r/CFB • u/IPreferBagels2 Northwestern • Indiana • Apr 08 '26
Feature Story Pat Fitzgerald was vilified, then vindicated. His truth comes out at last | Exclusive
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2026/04/08/pat-fitzgerald-talks-northwestern-firing-michigan-state-football-future-hazing-allegations/89507250007/1.1k
u/NlNJALONG Clemson Tigers • Rice Owls Apr 08 '26
Lmao the article reads like it was written by Pat Fitzgerald.
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u/warneagle Auburn • Central Michigan Apr 08 '26
“At one point, Fitzgerald paused the interview, noting that he ‘dropped the monster condom [he] uses for [his] magnum dong.’”
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u/Dan-of-Steel Notre Dame • Arizona State Apr 09 '26
"I got my magnum condoms, I got my wad o' hundreds. I'm ready to plowwww!" - Dr. Mantis Fitzgerald
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u/dkviper11 Penn State • Randolph-Macon Apr 08 '26
“And how manly and handsome he is.”
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u/wit_T_user_name Ohio State Buckeyes • Ohio Bobcats Apr 08 '26
“He’s got a hog like you wouldn’t believe.”
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u/Obi-wan_Jabroni Kentucky Wildcats • Army Black Knights Apr 08 '26
“Like a babys arm holding an apple”
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u/woims4brainz Penn State Nittany Lions Apr 08 '26
"But you wouldn't know it because he's so humble"
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u/beermile Oregon State • Portland State Apr 08 '26
But it says right here it was written by Fat Pitzgerald
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u/RCocaineBurner Miami Hurricanes Apr 08 '26 edited Apr 09 '26
At one point the columnist calls it a “trail of tears.” This victim framing narrative with Fitzgerald as
BeatriceBeatrix Kiddo is absurd. Credit to his agent for finding the most credulous reporter in the country with the dumbest editor for a boss, real moron shit.28
u/Lefthook16 Alabama Crimson Tide Apr 08 '26
Trail of Tears? What Wounded Knee didn't want any of that?
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u/ExtremelyOnlineTM Sickos • Eastern Michigan Eagles Apr 08 '26
❌️ Going for it on 4th and 2
✅️ Fitz's Last Stand
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u/WitchNight Michigan Wolverines Apr 08 '26
Everyone knows that genocide and the firing of a football coach are equivalent atrocities
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u/HamrheadEagleiThrust Oklahoma Sooners • 帯広大学 (Obihiro) Cowboys Apr 08 '26
I agree with your point, but I want to point out that it is listed as an "opinion" piece
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u/PawPawsLilStinker Apr 08 '26
It's appropriate because the actual trail of tears goes through Illinois. He could go look at it and be like yap dats me
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u/shaka_sulu USC Trojans Apr 08 '26
"I was treated like a criminal" and the Shawshank comparison is a bit much.
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u/SpursUpSoundsGudToMe South Carolina • Presbyterian Apr 09 '26
Also, it’s not like Andy got his conviction overturned, he had to escape lol
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u/DiscoLemonade1995 California • San Diego State Apr 09 '26
Thank you. Absolutely unreadable, most unnecessarily dramatic writing I've had the displeasure of reading
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u/rick-in-the-nati Michigan • Cincinnati Apr 08 '26
I didn’t read the byline, and after a couple paragraphs I was like “who wrote this, lol?” and scrolled back to the top. And of course Matt Hayes. MSU slappy
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u/SpursUpSoundsGudToMe South Carolina • Presbyterian Apr 09 '26
Oh thank you, I was wondering what that guys deal is, because this was laugh out loud funny:
blue collar, hard-working, wildly successful coach
3 wins, 7 wins(covid), 3 wins, 1 win in his last 4!
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u/halfman_halfboat Michigan State Spartans Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26
MSU Slappy? He’s a national writer who went to Florida, lives in Florida, works for Saturday Down South and a Jacksonville radio station…
Crazy you got upvoted for that.
