Pat Fitzgerald is the Best Thing to Happen to Northwestern Football

It’s no secret that Pat Fitzgerald has led the Northwestern program to great success. With the exception of the mid-1990s (when Fitzgerald was a linebacker on the team), Northwestern football has been largely nonexistent on the national stage throughout its history despite being one of the founding members of the Big Ten.

Since Fitzgerald took over as head coach in 2006, the Wildcats have not just moved up in the conference ranks, they have garnered national recognition and attention. They have made the Big Ten Championship game two of the last three years. If I asked you “What do Alabama, Clemson, Florida, Penn State, Miami, Northwestern and Virginia Tech have in common?” I’m confident “They are only schools with multiple first-round NFL Draft picks in 2021” would not be your first thought.

Fitzgerald, who seems to be one of the first names mentioned each time a college or professional team from the Midwest has a head coaching vacancy, has taken Northwestern football to new heights.

But just how successful has he been? Since the Wildcats finished No. 10 in the AP Poll at the end of the 2020 season - their highest finish since 1995 - here are 10 stats about Pat Fitzgerald’s tenure on the shores of Lake Michigan:

1. Northwestern had just one bowl win prior to Fitzgerald’s time: a 20-14 Rose Bowl victory over California on January 1, 1949. The ‘Cats now have garnered five additional bowl wins under Fitzgerald, including Northwestern's four most recent bowl games ('16, '17, '18, '20).
2. Fitzgerald has recorded more than twice as many wins at Northwestern as the coach who ranks second in that category. He boasts a 106-81 record, while the No. 2 honors are held by Lynn “Pappy” Waldorf who went 49-45-7 in 12 seasons in Evanston.
3. Northwestern has had five 10-win seasons in its history. Pat Fitzgerald has been involved in four of them. The Wildcats won 10 games in 1903, 1995, 2012, 2015 and 2017. The class of 2015 was the first NU class in program history to have multiple 10-win seasons.
4. Last season, the Wildcats had the top scoring defense in the Big Ten, allowing just 15.9 points per game. Prior to 2020, their highest finish under Coach Fitz occurred in 2015 when they finished third.
5. Since 1968, the year in which the AP rankings began to continue after bowl games and the poll began to most closely resemble today’s AP Poll, the Wildcats have been ranked for 96 weeks. Just 27 of those occurred without Fitzgerald in the picture. While he was on the team, Northwestern was ranked for 28 weeks between 1995-1996, and while he has been the head coach they have been ranked for 41 weeks. To reiterate that in a different way, 72% of the time that Northwestern has been ranked in the AP Poll has involved Fitzgerald as either a player or head coach.
6. Freshman phenom Brandon Joseph—a College Station product who demonstrates how nationally Northwestern has begun to recruit–became just the second defensive consensus All-American in program history. Emphasis on freshman. The only other is, drumroll please, Pat Fitzgerald. It should be a fun next couple of years in the secondary for the safety on the 2021 Bednarik Watch List.
7. Fitzgerald’s squads have always played a clean game. They have never averaged more than 45 penalty yards per game during his tenure. In his first year, the Wildcats led the nation with just 30.5 penalty yards per game, and they have been in the top three twice in the last five years. Since 2013, they have hovered around the top 20, averaging just 38.7 penalty yards per game.
8. A few weeks ago, Pro Football Focus ranked the best coaches in college football. Four Big Ten coaches made the list, and familiar faces were at the very top—Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney. But who was the best coach in the Big Ten according to PFF? Pat Fitzgerald. Imagine someone telling you in 2010 the head coach at Northwestern outranked the head coaches at Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State.
9. This is not too shocking, but Fitzgerald does not just care about on-field production. Since the NCAA began tracking Graduation Success Rate score (GSR) in 2002, Northwestern’s football team has scored 96% and higher and always finished in the top four amongst FBS football programs. In 2019, Northwestern became the first Power 5 team to ever post a perfect graduation success rate.
10. Fitzgerald has beaten every Big Ten team, except Ohio State, at least one time during his head coaching career. He'll have another shot at the Buckeyes the first week of December.