Dan and Susan Jones Family Head Football Coach Pat Fitzgerald |
Over 17 seasons as head coach, Pat Fitzgerald built the Wildcats’ program into a consistent winner. He guided the Wildcats to two Big Ten West Division titles (2018, 2020) in three seasons, and four consecutive bowl victories since 2016. Northwestern is one of only six Big Ten programs to make multiple appearances in the league's championship game.
The 2020 campaign was one for the ages. In the conference-only season due to COVID-19, Fitzgerald led Northwestern to a 6-1 regular season record, Big Ten West Division title and the 2021 VRBO Citrus Bowl championship. He was named the 2020 Dodd Trophy Coach of the Year recipient in addition to winning the 2021 Stallings Award, given to a Division I coach for being an exceptional humanitarian and coach. The 2020 Wildcats finished the season ranked No. 10 in the AP’s final poll, the program’s best finish in the poll since the 1995 season. Northwestern went a perfect 4-0 at Ryan Field, swept West Division opponents for the second time in three seasons and finished league play with a .857 winning percentage – marking the fourth time since 2015 that the Wildcats have finished Big Ten play with a .750 winning percentage or better, second most among Big Ten programs.
Five players, including Brandon Joseph, Greg Newsome II, Paddy Fisher, Peter Skoronski and Blake Gallagher, received All-America recognition in 2020. Joseph headlined the group, becoming Northwestern’s first consensus All-American since 2000 and only the second defensive consensus All-American in program history, the other being Fitzgerald. A total of 14 players earned All-Big Ten recognition from either the league coaches or media, including Joseph, Fisher and Newsome II, who received first team honors. It was the first time in program history that three Northwestern defensive players earned first team honors. Joseph also was named the Big Ten Thompson-Randle El Freshman of the Year, while Fisher was tabbed as the Big Ten Butkus-Fitzgerald Linebacker of the Year. The Katy, Texas, native finished his collegiate career as the active career leader in total tackles with 404 and was named a finalist for the Lott IMPACT Trophy.
Fitzgerald led the Wildcats to 11 bowl appearances in his 18 seasons and guided the ’Cats to five of their six bowl wins in program history. Most recently, the Wildcats captured the 2021 VRBO Citrus Bowl with a 35-19 win over Auburn. The win was Northwestern’s largest margin of victory in a bowl game and largest over an SEC opponent in program history. It also extended Northwestern’s bowl win streak to four, which is the longest in program history and is tied for the longest active bowl win streak in the Big Ten.
Northwestern's redshirt senior class in 2020 went 4-0 in bowl games, two Big Ten West Division titles and claimed the Land of Lincoln Trophy five times.
In 2018, Chicago’s Big Ten Team mounted a dramatic come-from-behind victory over No. 17 Utah in the 2018 Holiday Bowl by scoring a bowl record 28 points in the third quarter to claim its third-straight bowl win for the first time in program history. Fitzgerald was named the 2018 Big Ten Coach of the Year after guiding Northwestern to its first Big Ten title game appearance.
The win over Kentucky in the 2017 Music City Bowl capped off an eight-game winning streak for the Wildcats, who finished the 2017 season with 10 wins for the fifth time in program history and third time over the last six seasons. Northwestern averaged nine victories over the 2016-18 seasons (27-12), setting a program record for wins during a three-year span. The previous high was 26 wins from 1903-05.
In 2016, the Wildcats defeated No. 23 Pittsburgh in the 2016 New Era Pinstripe Bowl in Yankee Stadium, 31-24. After a slow 1-3 start to the season, the Wildcats won six of their last nine games to finish the 2016 season with a winning record of 7-6 for the sixth time under Fitzgerald. The fifth-year seniors of the 2016 class became the first group in program history to earn a pair of bowl victories with their wins in the Pinstripe Bowl and TaxSlayer Bowl in 2013. Following the season, linebacker Anthony Walker Jr. was selected with the 161st pick overall in the fifth round by the Indianapolis Colts and defensive end Ifeadi Odenigbo was picked by the Minnesota Vikings in the seventh round. Two additional players were signed to undrafted free agent contracts, with Big Ten Receiver of the Year and Biletnikoff Award finalist Austin Carr signing with the New England Patriots and linebacker Joe Jones with the Dallas Cowboys.
The 2015 season saw the Wildcats earn a trip to their sixth bowl under his guidance with an appearance in the New Year's Day Outback Bowl in Tampa, Florida. Behind one of the nation's stingiest defenses and a ground and pound offense, the Wildcats opened the season with a 16-6 victory over No. 21-ranked and 2016 Rose Bowl Champion Stanford. The victory sparked a 5-0 start for the 'Cats and led to Chicago's Big Ten Team matching a program record with 10-wins, including five straight to close the regular season. NU finished the season ranked in the top 25 in both the Associated Press and USA Today/Coaches Poll.
