Lovie Smith as your next Northwestern head football coach? Seriously? The idea might seem lazy, and even crazy, at first, but the more you think about it, the more it makes sense. We’re not the first media outlet to float this idea, and we certainly will not be the last either.
Northwestern football fans don’t want to hear this, but it’s reality- much more pain lies ahead. Picked to finish dead last in the Big Ten West this upcoming season by most publications, even before this scandal blew up, NU is destined for another down year in 2023.
Northwestern Football in Crisis Content
Mike Kafka Leading Coaching Candidate Pat Fitzgerald’s Forever Tainted Legacy NU Football Team Letter Was Inadvertently Damning
Discussing the End of Pat Fitzgerald on ESPN Radio Iowa (62 min mark)
Back to the Dark Ages
Last year the team finished 1-11, its worst season since the winless campaign of 1989. The previous season they were 3-9, with another 3-9 in 2019. Sandwiched in their was the weird covid quasi-season of 2020, where NU won the division and went 7-2. Honestly, the Dark Ages, and by that we mean the 1960s-1994 era of awfulness, were already getting here before this week.
Big Ten Football Order of Finish Predictions are starting to roll in…. pic.twitter.com/BOHtEkJhcj
— Double BB? (@BBsBigHouse1) July 10, 2023
I echo the sentiments of ESPN Radio Iowa City/Des Moines host Todd Brommelkamp completely: Northwestern’s firing Pat Fitzgerald, while the right thing to do, bombs them back into the stone age as a program. So it takes a certain type of personality to step into this job right now.
LovieBall
Not to make this whole scandal sound even more like the crisis at the end of the Tim Beckman era at Illinois (which makes sense because Beckman literally modeled himself, in an even more cartoonish way, after Pat Fitzgerald) but…Lovie Smith was brought in as the clean-up man for that wretched mess, so he already has experience with this kind of thing. And no, Lovie certainly underwhelmed during his time in Champaign, but he did run a clean program.
Smith’s teams were mostly pretty bad, and he wasn’t a good for fit for the college game, but he did at least bring an air of respectability. He did a good job as a bridge to something much better. Plus, the Chicago connection, which would work in his favor more here, at least in theory, then it did in Champaign.
Lovie is not done coaching, as evidenced by his taking the Houston Texans job last year. While it didn’t work out, he’s still the cream of the crop when it comes to coaches on the couch right now. And that is probably the direction NU needs to go, with the season starting up soon.
His brand of football is as Big Ten West-y as it gets, which makes it oh so strange that it didn’t take in Champaign. Maybe he can “get off the bus running” in Evanston. “Ryan Hilinski is our quarterback.” Maybe Lovie is finally ready to update his Tampa Cover 2 defense to the more modern era, make some adjustments, and thrive once again.
While there are plenty of reasons to not go with Lovie Smith, NU is short on options right now. First year defensive coordinator David Braun was named “liaison,” whatever that is supposed to mean, and if they can’t find anyone else, he’ll be the interim head coach for 2023. This is his first FBS job ever, so he won’t ultimately become the head man.
Ditto for offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian, who even Fitz himself basically admitted should have been sacked this offseason. And you won’t go with any of the more tenured guys on Fitz’s staff, because they have the stain of their boss hanging over them.
Other Candidates in the Mix
Iowa State’s Matt Campbell has also been linked, but we don’t see him leaving Ames for this. Eastern Michigan’s Chris Creighton has been at the EMU farm since 2014, so he’s definitely ready for a jump up. Other names to make the Northwestern coaching search listicles include Wake Forest’s Dave Clawson, Mike Elko at Duke and Willie Fritz at Tulane.
Something all these guys need to consider-
you’re literally replacing the biggest brand name in the history of the school’s athletic department. Not just football, but all of Northwestern sports.
It is also worth noting that this man, whose plaque is pictured below, is also currently available.
One Last Reference to Pat Fitzgerald
It will be interesting to see what the identity will become of this athletic department and this football program now that Fitz is gone. He literally was their identity. With that in mind, we look at this quote he gave when he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame back in 2008.
“To be representing Northwestern as a player as well as being head coach is an honor,” he said on a conference call in December of that year.
“The relationships with people and the opportunity to play football on teams that went 15-1 in the Big Ten Conference over two years was something special. We played some outstanding teams and couldn’t have done it without a concerted effort.
Unlike most of the men here, I lasted 3 games in the preseason in the NFL, but I’m grateful for what football has given me, brought to my life, the people, the relationships, the opportunities all goes back to the game of football.
Those are Fitzisms through and through. Although it has been three days since he was terminated, it all still seems so surreal. Hasn’t totally sunk in yet.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now. Follow the website on Twitter and Instagram.