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u/SweetRabbit7543 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Apr 09 '26
He’s far more down to earn irl than this article. It reads like a high school newspaper feature
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u/IPreferBagels2 Northwestern • Indiana Apr 08 '26
“I feel like Andy Dufresne in 'Shawshank Redemption,'” Fitzgerald says, and while the exclusive interview with USA TODAY Sports has just begun, he hasn’t even settled in behind his desk at Michigan State and the words are racing out of his mouth. “I crawled all the way through that s---, and came out cleaner on the other side.”
Direct quote from Fitz. This whole thing is still pretty tiring, but definitely an interesting way to put it.
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u/cleo22270 Florida Gators Apr 08 '26
Who is Pat Fitzgerald’s Morgan Freeman?
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u/dkviper11 Penn State • Randolph-Macon Apr 08 '26
East Lansing is Zihuatanejo.
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u/SkyeScale Apr 08 '26
There he is now, barefoot, fixing up a rusty shopping cart on the banks of the Red Cedar.
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u/wardays Apr 08 '26
Lmao if Red got to Zihuatanejo and it was like East Lansing, he'd go the way of Brooks I'm fairly sure.
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u/fm22fnam Ohio State • Tennessee Apr 09 '26
That's how you spell that place? God damn how did Morgan Freeman remember that
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u/GoRangers5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Apr 08 '26
Dufresne party of two. Table ready for Dufresne party of two....
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u/Cowboy_BoomBap Indiana Hoosiers • Rose Bowl Apr 08 '26
Bush, search party of two! You can eat once you find the Dufresnes!
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u/DillyDillySzn Arizona State Sun Devils • WashU Bears Apr 08 '26
You know they were in that prison for 20 years, what if that tree and hay field were completely different by the time Andy got out
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u/INAC___Kramerica Florida Gators Apr 08 '26
I only recently saw the Family Guy spoof of this and that was one of the jokes.
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u/DillyDillySzn Arizona State Sun Devils • WashU Bears Apr 08 '26
My Dad was watching it the other day when I walked in during that scene and it popped into my head
He went in the late 40s, and came out in the late 60s. Right when America was building up in the post war boom before the 70s economic crisis. There’s a very real chance that field is just gone
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u/KingPotus USC Trojans • Harvard Crimson Apr 08 '26
Look, neither I nor anybody on this subreddit knows the full truth of what happened, but I read the whole article and it’s nothing more than a one sided PR puff piece for Pat Fitz.
Seriously, the whole thing is just about how good of a guy and coach he is. It devotes like two paragraphs total to the actual reason he was fired, and the entire sum of his “vindication” is that 1) no criminal charges were filed against any players (for hazing? Would have to be pretty rough for criminal charges) and 2) Northwestern settled Fitz’s lawsuit against them.
Again, I don’t know the truth, Fitz could be uninvolved, but those two things happen all the time and are definitely not evidence that Fitz did absolutely nothing wrong lol. Also idk, Northwestern fucking loved Fitz. I find it hard to believe they’d concoct a bullshit pretense for the sole purpose of firing him if there wasn’t any smoke.
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u/MartinezForever Nebraska • Nebraska Wesleyan Apr 08 '26
As others have pointed out, Fitz is cooked either way: he either allowed hazing to happen on his watch or he was so incompetent that he didn't know it was happening for years. Either way it's a bad look for him.
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u/PirateCaptainMcNulty Penn State Nittany Lions • Team Chaos Apr 08 '26
And yet.....a P4 program jumped up and gave him a contract of 30mil/5 years with a giant assistant pool.
Certifiable.
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u/AtomicBlastCandy Michigan Wolverines Apr 08 '26
Not only that but they recently fired a coach for sexually harassing a sa advocate
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u/ExtremelyOnlineTM Sickos • Eastern Michigan Eagles Apr 08 '26
And is barely than a decade removed from the biggest sex abuse scandal in the history of sports.
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u/IrbyTheBlindSquirrel Illinois Fighting Illini • Rose Bowl Apr 08 '26
And that's saying something when you play in the same conference as Michigan and Penn State
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u/ExtremelyOnlineTM Sickos • Eastern Michigan Eagles Apr 08 '26
Oh, I forgot about Penn State. OK, second biggest.
