Best in 25 Years Series: Fitz is Northwestern's top coach

It's been 25 years since Northwestern's magical run to the Rose Bowl in 1995. WildcatReport is celebrating that Silver Anniversary by finding out who's been the best player at each position since that legendary team revitalized Wildcat football.

BEST IN 25 YEARS SERIES:

OFFENSE: QB Dan Persa l RB Justin Jackson l WR D'Wayne Bates l TE Drake Dunsmore l T Zach Strief l G Ryan Padgett l C Rob Johnson

DEFENSE: DE Corey Wootton l DT Matt Rice l MLB Pat Fitzgerald l OLB Napoleon Harris l CB Sherrick McManis l S Ibraheim Campbell

SPECIAL TEAMS: PR Venric Mark l KR Solomon Vault l K Jeff Budzien l P Paul Burton

We figured Pat Fitzgerald would win the title of best Northwestern coach over the last 25 years. But we thought that the race between him and Gary Barnett would be close. After all, Barnett was Fitzgerald's own coach and took the Purple to Pasadena in 1995 after one of the greatest turnaround jobs in college football history.

We were wrong. It really wasn't that close.

Fitzgerald captured just under 60% of the votes to win going away. Barnett finished well behind Fitz at 36.6%, while Randy Walker was a distant third with just 3.8%.

We're sure that recency bias played a role in the result, as did the controversial end of Barnett's tenure in Evanston. But those things just explain the margin of victory. There's really no quibbling with the choice.

Fitzgerald is Northwestern football. He arrived in Evanston as a freshman linebacker recruit in 1993. He played until 1996 and graduated in 1997. He returned as a linebackers coach in 2001 and got the head job in 2006.

So in the 25-year span of this series, Fitzgerald has been a player, assistant or head coach at NU for 21 one of them.

There are quite a few coaches over the years who, like Fitzgerald, are considered synonymous with their schools -- guys like Penn State's Joe Paterno, Ohio State's Woody Hayes and Florida State's Bobby Bowden. The difference with Fitz is that he also played for Northwestern and was one of the greatest to ever wear Purple.

Similarly, while there are quite a few coaches today who are coaching where they played -- in the Big Ten alone, there is Jim Harbaugh at Michigan, Scott Frost at Nebraska and Paul Chryst at Wisconsin -- Fitzgerald is the only one of those who is the school's all-time wins leader as a coach.

The only current coach who can come close to matching Fitzgerald's feats as a player and coach is Mike Gundy of Oklahoma State. He's the Cowboys' all-time coaching wins leader and left as their all-time leading passer (he ranks fourth now). But Gundy isn't a College Hall of Famer or a two-time All-American player like Fitzgerald.

BALLOT: Who was the best Northwestern coach over the last 25 years?

Fitzgerald's name is written all over the Northwestern coaching record book:

- He not only has more wins than anyone in school history, his 106 victories is more than double the man in second: Pappy Waldorf, who had 49 from 1935-46.

- He has coached three of the five teams in NU history that won 10 games in a season, in 2012, 2015 and 2017. He also played for another, in 1995.

- He owns five of the six bowl wins in school history, four more than any other Wildcat coach. He lost his first four bowl games but has won five of six since, including the last four in a row.

- His winning percentage of .567 is second only to Dick Hanley's .576 among Wildcat coaches over the last 100 years.

- He won the 2018 Big Ten and 2020 Bobby Dodd coach of the year awards.

- He posted a winning record in 11 of 15 seasons at Northwestern.

About the only thing that Fitzgerald hasn't won at Northwestern is the Big Ten championship. At the Walter Athletic Center -- the House that Fitz Built -- there are three program goals etched in glass in the trophy case: win the Big Ten West, win the Big Ten, and win the bowl game.

Fitzgerald has won the West twice in the last three years and he has won five bowls in all, including the VRBO Citrus Bowl just a few weeks ago. But he has yet to win that conference crown -- a title that both of his predecessors managed to capture.

The best thing about Fitzgerald: he is still just 45 years old and has a long way to go. He spurned interest from several NFL franchises again after this season, and over the years he turned down interviews from the likes of Michigan and Notre Dame. He doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

As he famously told FoxSports' Joel Klatt after winning the 2018 Holiday Bowl: "Hashtag Go Cats, man. I’m not going anywhere. This is home forever.”

Northwestern Athletics video celebrating Fitzgerald's 100th career win.