The Northwestern Wildcats have wisely decided to extend the contracts of head basketball coach Chris Collins and head football coach Pat Fitzgerald.
Northwestern University is an academic powerhouse in Evanston, Illinois. The school also competes in the Big Ten as the Northwestern Wildcats. While Northwestern is better known for its sports journalism program, it does have two elite head coaches in its athletic department: men’s basketball coach Chris Collins and head football coach Pat Fitzgerald.
Though both head coaches could leave the Chicago area for bigger and better coaching opportunities, that no longer seems to be the case. Both Collins and Fitzgerald have received massive extensions to stay at Northwestern.
Since Northwestern is a private institution, it does not have to disclose its coaches’ new contracts. Northwestern is one of the few Power 5 schools that have this luxury to pay its coaches seemingly whatever it wants.
ESPN’s Jeff Goodman reported Collins’ extension, citing it “would likely take an elite college or NBA job for him to leave Evanston.” Unless Collins wants to replace Mike Krzyzewski at his alma mater or coach the Chicago Bulls like his father Doug Collins did, Collins isn’t going anywhere. He was the first men’s basketball coach to lead the Wildcats to the NCAA Tournament. They beat the SEC’s Vanderbilt Commodores in their first NCAA Tournament game.
ESPN’s Brett McMurphy reported that “Pat Fitzgerald has agreed to [a] contract extension, keeping him at Northwestern for at least the next 10 seasons.” As a player, Fitzgerald was the anchor of the Northwestern defense that got the Wildcats to the Rose Bowl in the 1995 season.
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Northwestern football has been in a place of routinely getting to bowls under Fitzgerald. The Wildcats will occasionally challenge for 10-win seasons and Big Ten West division titles. Fitzgerald is the ideal coach to elevate lackluster near-blue-blood programs like Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas A&M or UCLA. Keeping Fitzgerald will make Northwestern football at least viable for a very long time.