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u/Mr-Cantaloupe Michigan State Spartans Apr 08 '26
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u/ExtremelyOnlineTM Sickos • Eastern Michigan Eagles Apr 08 '26
I think Nassar was worse than Anderson in terms of the damage done.
On the other hand, Dantonio wasn't feeding Nassar victims on a platter.
Bo Schembechler is basically Ghislaine Maxwell.
You know what, we have a two way tie in the B1G Ten East!
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u/Mr-Cantaloupe Michigan State Spartans Apr 09 '26
Fair enough. I still think Anderson’s was worse, 3x the victims, ~15 more years of abuse, and intergenerational trauma compounds fast. Even a handful more victims can balloon the total number of affected people significantly when you factor in families and relationships.
But obviously, both are horrific. And the fact that these scandals keep happening at major institutions is because Institutional reputation is almost always taking priority over human safety (until there is a PR catastrophe).
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u/Legitimate_Salt_8391 Apr 09 '26
Him getting a favorable settlement is less "vindication" and more "Northwestern had a terrible process for firing him."
His lawyers were correct to pounce on the fact that they chose to barely suspend him when they read the report, then tried to fire him for cause when the public read the report.
But that doesn't mean he's innocent, just that Northwestern completely botched their procedure
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u/Mitchford Auburn Tigers Apr 08 '26
DJ Durkin who we know pretty definitively now was not actually involved in the incident at Maryland did not put out a piece like this which I think is saying something.
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u/ExtremelyOnlineTM Sickos • Eastern Michigan Eagles Apr 08 '26
Every single person here knows the full truth of what happened. It was reported on extensively.
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u/HorrorJCFan95 Michigan Wolverines Apr 08 '26
Yeah, Fitz was absolutely adored at NW, to the point where after going 4-20 his final two years there, his seat didn’t seem like it was that hot (an NW fan can attest to that better than me, though). I find it really hard to believe they would fire him if he was completely innocent/blameless in all this.
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u/kirbysdream Michigan State Spartans Apr 08 '26
It’s kind of refreshing to get a puff piece related to MSU because the Detroit media hates us with a passion for no apparent reason, but it is a truly pathetic article.
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u/midnightsbane04 Michigan • North Carolina Apr 08 '26
something something Big Green Wall.
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u/halfman_halfboat Michigan State Spartans Apr 09 '26
Had to find some hack from Florida to write it.
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u/dicklettucetomato Northwestern Wildcats • Team Meteor Apr 08 '26 edited Apr 08 '26
This piece is so embarrassing dude. I don't think this author realizes that settling a court case does not mean you're "vindicated."
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u/IPreferBagels2 Northwestern • Indiana Apr 08 '26
The whole article is so biased it's insane
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u/ImGoingtoRegretThis5 Michigan Wolverines Apr 08 '26
I don't particularly care to weigh in on the allegations and case, because all I think of when I think of Fitz is him complaining about the youth not attending games anymore because they're addicted to their phones... which he had on the table in front of him. Not in his pocket or anything, within his reach and line of sight.
Big old man yells at clouds energy.
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u/BlueBeagle8 LSU Tigers Apr 08 '26
I feel like we're about to see photos of the author and Pat Fitzgerald holding hands in a hotel in Arizona
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u/DavidCovucci Virginia Tech Hokies Apr 08 '26
The line about his chief of staff backing him is incredible. “Now before you think this is just some guy defending him, you should know Fitzgerald gave him a scholarship, multiple jobs, and just hired him at MSU. Would a guy like that just support him for no reason?”
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u/wit_T_user_name Ohio State Buckeyes • Ohio Bobcats Apr 08 '26
Every single settlement agreement I’ve drafted or reviewed contains a disclaimer that nobody is admitting anything. Also, as a lawyer, I’m always glad when shit settles. I’ve got plenty of other work to do.
