Pat Fitzgerald breaks silence on firing

In July 2023, Northwestern fired Pat Fitzgerald after an investigation into hazing allegations. Fitzgerald filed a wrongful termination suit, which was settled in August. He has now spoken out for the first time since being fired by the university.

“I feel 100 percent vindicated. You alluded to the statement earlier. I’ll let that speak for itself. … I feel very vindicated. Especially for our players and their families. The facts are the facts,” the former Northwestern coach told ESPN’s College GameDay podcast.

Fitzgerald has been working to return to coaching and is now seeking a return to college football. He was successful as the coach of Northwestern, going 110-101 from 2006 through the 2022 season. Further, Northwestern made ten bowl games and appeared in the Big Ten title game twice.

Since Fitzgerald was removed as coach, David Braun has led the Wildcats to a 17-16 record, with a win in the Las Vegas Bowl in 2023. The team is currently 5-3 this season. Now, the former Wildcats coach is entering back into the hiring process.

“I feel very fortunate,” Fitzgerald noted when asked about his foray into the college football hiring process in this cycle. “I feel fully vindicated. It’s been great working through this process. There’s been conversations with a lot of folks. It’s been face-to-face, it’s been on Zoom, it’s been phone calls. [My candidacy has] been received very well.”

Fitzgerald played linebacker at Northwestern from 1993-1996, and entered coaching as a graduate assistant at Maryland in 1998. He would then spend a year at Colorado and Idaho before returning to Northwestern in 2001 as a defensive backs coach. When Randy Walker passed away unexpectedly in June 2006, it was Fitzgerald who took the reins for the Northwestern program. While the last few years may have been difficult for the coach, he is ready to move forward.

“It’s not been an easy road. We let the facts speaks for themselves, and we’re ready to move forward and move on,” Fitzgerald concluded.

Currently, there are 12 different head coaching jobs open in FBS, including jobs such as Penn State and LSU.