Northwestern's senior class of 2016 became the first in program history to post a pair of 10-win seasons and a pair was selected in the 2016 NFL Draft as defensive end Dean Lowry was picked by the Green Bay Packers in the fourth round and superback Dan Vitale was taken in the sixth round by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Additionally, five members of the 2016 class signed undrafted free agent contracts.
From 2008-12, Fitzgerald guided the Wildcats to five consecutive bowl berths, including the 2012 campaign when NU capped a tremendous 10-win season with a landmark victory over Mississippi State in the TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl. The 2012 'Cats, who played in a New Year's Day bowl game for the third time in five years, earned a No. 17 year-end ranking in the USA Today/Coaches Poll, the best positioning for any Big Ten team.
Consequently, four consecutive senior classes to graduate from the Northwestern football program during that time-frame set or tied the school record for most career wins by a five-year senior class, with the 2012 group going out at the time as the winningest NU senior class in history with 40 victories to its credit. Likewise, Fitzgerald's Gator Bowl victory on Jan. 1, 2013, marked the 50th of his career, officially making him the winningest head coach in Northwestern Football history.
Away from the gridiron, Fitzgerald's players have achieved at the highest levels in the classroom, last fall placing a program-record 69 players on the Academic All-Big Ten team in the fall of 2020. In 2019, Northwestern football became the first Power-5 team ever to post a perfect Graduation Success Rate score. Northwestern has earned an FBS-best 10 AFCA Academic Achievement Awards since 1998. Additionally, Fitzgerald's program has ranked in the Top-3 among all FBS programs in the multi-year Academic Progress Rating (APR) for 10 consecutive years and has posted a score of 995-or-better in the measure of player retention and eligibility four straight years. The Wildcats were the lone Big Ten football program to earn an APR Public Recognition Award from the NCAA in 2020, which is given to programs that rank in the Top-10% of their sport.
NU also goes to great lengths to make a difference in the community. Fitzgerald, his family and his players partake in countless charitable events, impacting the NU and Evanston communities through their participation in Northwestern Dance Marathon, Special Olympics, Misericordia, the NU chapter of Uplifting Athletes, weekly school and children's hospital visits, and dozens of other organizations. Most recently, Fitzgerald was named the honorary coach of the 2017 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team.
As a player in 1995, Fitzgerald was the leader of a suffocating Wildcats defensive unit that led the nation in scoring defense and anchored NU's storybook run to the Big Ten championship and Rose Bowl. He capped the year by winning both the Nagurski and Bednarik Awards as the nation's top defensive player and also was the Big Ten, Chevrolet and Sports Illustrated-Defensive Player of the Year. Fitzgerald accomplished all of this despite suffering a broken leg in the penultimate regular-season game.
Fitzgerald recovered from that injury and in 1996 he again led the Wildcats to a share of the Big Ten title. He repeated as recipient of the Nagurski and Bednarik Awards, becoming the first two-time winner of both honors and laying the groundwork for his selection in 2008 to the College Football Hall of Fame. A two-time first-team All-American, Fitzgerald started 23 career games and totaled 299 tackles, including 20 for loss. He also forced five fumbles and intercepted three passes.
Prior to his return to Northwestern, Fitzgerald was a defensive graduate assistant at Maryland (1998) and Colorado (1999) before taking his first full-time position at Idaho in 2000.
In 2001, esteemed NU head coach Randy Walker brought Fitzgerald back to Evanston, hiring him to coach the defensive secondary and eventually tabbing him the 'Cats' recruiting coordinator. Named one of college football's top recruiters by SI.com in 2005, Fitzgerald mentored two-time All-Big Ten linebacker and former St. Louis Ram Tim McGarigle, the all-time leading tackler in NCAA history.
Fitzgerald remained an assistant coach before being named Northwestern's 29th head coach on July 7, 2006 under the most difficult of circumstances, succeeding Walker after his sudden passing on June 29, 2006. Fitzgerald remained the youngest head football coach among Football Bowl Subdivision schools until Lane Kiffin was hired by Tennessee on Dec. 1, 2008.
The program steadily gained momentum in the years since Fitzgerald took over as head coach, starting with a challenging 4-8 campaign in 2006, when just weeks before the season began, Walker's death rocked the NU football program. In 2007, the Wildcats achieved bowl-eligibility with a 6-6 mark but did not play in a postseason game due to a lack of bowl slots for Big Ten teams. The 2007 Wildcats boasted a prolific offense that has become synonymous with NU teams of late, leading the Big Ten in regular-season total offense.