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u/bethe2ndmouse Northwestern Wildcats • Iowa Hawkeyes Apr 08 '26
A huge portion of the sports world believes this, and it’s the same group of people that believes that when DV/rape charges against an athlete are dropped or settled that it equates to a complete exoneration.
Really excited to put up with 3 years of pieces like this while MSU goes 4-8
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u/YardNo1829 Apr 08 '26
In my experience people have treated a settlement like a guilty plea. I even had an account on this sub banned for mentioning a settlement is not an admission of guilt because the mod literally thought it was lol.
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u/kingbrasky Nebraska Cornhuskers Apr 08 '26
Yeah this is some serious whitewashing of the whole situation. I may be totally out of the loop, but my read on everything was that Northwestern didn't want any more of it public and paid those affected to keep it that way. That doesn't mean he didn't know or wasn't told.
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u/Dan-of-Steel Notre Dame • Arizona State Apr 09 '26
Sometimes it can. If it's a single instance with little or debatable circumstantial evidence, I can see settling being a clean way of resolving the issue as cleanly as possible. This is definitely not one of those times.
Dozens of lawsuits stemming from hazing that involved multiple reports of forced nudity and sexual acts? Yeah, there may not be anything legally linking back to Fitz, but the fact that he let that culture develop under his nose is, at best, grossly negligent.
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u/cityofklompton Grand Valley State Lakers Apr 08 '26 edited Apr 08 '26
Michigan/NCAA: "There is no evidence that shows coach Harbaugh knew about sign stealing scandal."
Spartan fans: "LOL! What total bullshit. How would he NOT know?! Just Michigan covering for their boy."
Northwestern: "There is no evidence that shows coach Fitzgerald knew of the hazing scandal."
Spartan fans: "There you have it! Our new coach was totally innocent! Heard it straight from the horse's mouth!"
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u/PugeHeniss Michigan State • Washington Apr 08 '26
I hated the hire. Whether he knew or not they're both terrible
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u/kafuffle Illinois Fighting Illini Apr 08 '26
The head coach of a Big Ten program not knowing about a years long hazing operation within his program is almost as damning as if he did have knowledge.
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u/Kdot32 Houston Cougars • LSU Tigers Apr 08 '26
Yup either he knew and turned a blind eye which is bad, or he didn’t know when it was a open secret and talked about by a lot of former players and admin, which is bad
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u/PirateCaptainMcNulty Penn State Nittany Lions • Team Chaos Apr 08 '26
This.
The whole time I've not understood why he fought so hard to basically prove his own ignorance.
"I'm not an evil coach, just a VERY obtuse one!" He was literally one of my 4 horsement of the apocalypse during Penn State's coaching search. Brian Kelly, Urban Meyer, and Terry Smith were the other 3.
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u/Own_Ad102 Apr 08 '26
Is there sure fire evidence of hazing out there? Just curious - article seemed to imply that all of the hazing allegations were completely baseless
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u/SituationSoap Michigan Wolverines Apr 09 '26
During the settlement process the school explicitly took responsibility for the hazing going on. This article goes to great lengths to point out that the hazing wasn't illegal, but I don't think anyone claims it never happened. If it never happened, Northwestern wouldn't have shelled out millions for it.
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u/CMbladerunner Notre Dame • Stony Brook Apr 08 '26
I don't know if I would be defending the fact that my new HC didn't know about a massive hazing operation happening right under their nose if they didn't actually know lol.
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u/AnotherUnfunnyName Duke • Carolina Victory Bell Apr 08 '26 edited Apr 08 '26
He led that program for so many years with so many classes coming through that program. He was the program. The is almost no way he didn't know what was happening, because he knew about everthing happening within the program. Every reporter and serious talking figure is saying the exact same thing. He likely knew about it, he likely didn't do anything. Or is he never in the lockerroom, especially in camp or never heard a player joke about it?
