgerald just signed the highest rated recruiting class he’s ever had and again the idea of a degeneration into the 1980s Northwestern motif was just too much of an idiotic idea to even refute. Yes, even before the win in University Park today.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and very often writes The Sports Bank.net,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2