Because everything about Northwestern's program points to him having a record like Frost's. His overall winning record (and nearly .500 record in Big Ten play at 65-68) would indicate that he's punching far above his weight.
Why does Pat Fitzgerald get so much hype?
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Seriously? It’s, BY FAR, the toughest job in the conference. Its location near Chicago is completely irrelevant when the city is filled with about 20x more fans of Illinois, Notre Dame and other Big Ten schools, and Northwestern has next to zero fans outside of its alumni base (which is tiny). This doesn’t even touch on its restrictive academic standards and relative lack of institutional support for athletics.
They should be a doormat every year, and he’s taken them to conference championship games and decent bowl games. You should not be judging his tenure as you would a coach of Nebraska.
They should be a doormat every year, and he’s taken them to conference championship games and decent bowl games. You should not be judging his tenure as you would a coach of Nebraska.
Feel free to have your buddies venture over here and tell us the 5 star recruits that were denied at NW because of academics.
All I am showing is the success that PF has had since he has been there. Prior to him being there they were the laughing stock of college football for decades. I strongly believe if he ever left NW and took a job at a top-tier program he would have a consistent winning program contending for championships every year; CC's and some NC's. He knows how to coach and his past track record backs it up.
Barnett won a big 10 title. So did walker. His 2 predecessors. He has not. So WL Fitzgerald is better but has not matched the end goal success that the 2 prior coaches did
No, you made the claim, I didn't. They won't give you details about specific named individuals for privacy reasons, though.
I can tell you that the top three HS players in Illinois this year were not offered by Northwestern. The top two were also not offered by Stanford, Vanderbilt, or Duke. (Number 3 had a Duke offer.)
Look on 24/7 if you don't believe me. Number 1 is going to Mizzou, number 2 to Clemson, number 3 to Ohio State. NWU offered number 4; he's going to North Carolina.
Academics is the only possible reason for the 1, 2, and 3 best players in Northwestern's own state not to receive offers.
The same thing is true of numbers 1 through 4 for 2023. I'd love to have 6'6" 358# Miles McVay on our offensive line. (Nebraska offered him, so I'd say they'd like him on theirs, too.) Can't be done.
There's a story -- I wasn't there, so I can't vouch for it -- that NWU wanted to hire Tommy Amaker from Duke as bball coach. (This was several years before Collins.) He came back with two anonymized transcripts/test scores from Duke bball players -- legend has it that they were Christian Laettner's and Bobby Hurley's -- and presented them to admissions, asking if they could get into Northwestern. "Nope!" said admissions. "Bye!" said Amaker. Just a story, but I've heard it from multiple sources.
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There is one thing in common to Barnett and Walker’s Big Ten titles - they didn’t play OSU those years (95, 96, 00), unlike Fitz having to play OSU in Indy. 1995 was unquestionably one of the greatest coaching achievements in NCAA history, but 96 and 00 were basically ties for the championship. Fitz has multiple 10 win seasons, and multiple bowl wins, which Barnett and Walker did not. But those guys set the stage for Fitz’s success.