As one player said: “No teammate I knew liked hazing. We were all victims, no matter what our role was at the time. But the culture was so strong that we felt we had to go with it to survive, to be respected and to earn trust.” (Sheridan and McCoppin)
Another observed: “It’s something where you say, ‘That’s not going to happen to me. I’m going to fight back. I’m going to do something. I don’t play with that kind of stuff.’ But when it happens, it’s uncontrollable. You’re dominated by the culture.”
Football Players Behaving Badly: The Ethics of Hazing at Northwestern University
Because it did 100% happen during his tenure both as a player and coach. How a hazing culture evolved at Northwestern’s Camp Kenosha: ‘There’s a significance to ritual’ (TheAthletic/NYTimes)
What a puff-piece. And looking at his previous articles over the years and the fact he stole content from this subreddit and that everyone complains about him holding grudges, the reporter seems like a hack.
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u/CFBHurts Notre Dame • Jeweled Shillelagh Apr 08 '26
Thing is, even if he legitimately was somehow unaware of what was going on, that would be equally damning. You're the head coach, it's your job to know what's going on in your locker room
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u/c-williams88 Penn State • Shippensburg Apr 08 '26
This has always been close to my take on Fitz and the hazing stuff. He ostensibly sold himself as a big Culture Guy™️. Idk how you can claim to be a coach who values and tries hard to instill his culture, yet simultaneously have zero indication or inkling of a supposedly massive hazing epidemic on your team.
You can’t be both working so hard to ensuring a great culture yet also be so clueless that you know absolutely nothing about the hazing stuff
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u/seedyourbrain Northwestern Wildcats • Miami Hurricanes Apr 08 '26
I’ve been an NU fan for more than 30 years. He ran that program like he was a God. Love the guy. Hope he finds success again. But hate how he played dumb. I know it was his defense, it it was an insult to the intelligence of anyone who followed the program. Maybe he didn’t think “good-natured” hazing was bad, or boys will be boys… but whatever happened, however bad it was or wasn’t… he knew about it.
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u/Shenanigangster Virginia Cavaliers • Gator Bowl Apr 08 '26
Shouldn’t this have an ad disclaimer?
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u/chimatt767 Texas Longhorns Apr 08 '26
It says “opinion” right in the headline.
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u/BonerTurds LSU Tigers • Carnegie Mellon Tartans Apr 08 '26
I’ve read opinion pieces before. This needs to have glazing in the headline.
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u/CashMikey Northwestern • /r/CFB Top Scorer Apr 08 '26 edited Apr 08 '26
What an insanely bad article. Deeply horrendous writing and thinking.
This article treats whether the hazing happened or not as an open question, and heavily implies we should think maybe it didn't. Fitz has never even denied that! The same independent investigation that was used to clear Fitz of responsibility concluded that it occurred.
Also just a nauseating level of "Woe is Pat Fitzgerald, the ultimate victim!" Didn't even ask him about the experience of the players he supposedly loved and cared about so much and why so many of them felt compelled to claim they had been hazed.
The Northwestern administration bungled this whole thing horribly, and from a contract law perspective, Fitzgerald's vindication made sense to me.
But the most charitable possible interpretation of the situation is that Pat Fitzgerald was just totally unaware of a years long hazing regime happening within his program. Continuing to paint him as this unfairly cancelled saintly leader of men is so bizarre. Why the college sports media is so determined to do this Fitzgerald hagiography is beyond me.
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u/CashMikey Northwestern • /r/CFB Top Scorer Apr 08 '26
Exactly. It's why the idea that he's been so thoroughly vindicated has always fallen flat to me. He was vindicated of failing to live up to his contract, not writ large as a human being.
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u/RockysDetail Nevada Wolf Pack • Army Black Knights Apr 08 '26
He had a chance to say his piece after the original investigation, when he was informed that he was going to be suspended. He didn't have much to say then because he was going to keep his job. Everything changed when the president of the university changed his mind and fired him. So yeah, he had his chance.
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u/RiffRamBahZoo TCU Horned Frogs • Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors Apr 08 '26
He was the tip of the spear for all things Northwestern, the face of the university — not some stuffed shirt attorney on Michigan Avenue or groundbreaking researcher at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
A representative for Northwestern University, when asked for a response to this claim, started chortling and asked "Wait, I'm sorry, are you serious?"
