For the first time since 2006, someone other than Pat Fitzgerald will lead the Northwestern football team. That’s because, according to Pete Thamel of ESPN and Matt Fortuna of The Athletic, the university has made the decision to fire its longtime coach and former All-American player as more and more details have come out in the aftermath of an inquiry into allegations of hazing in the program.
Sources: Northwestern has fired coach Pat Fitzgerald.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) July 10, 2023
Sources: Northwestern has parted ways with Pat Fitzgerald.
— Matt Fortuna (@Matt_Fortuna) July 10, 2023
On Friday, Northwestern announced that Fitzgerald would receive a two-weeks suspension after its months-long investigation into allegations made by a whistleblower concluded. The decision — which also included additional measures put in place following the allegations — came under scrutiny, as it meant Fitzgerald would not be with the program for two weeks during the offseason and the recruiting dead period.
But things changed considerably on Saturday, when Northwestern’s student newspaper, The Daily Northwestern, wrote a lengthy piece that dove into the extent of the allegations, which were told to them by a former player and confirmed by another former player. You can read the entire report, which players on the football team addressed in a statement that claimed the allegations were “exaggerated and twisted,” right here.
In the aftermath, university president Michael Schill released a statement saying he would reconsider Fitzgerald’s punishment, saying that “in determining an appropriate penalty for the head coach, I focused too much on what the report concluded he didn’t know and not enough on what he should have known.” The news of Fitzgerald’s ouster comes on the same day that The Daily Northwestern published a second set of allegations against the way Fitzgerald ran his program, this time regarding a “culture of enabling racism.”
After a decorated playing career as a linebacker in Evanston that led to him being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, Fitzgerald joined the coaching staff at his alma mater as a defensive backs coach. After five seasons as an assistant, he was elevated to the program’s head coaching position, where he has accrued a 110-101 record.