EVANSTON-After building a program notorious for stability, Northwestern head coach Fitzgerald fired three coaches after last season's 1-11 season: defensive coordinator Jim O'Neil, wide receivers coach Dennis Springer and defensive line coach Marty Long.

Fitzgerald walked through his process during an informal lunch conversation with select media members at the Walter Athletics Center on Monday.

"You can't stand pat after a season like we had last year," he said. "That's completely unacceptable and it starts and ends with me, I'm the head of the program.

"We didn't have the success we expected to have, and changes needed to be made."

Shortly after the three dismissals, Northwestern lost two coaches to the NFL: running backs coach Lou Ayeni and cornerbacks coach Ryan Smith. So Fitzgerald wound up replacing five coaches, half of his 10-member staff.

Of the new staff members, three are already at the Walter Athletic Center and working: defensive coordinator David Braun from North Dakota State, wide receivers coach Armon Binns from Youngstown State and defensive line coach Christian Smith from South Dakota State. Two more are making their way to Evanston in the coming days: running backs coach Chris Foster from East Carolina and cornerbacks coach LaMarcus Hicks.

Fitzgerald described the method he used to bring in five different coaches from five different states and five different programs. Unlike many of Fitzgerald's other hires, none of the coaches played or coached at Northwestern previously -- even though the head man insisted that it wasn't intentional to go outside the NU coaching tree.

"I try to be as extensive as I can and really cast a wide net any time I have staff opening," he said. "It could be a positional coach, a [grad assistant] role, a quality control role, it could be operations, it could be video [coordinator], I want to cast a really wide net...

"I have a pretty robust search committee with me. Regardless of the job, whether it's specifically for assistant coaches or positionally, the coordinators are very involved so we had to get David on board first."

Once Braun was hired, he was then a key factor in the process for bringing Smith and Hicks to Evanston.

"He was heavily involved in hiring Christian and LaMarcus with me, so that was a fun couple weeks vetting through, you kind of start wide and you narrow it down."

While Fitzgerald fired O'Neil as the defensive coordinator, he decided to retain offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian despite three straight seasons of decreased offensive production and an attack that finished 128th out of 131 FBS teams in points per game in 2022

Fitzgerald said that there were two primary reasons Bajakian is returning: a track record fo success and development in his past, and his belief that learning new systems on both sides of the ball might be too much for one offseason.

"I have trust and confidence in Mike," Fitzgerald said. "He has the relationship-building skills with our quarterbacks and with our offense, we've had some success there.

"I felt like from an organizational stability standpoint, I felt like the decisions I made were tough and ones that I never want to make again. But I also felt we needed stability on one side of the ball, and I felt confident in that."

Incorporating Braun's scheme: Braun is coming in as Northwestern's third defensive coordinator in four seasons, so it will be another spring of heavy work for players on and off the field as they get up to speed in a new system.

Fitzgerald talked about that workload and how he and Braun are going about their install.

"I think the whole swing will be mentally taxing for the guys, but Dave and I have talked a lot about the challenge being more so on him [than the players]," said Fitzgerald, who is in his 17th year at Northwestern. "Try to keep as much of our language and things we know how to do consistent then his DNA takes over from there."

First time in the Power Five for all five new coaches: Three of the new coaches -- Braun, Smith and Binns -- come from the FCS level, and the other two are from the Group of Five. So this will be the Power Five debut for all, and the FBS debut for most.

But Fitzgerald says that the transition is going smoothly for the FCS trio already in the building.

"It's been great, I've really been impressed," Fitzgerald said. "That's why we cast a wide net. I wasn't looking to be a rebound. A lot of coaches are looking to rebound, to rebound through here.

"I was looking to be a place that is a destination for guys, and that they were excited to work with our players in our program. I couldn't be more psyched for the group. We're adding two more tomorrow (Foster and Hicks), but I'm really impressed with the three that were here for the start of spring."

Depth chart: Northwestern fans will be anxiously awaiting the results of the rock-paper-scissors match with associate athletic director for communications Paul Kennedy that Fitzgerald joked would determine whether or not the Wildcats will release a two-deep this season.

Even if the two-deep remains a mystery once again, Fitz made it clear that this year's depth chart is wide open.

"As far as depth charts and all that, I'll talk to you in August," he said. "That's across the board. You have a lack of winning success last year, a lot of jobs are open."

NIL: Fitzgerald has historically been gruff and reluctant about embracing NIL, RPOs and other acronyms of change in the college landscape. But today, he struck an appreciative tone about what the three letters sweeping the NCAA could do, and have done, for his team.

"We're thankful for the opportunity and for our guys to take advantage of the NCAA rules and, you know, that's a great thing," Fitzgerald said. "The way that I would prefer we do it is 100% within the guidelines and the rules, and have it be a win-win for the people that support our guys.

"I think it's pretty special the way that our guys get an opportunity to make some money off their name, image and likeness. I think it's very special... I'm jealous. It would have been cool in the 90s."

Early enrollees: Northwestern has five early enrollees going through spring practice that resumes on Tuesday at the Walter Athletics Center after a two-week break for finals and spring break: OL Jordan Knox, OL Dylan Senda, WR Frank Covey IV, TE Camp Magee and DB Damon Walters.

Fitzgerald said that the first members of the Class of 2023 have already managed to get his attention.

"I'm really impressed with Jordan Knox and Dylan Senda," he said. "I thought both guys, you could tell on Saturday in our third practice, things get a little bit more challenging, just because of mental install, but physically both guys are really impressive. We think we'll add instant depth to the [offensive line] room."

Fitzgerald extolled the virtues of Covey next.

"Frank Covey had a great start, also at wide receiver; he's a local product from Prospect [High School]," Fitz said. "He's explosive, he's exactly what we thought he would be, he's an explosive athlete."

Fitzgerald's humor returned when he talked about the talented, but skinny tight end Magee.

"Camp is athletic, he just has to eat some more pizza. He's up this week already to 215, 220 [pounds]. He's worked really hard this winter."

Fitzgerald rounded out the early enrollees by complimenting Bolingbrook (Ill.) product Walters.

"He's a really talented athlete, that jumped out right away in workouts when we [saw] him live in person...

"I'm really pleased with that group through three practices," he concluded. "It'll be fun to see in a few weeks where they're at. I'm really proud of the upperclassmen, [turned] older brothers kind of automatically, got them up to speed and ready to go."