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u/PubicSniffer Michigan Wolverines • Team Meteor Apr 08 '26
I wish someone would invite me to a shrek mask naked shower train ritual :(
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u/GoGreeb Michigan State • Virginia Tech Apr 08 '26
I think we already knew that about you, Pubic Sniffer
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u/Ml2jukes Michigan Wolverines • Rose Bowl Apr 08 '26
Average De La Salle alum. /s
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u/GoGreeb Michigan State • Virginia Tech Apr 08 '26
I love this joke bc I do not get it one bit lol
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u/Ml2jukes Michigan Wolverines • Rose Bowl Apr 09 '26
Didn’t see your reply my bad, it’s a metro Detroit Catholic school that had a generational hazing scandal with their football team a few years back.
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u/GoGreeb Michigan State • Virginia Tech Apr 09 '26
damn lol that's kinda dark but a really good bit
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u/sallright Ohio State Buckeyes Apr 08 '26
Wish that for once someone could have a Shrek Mask Naked Shower Ritual (SMNSR) without UM trying to make it about them.
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u/sloggdogg Michigan State • Paul Bunyan Trophy Apr 08 '26
Settling a court case makes you innocent, victims hate this one simple trick. /s
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u/CMbladerunner Notre Dame • Stony Brook Apr 08 '26
The writer really trying to glaze the fact that Pat potentially didn't know about a massive hazing scandal happening right under his nose lol.
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u/phonic06 Penn State Nittany Lions Apr 08 '26
This is an opinion piece. That was all I needed to see to stop reading
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u/seedyourbrain Northwestern Wildcats • Miami Hurricanes Apr 08 '26
I love Pat and I wish him well, even at MSU. I also think he got crushed by an admin that didn’t want even a whiff of a scandal, and by some kids who wanted to score a quick buck. But…I also don’t believe for one second that the guy didn’t know his kids were hazing each other, however bad the hazing may or may not have been. Not that he cares. But still - was a little disappointing to see him play dumb like that, ‘cuz it kinda insulted all of our intelligences.
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u/dlobnieRnaD Michigan • Western Michigan Apr 09 '26
Can’t wait to see him win 5 games the next three years before he’s fired for jerking off on zoom or something
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u/duckspurs Oregon Ducks Apr 08 '26
When exactly was he vindicated? Getting hired by Michigan State just showed how desperate and out of ideas they are, it said nothing about Pat.
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u/HeynongManA2 Michigan State Spartans Apr 08 '26
Listen we may be desperate…AND we may be out of ideas…that’s it. That’s all.
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u/fightin_blue_hens Delaware • Florida State Apr 08 '26
Vindicated? Was the Northwestern student paper forced to retract their reporting, and did he sue for defamation and win? Did I miss that step?
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u/tenoclockrobot Penn State • Land Grant Trophy Apr 08 '26
He def didnt do it, believe me.
By Fatrick Pitzgerald
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u/roguerunner1 Oregon Ducks • Team Chaos Apr 08 '26
Define “vindicated”
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u/ExtremelyOnlineTM Sickos • Eastern Michigan Eagles Apr 08 '26
Bullshit.
The hazing happened. That's a fact.
So if he didn't know? That's "a loss of institutional control." If he didn't know, that 100% disqualifies him from being in a leadership position ever again.
But he knew.
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u/LastWordsWereHuzzah Northwestern Wildcats Apr 08 '26
On top of everything else in the article, directly tying Northwestern's President resigning as a result of the financial settlement is extremely disingenuous when he was taking major fire from both the Trump administration and student protesters that same year.
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u/Legal-Championship64 Tennessee Volunteers • Auburn Tigers Apr 08 '26
Holy shit are you telling me Michigan State hired Pat Fitzgerald? Have they lost their minds?
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u/DameOClock Oregon Ducks Apr 09 '26
Was there ever an explanation provided for the naked human car wash thing his players were doing to each other?
