** 2018 Opponent Previews: Northwestern (Game 7) **

junior4949 said:
A Pat Fitzgerald coached team typically falls on their face the season after winning 10 games. 
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I completely disagree with that statement. For that statement to be true, it assumes a drop in performance from the 10 win season to the next. 

The last time Northwestern won 10 games, in 2015, they averaged less than 20 points per game and had a 0.0 yards per play differential. The time before that was a 0.1 yards per play differential. Neither of these years were 10 win teams, by performance. Their 2015 team was +3 games above expectation by pythagorean win expectation, so their 7 win season the year following was really just more indicative of how many they should have been expected to win.

 
In 2012, Northwestern won 10 games.  In 2013, Northwestern went 5-7 and went 1-7 in the B1G.  I have never understood why so many people think Pat Fitzgerald is even a good coach.  He has a losing record when playing B1G teams.  He's really never even come close to winning a conference title.  I'm sure Northwestern isn't the easiest place to win, but Gary Barnett did it.  He actually won the B1G while at Northwestern.  The guy before Fitzgerald even tied for a conference title.  In his tenure at Northwestern, Fitzgerald is averaging winning just under 7 games a season.  At times, he wins a couple more than his average.  At others, he wins a couple less than his average.  He's been there long enough to see a trend.  When he has one of those decent seasons, he always follows it up by gravitating back to has average 7 win seasons. 

 
On Tuesday, during his weekly press conference, the Northwestern head coach was asked about how he feels about RPO’s (run-pass options) and whether he believes it’s benefitting the game. He didn’t hold back in his response, saying “RPO’s are the purest form of communism.”

“RPO is the purest form of communism,” Fitzgerald said. “I don’t understand how offensive linemen can be downfield.”

“If you’re an uncovered lineman and you go 2.3 yards downfield it’s not a penalty but if you go three it is. Nobody can see it until after the ball is thrown. It’s the rules…it’s the most in vogue change, I think, in football. If you’re a purest of football, it’s not the game. It’s not.
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I watched this press conference today over lunch.  Pat Fitzgerald is a defensive guy, he won the Butkus award as the nations best linebacker, of coarse he hates anything that gives the offense an advantage.  He is also a very good listen.  I don't know if he is trying to be funny, but he says a lot of humerus stuff during his PC's.  

 
I don't have any idea what this has to do with communism, but I agree with the lineman point. There are two rules regarding linemen that get abused to no end and that is lining up in the backfield and linemen being too far downfield. Neither is hard to call, they just consistently don't. 

 
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