EVANSTON-The response to Northwestern’s offensive line coach job opening was overwhelming.

The Wildcats were contacted by “somewhere between 125 and 150 coaches within 48 hours” of Adam Cushing announcing that he would leave Northwestern to become the next head coach at Eastern Illinois, according to head coach Pat Fitzgerald.

“It’s amazing how many people want to talk to you when you’ve got a job opening,” said Fitzgerald with a wry smile on national signing day last Wednesday.

That’s a lot of resumes to sift through. Fitzgerald and offensive coordinator Mick McCall narrowed down the list to about 50 pretty quickly and are now working to get that number down to “about 20” for the interview process.

That may seem like a long number for a short list, but Fitzgerald is looking for more than just the next offensive line coach during this process. He knows that he doesn’t conduct coaching searches too often in Evanston, so he’s going to take advantage of the situation and talk to as many people as he can.

We explain why in this WildcatReport premium story.

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Despite being a head coach for 13 years, Fitzgerald is still a relative newcomer when it comes to coaching searches. Until last season, when he had some turnover, his coaching staff was completely intact for seven years, an unheard of duration for the transient college football coaching industry.