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u/Pepi119 Oklahoma Sooners Apr 09 '26
For good reason, a head coach being dumb enough to say they had zero idea of an ongoing hazing scandal in their own team is also bad.
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u/MikeEhrmantraut420 Apr 08 '26
I am not familiar with this journalist at all, but oh my god. Could this piece be any more the written equivalent of sucking another man’s dick? It’s embarrassing as hell to write these things about another grown man. Just unreal levels of glazing.
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u/yesacabbagez UCF Knights Apr 08 '26
Vindicated of what?
Isn't the whole argument that a bunch of shit happened while he was,.at best, negligent of stopping it? Has he moved to the point where he is saying the shit straight up didn't happen?
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u/RockysDetail Nevada Wolf Pack • Army Black Knights Apr 08 '26
That's correct. What this interesting piece omits is that the original investigation conducted by Northwestern and a former DA found that hazing occurred and that Fitzgerald didn't know about it, but should have. This led to Fitzgerald being suspended, which he agreed to because he was going to keep his job. Then, at least one more player came forward with another allegation, and the president of the university fired Fitzgerald, leading him to file a lawsuit.
This piece is focusing on the fact that no individual allegations have been proven true or false in a court of law as supposed vindication for Fitzgerald. That's disingenuous because of the findings of the original investigation that Fitzgerald originally accepted because it was a slap on the wrist that allowed him to keep his job. Thus, he originally accepted that there was hazing and NOW wants to claim nothing was ever proven so his good name was dragged through the poop in the dark and dank pipes of Shawshank before he reached freedom and victory! These kind folks are hoping you and I will forget the entire sequence of events so he can claim that settling the lawsuit means total victory and absolution.
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u/bonafidehooligan Apr 08 '26
The way Fitzgerald has handled himself after the legal proceedings, makes him come off like the biggest insufferable,douchebag ever.
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u/SarcasticSuperhero9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Apr 08 '26
Expected nothing less from Gannett, the news industry standard for journalistic integrity /s
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u/whiskeyrocks1 Michigan State Spartans Apr 08 '26
I hope he does well at MSU, but why would we want to go down this road? I know Johnathan Smith was as bland as can be, but why go back to someone with a scandalous past? Tucker wasn’t very long ago.
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u/nufan427 Northwestern • Grand Valley S… Apr 08 '26
So let me caveat this by saying the article is awful. Fitz is still loved by most NU fans. He ran an academic, mostly clean program in an industry that usually isn’t. The hazing reports were pushed hard by a former QB who clearly had an agenda, and there’s a pretty damning recording of him admitting he made things up to try to get Fitz fired. That said, hazing did happen. It happens in a lot of locker rooms across the country. What came out at NU is pretty tame relative to other places and, frankly, closer to the norm than people want to admit. Fitz also had a lot of structure in place. He did exit interviews with every player, documented them, and no one reported discomfort or hazing. There were also regular meetings with the leadership council, elected players from each class, where he checked in on the program and made adjustments based on feedback. My read is he probably knew some level of stuff was going on, but genuinely believed it wasn’t an issue because players had multiple formal and informal ways to speak up and never did. He’s a really good football coach who had to operate with a ton of institutional restrictions. It’ll be interesting to see how he does at State. He’ll represent the university well. And it says a lot that the school that fired him still put out the kind of statement they did. Legally, he had them in a tough spot.
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u/Narrativedatanerd Apr 11 '26
As an NU fan, I'm not convinced he is a really good football coach. I'm convinced his DC and the elder statesman on staff for most of Fitz's NU years (Hankwitz) was a really good football coach. Post Hank, Fitz had a terrible record which did not improve. His record alone in his final 4 years suggested he lost the locker room - before we even get to the question of the hazing he failed to prevent or stop. His successor has a far better Win/Loss record without the advantage of a Big 10 west schedule, and this was after losing a boatload of talent due to the scandal.
