Just two days after placing Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald on a two-week suspension, Northwestern University has officially parted ways with its longtime head coach.
Fitzgerald was placed on a two-week suspension following an internal investigation into alleged hazing within the football program. After Fitzgerald was placed on suspension, a student newspaper report by The Daily Northwestern provided more details to the story with accusations by an anonymous former player suggesting some of the hazing activities were sexual in nature, and Fitzgerald allegedly knew about the incidents.
Head Football Coach Pat Fitzgerald has been relieved of his duties effective immediately, President Michael Schill announced today.
Read President Schill’s message to the Northwestern community: https://t.co/p9EyszUS7u pic.twitter.com/3jI6gC5is8
— Northwestern (@NorthwesternU) July 10, 2023
Fitzgerald was a two-time Bronko Nagurski Award and Chuck Bednarik Award winner as a Northwestern all-American. Fitzgerald was later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008. He was hired to be Northwestern’s head coach in 2006 after serving on the coaching staff for the previous four years as a defensive assistant coach. Fitzgerald was 110-101 as a head coach at Northwestern, with some of the top seasons in program history coming under his head coaching.
Penn State is scheduled to face Northwestern on September 30, 2023 in Evanston, IL. The Wildcats are coming off a 1-11 season, and now could be in even worse shape to start the year with an interim head coach as the entire program looks to move past these ugly offseason headlines.
Penn State won last season’s meeting with the Wildcats, 17-7.
[lawrence-auto-related count=5 category=10]