2023 College Football Discussion

[crkone]

Just found out about all of this today. And holy ****.

Interview with a second former player who came forward today:
https://abc7chicago.com/northwestern-football-hazing-pat-fitzgerald-news-fired-university/13484596/

There have also been allegation of "bullying and abusive" behavior by the head coach of the Northwestern baseball team.

Sheesh

[ReasonablySober]

Just found out about all of this today. And holy ****.

Interview with a second former player who came forward today:
https://abc7chicago.com/northwestern-football-hazing-pat-fitzgerald-news-fired-university/13484596/

There have also been allegation of "bullying and abusive" behavior by the head coach of the Northwestern baseball team.

Sheesh

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[Mags FTW]

FIBS

[humanrefutation]

Northwestern paid outside firm for a months-long investigation that led to a two week suspension.

One day later, the first interview with a victim comes out. The next day, another interview.

48 hours later, they fire Fitzgerald.

My one big question: what the **** was the investigation for? Either the investigation did not involve interviewing any victims - which would be insane - or those victims were contacted, they already had that information, and they either didn't take the allegations seriously or hoped that they could sweep it under a rug.

[midranger]

they either didn't take the allegations seriously or hoped that they could sweep it under a rug.

Yes.

[MikeIsGood]

https://theathletic.com/4681512/2023/07/11/pat-fitzgerald-fired-northwestern-football/

I know it sounds sacrilegious, but I really believe boosters should redirect their donations to what’s actually important at Northwestern: journalism. If they have student loans, someone should pay them off. Buy the students good computers, better chairs, maybe some food for the office fridge. Or heck, put some money into their coffers so they can make decent salaries. College journalists don’t need the NIL shortcut. They can just take money for their services like normal people.

It’s crazy, for sure. But I don’t think the boosters would lose too much entertainment value. Watching a student writer work might’ve been more enjoyable than catching the 1-11 Wildcats last season. Certainly, there would be more ROI.

And considering that Northwestern is coming off of a 1-11 season in which its only victory was against Nebraska in Ireland, and that the 2022 season was the third in four years in which the team went 1-8 in the Big Ten, perhaps it was time for him to go. He can be an analyst at Alabama or a position coach in the NFL. Fitzgerald’s coaching decisions have been questioned for years, from strategy to staffing. The recent results weren’t a fluke, and maybe the culture and the losing were intertwined. On the field, Northwestern football is in for a world of trouble this season. But that’s not important right now.

It’s time, with a new president and new athletic director, for the university to reassess what football means in Evanston. They can keep pouring money into it, but what does that really accomplish? While it’s not going to go the way of the University of Chicago, which left the Big Ten and major college football in 1939, perhaps it’s time to stop lavishing the program with riches with the hopes it can keep up with Michigan and Ohio State. College football is changing with the transfer portal and NIL rules. Where is Northwestern’s place in it?

But imagine the good $800 million could do instead of paying for another football shrine. Heck, imagine what $5.372 million per year could do.

Good stuff here.

[BUCKnation]

That hazing seems lame af, like just dumb

[Mags FTW]

That hazing seems lame af, like just dumb

I never understood the hazing where you're just humiliating people. Having rookies buy doughnuts, carry your bags, etc. you at least get something out of it.

[crkone]

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Short stay before he joins the Pack next year.

[neiLz]

Harbaugh facing a 4 game ban for recruiting issues. what a shame.

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

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Short stay before he joins the Pack next year.

Seems like a weird role. Does it have to do with a buyout?

[Kerb Hohl]

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Short stay before he joins the Pack next year.

Seems like a weird role. Does it have to do with a buyout?

Might have to do with that and simply that if he had his way, he wouldn't leave Madison/Wisconsin due to his family from all of the articles/rumblings that would come out over the years. The major factor, though, is timing - in that a lot of the dominos nationally had already fallen by the time they chose Fickell.

So I think what he's doing here is:

1. Sitting at home and crunching film for Bielema for a year. Maybe drive down for the weekend to Champaign.
2. See if there is a DC/HC job that suits him next year.
3. Yeah, maybe he gets to keep some buyout $ for being "fired" by not taking a bigger job.

[ReasonablySober]

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[Matches Malone]

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[neiLz]

Dude is a weirdo:

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?s=20
https://frontofficesports.com/former-gophers-players-staff-reveal-troubling-allegations-of-toxic-culture-under-p-j-fleck/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=article-sharing

"Two other players who were holdovers from the prior regime told FOS that indoctrination started right after Fleck was hired as head coach in January 2017.

Dan Nichol, Minnesota’s head football strength and conditioning coach who followed Fleck over from Western Michigan and interned at Iowa under disgraced strength coach Chris Doyle, gathered the team together after Fleck was hired, one of the former players said. The instruction was simple: Clap whenever Fleck entered the locker room.

“We had to [practice giving Fleck ovations] multiple times — the first time, because some other people in the back were not moving as quick as he wanted,” a third player told FOS.

Two other former players said that Fleck would reenter a room if he didn’t like the ovation he received. "

[ReasonablySober]

Total weirdo.

[Ron Swanson]

Crafting the kind of cult of personality usually reserved for powerful dictators as the coach of a mid-tier Division 1 college program has to be one of the more pathetic things I've ever seen.

What a **** loser.

[trwi7]

I didn’t need this article to know Fleck is a weirdo cult leader who gets off on forced ovations and outdated forms of boat transport but it’s nice to know Minnesota fans have to find out this way.

[ReasonablySober]

**DISCLAIMER**

Hazing is bad. Abuse is bad.

**/DISCLAIMER**

Beyond the cult **** not a lot in this report really raised much of an eyebrow. This mostly just read like college athletics. Covering up positive PED tests...like, whatever. I watched The Program thirty years ago. Hell, running suicides or doing bear-crawls for **** up outside the classroom is high school stuff. I read a report last night about some allegations of abuse within a female program and they talked suicides as a punishment where someone was injured trying to touch lines. It registered so low on my mental scale I can't even remember the sport or school.

I'm not saying it's right. I'm saying that this stuff seems pretty normal.

[MVP2110]

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