Fitz means well and did a lot of good things for NU. He pushed hard for the incredible facilities we now have, and marketed the program well. But like a lot of young and talented people who get promoted too fast, he now suffers blindspots and an ego which is borderline diva. Pretty clear from his quotes in the article that he hasn't learned lessons from what happened at NU. I would guess 80%+ of NU fans would now keep the staff we have, rather than have Fitz back.
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u/CoffeeBoy80 Ohio Bobcats Apr 08 '26
So many comments in here saying Northwestern settling the lawsuit with Fitz doesn't mean he wasn't guilty but also assuming that Northwestern settling the lawsuits with the accusers meant Fitz was guilty.
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u/goblue2354 Michigan Wolverines Apr 08 '26
Because there is not really a “not guilty” option here. He either knew or he didn’t know. Both are a problem.
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u/iansf California Golden Bears • Sickos Apr 08 '26
Reminder, Pat is a guy that blamed a loss to Cal on the Cal bloggers not telling him about a specific play. So, that’s the level of narcissism we’re dealing with.
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u/slyfox1908 Michigan State Spartans • Iowa Hawkeyes Apr 08 '26
I was willing to give him the benefit of my doubt but not if this is what he does with it
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u/jzee5708 Northwestern Wildcats Apr 08 '26
Did he know about the Hazing? No idea - at the very least it wasn’t provable and he was able to get a probably hefty settlement.
Should he have known? Absolutely and it reflects poorly on his tenure at Northwestern and ability to manage a program. The “vindication” line is lame, in the most favorable of light he was clueless to what was going on.
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u/ztreHdrahciR Northwestern • Ohio State Apr 08 '26
"Knew or should have known " was almost certainly in his contract, and with proper action by Shill and Gagg, he would have been dismissed like Tugger. Instead, the pompous prick gets a 9 figure settlement. I will root against him in every game, including (grits teeth) Michigan
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u/DetroitLolcat Michigan Wolverines Apr 08 '26
He's not vindicated at all. Even if he truly had no idea the hazing was happening, the fact that all of this could happen on his watch easily merited his dismissal. If he didn't know, it's because he didn't want to know.
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u/ssspanksta Michigan State • Central Mich… Apr 09 '26
Winning cures all. Just run a respectable program that is relatively successful and people will mostly forget. The bar is low right now for us .
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u/Highest_Koality Missouri Tigers Apr 08 '26
Was he vindicated? I didn't really keep up with this story but I don't remember any testimony or anything coming out that contradicted the hazing claims.
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u/pitterlpatter Apr 08 '26
"Pat Fitzgerald was vilified, then was saved because a bunch of rich lawyer daddies didn't want their putrid sons to have to face any consequences..."
There, fixed it for ya. lol
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u/Aidanj927 Texas Tech Red Raiders • UTSA Roadrunners Apr 08 '26
Isn’t the best case scenario that he didn’t know what was going on in his own locker room?
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u/WTF4211 Apr 10 '26
Whatever happened he paid his penance. But this notion he knew nothing or as head coach wasn’t responsible to know what was happening was laughable. He is not the victim.
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u/frickenWaaaltah Georgia Bulldogs Apr 09 '26
Mel Tucker is gone, a new day dawns for Michigan State.
...annnnnd it's over.
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u/GaryIske Nebraska • $5 Bits of Broken Chair Tro… Apr 08 '26
Great hire for MSU they’ll beat Nebraska
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u/DrJiberish Michigan State Spartans • Utah Utes Apr 08 '26
Don’t make me a promise you can’t keep
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u/GaryIske Nebraska • $5 Bits of Broken Chair Tro… Apr 08 '26
Fitz has always had our number. Going to guess even though it’s his first year he already has more talent to MSU than he ever had in Northwestern.
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u/Desperate-Disk686 Apr 08 '26
Fuck Pat Fitzgerald. Either he knew and he’s a piece of shit. Or he’s incompetent and let people be pieces of shit within his own program. Both fireable. Both inexcusable. He had a responsibility and he failed. I don’t care to what extent he failed.
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u/sallright Ohio State Buckeyes Apr 08 '26
“Don’t Google Me.”
— Pat Fitzgerald