In 2008, a dramatically improved defense and strong special teams play led the 'Cats to a nine-win season and a berth in the Valero Alamo Bowl against Missouri, their first postseason appearance since taking on UCLA in the 2005 Sun Bowl. Northwestern touted the nation's fifth-most improved scoring defense and the Wildcats set a single-season school mark for rushing defense (126.4 ypg), breaking the mark that Fitzgerald and his teammates established in 1995. NU's 5-0 season start in 2008 was its best since the 1962 campaign, when the Wildcats were 6-0 and ranked No. 1 in the nation. For his efforts, Fitzgerald was named the 2008 Big Ten Coach of the Year by the Touchdown Club of Columbus, a semifinalist for the George Munger Coach of the Year Award and a finalist for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award
In 2009, the Wildcats returned to a New Year's Day Bowl game, their first since Fitzgerald was a student-athlete playing Tennessee in the 1997 Citrus Bowl. Fitzgerald's 2009 club was, perhaps, one of the most resilient teams in recent memory, overcoming a number of injuries (especially on defense) and some difficult defeats, only to finish with a "November to remember." The Wildcats opened the month by knocking off unbeaten Iowa, which at the time was ranked No. 4 in the BCS. NU then went to Illinois and defeated its instate rival before returning home to edge No. 16 (BCS) Wisconsin in the regular-season finale.
The strong finish made the Wildcats a "wanted" bowl team and they landed a berth in the Outback Bowl on Jan. 1. In that game, Northwestern played with the "heart of a Wildcat," overcoming a number of double-digit deficits only to fall 38-35 in overtime to Auburn. That game was widely recognized as the best bowl game of 2009-10, and one of the all-time most exciting postseason games.
In 2010, Northwestern raced to another 5-0 start before beating nationally ranked Iowa on Nov. 13 to move to 7-3 and climb back into the top-25. A season-ending injury to first-team All-Big Ten quarterback Dan Persa, however, slowed the 'Cats' ascent in the national rankings and NU closed the season with a 7-6 mark. Still, NU's third straight winning season under Fitzgerald was capped with yet another New Year's Day bowl berth, a bid to the inaugural TicketCity Bowl at the famed Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
Another strong finish to the schedule (four wins in their final five games) rendered the 2011 Wildcats bowl-eligible for a fifth straight year. The stretch was highlighted by a 28-25 upset of No. 9 Nebraska in Lincoln, which helped position NU for an eventual berth in the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas at Reliant Stadium, home of the NFL's Houston Texans.
A graduate of Orland Park's (Ill.) Carl Sandburg High School and a 2002 inductee to the Northwestern Athletics Hall of Fame, Fitzgerald resides in Northfield with his wife, Stacy, and three sons, Jack, born in November 2004, Ryan, born in September 2006, and Brendan, born in February 2009.
| Fitzgerald Head Coaching Record Year-by-Year | ||||
| Year | School | Record | Big Ten | Postseason |
| 2006 | Northwestern | 4-8 | 2-6 | |
| 2007 | Northwestern | 6-6 | 3-5 | |
| 2008 | Northwestern | 9-4 | 5-3 | Alamo Bowl |
| 2009 | Northwestern | 8-5 | 5-3 | Outback Bowl |
| 2010 | Northwestern | 7-6 | 3-5 | TicketCity Bowl |
| 2011 | Northwestern | 6-7 | 3-5 | Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas |
| 2012 | Northwestern | 10-3 | 5-3 | Gator Bowl Champions |
| 2013 | Northwestern | 5-7 | 1-7 | |
| 2014 | Northwestern | 5-7 | 3-5 | |
| 2015 | Northwestern | 10-3 | 6-2 | Outback Bowl |
| 2016 | Northwestern | 7-6 | 5-4 | Pinstripe Bowl Champions |
| 2017 | Northwestern | 10-3 | 7-2 | Music City Bowl Champions |
| 2018 | Northwestern | 9-5 | 8-1 | Big Ten West Champions / Holiday Bowl Champions |
| 2019 | Northwestern | 3-9 | 1-8 | |
| 2020 | Northwestern | 7-2 | 6-1 | Big Ten West Champions / Citrus Bowl Champions |
| 2021 | Northwestern | 3-9 | 1-8 | |
| 2022 | Northwestern | 1-11 | 1-8 | |
| TOTALS | 17 Seasons | 110-101 | 65-76 | |
| Fitzgerald's Coaching Experience | ||
| Year | School | Position |
| 2006-22 | Northwestern | Head Coach |
| 2004-05 | Northwestern | Linebackers/Recruiting Coordinator |
| 2002-03 | Northwestern | Linebackers |
| 2001 | Northwestern | Defensive Backs |
| 2000 | Idaho | Linebackers/Special Teams |
| 1999 | Colorado | Defensive Graduate Assistant |
| 1998 | Maryland | Defensive Graduate Assistant |