Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald is always relentlessly positive, but his upbeat demeanor during his Monday press conference should have prompted a drug test.
Despite losing a third straight game, and his ninth in 10 games dating to last season, Fitzgerald was as jovial and motivated as he has been all season. He was playful, bubbly and entertaining. He poked fun at the media (well, at me, anyway).
You’d never guess that this was a coach leading a reeling, 1-3 team looking for answers in all three phases into Happy Valley on Saturday to take on 4-0 and No. 11 Penn State, the best team, by far, they’ve faced all season.
Does he genuinely think that the Wildcats, who rank 121st in the nation with a minus-5 turnover margin, can still turn their season around?
“We got two-thirds of our season left. No doubt,” he said. “I have full belief in these guys. Absolutely, I expect us to compete for championships."
Fitzgerald should market whatever he had for breakfast. We could all use some.
To Fitzgerald, the Wildcats are close to a breakthrough. Those three straight losses to underdog opponents were all just a matter of turnovers, self-inflicted wounds and a few plays here and there. They are minus-7 in turnovers in those three losses.
In Saturday night’s loss to Miami – that’s Miami of Ohio, not Florida, by the way – the Wildcats turned the ball over in the fourth quarter with a fumble, and then allowed an explosive 66-yard run that led to a touchdown because of four errors on the play. They also had a punt blocked at the end of the first half that led to another TD.
Make those plays, and the Wildcats would’ve won. You can make the same argument for losses to Southern Illinois and Duke, too.
Level of competition aside, Fitzgerald may be right about his team being close. The difference between a win and a loss for the Wildcats, even during their best years, is always razor-thin.
And Fitzgerald has historically been as successful as any coach in the country at winning one-score games. Northwestern’s season-opening victory over Nebraska was the 49th one-score win of Fitzgerald’s 17-year career. That’s tied with LSU for the most among Power Five schools in that span.
Lately, however, the tables seem to have turned. The Wildcats have now lost three straight one-score games, and their MO has been used against them. They’re the team making the big mistakes that lead to a loss.
Fitzgerald still loves this team, he said. He loves their attitude, and he loves the way they are working in practice. He says the locker room is still confident and positive.
Victory, to Fitzgerald, is right around the corner. And those three bitter one-score losses should just add fuel to the fire.
"For me personally, it's incredibly motivating,” he said. “For the team, you gotta use the frustration as motivation."
There’s certainly a lot of frustration among a Northwestern fan base grasping at straws to explain the swift and sudden fall from 2020, when the Wildcats won the Big Ten West and finished 10th in the final AP poll. Since then, they have lost 12 of 16 games.
Fitzgerald spoke directly to the fans on Monday. He knows that they are distraught and he apologized for creating a hostile message board environment on WildcatReport. But he asked Purple Nation to stay on the bandwagon.
"There's a reason we're all Northwestern fans,” he said. “You just gotta stay the course. We got a lot of work to do, and we need our fans to do it with us.”
Fitzgerald’s bravado may have been an attempt to pump up the confidence of his team before they go into the pressure cooker of Beaver Stadium as a 26.5-point underdog. If our coach thinks we are that close, they might think, maybe we are. Alabama head coach Nick Saban speaks directly to his team through the media all the time.
But Fitzgerald sounded like a true believer on Monday, not a guy putting on a show.
“We're still 1-0 in the Big Ten,” said Fitzgerald. “Can't take that away from us right now.”
To fans looking for hope, Fitzgerald’s words may be reassuring. For others, they may sound frighteningly out of touch.
We'll find out, one way or another by the time the sun sets in State College, Pa., on Saturday evening. Fitzgerald’s words will either sound prescient, or foolish.
