Pat Fitzgerald preparing to face his biggest rival on Saturday
IOWA CITY, Iowa – The power and influence of Pat Fitzgerald will be tested severely on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.
His Northwestern football team desperately needs a victory, but standing in the way of that is Fitzgerald’s biggest rival.
There is no actual proof that Iowa is Fitzgerald’s biggest rival, which is a nicer way of saying most-hated rival, but all signs point to that.
Fitzgerald never would say it publicly, but others have, including some of his players over the years.
Adonis Smith, a former Northwestern running back, grabbed the spotlight in 2010 when as a freshman he told the Northwestern News Network what many others were thinking at the time.
“He hates them. I know that for a fact,” Smith said of Fitzgerald’s feelings for Iowa. “He hates Iowa.”
Smith only played two seasons at Northwestern before transferring out of the program. He might have said too much publicly about his head coach, but was only sharing what he had learned as a new member of the Northwestern program.
Fitzgerald has disliked Iowa since he was a star linebacker for Northwestern in the mid-1990s.
He still supposedly holds a grudge against Iowa dating back to the 1995 season when Fitzgerald injured his knee against the Hawkeyes and then missed playing in the 1996 Rose Bowl because of the injury.
His anti-Iowa persona shines like a badge when Fitzgerald has the upper-hand as a head coach, which used to be often. Northwestern won four of the first five games against Iowa with Fitzgerald as its head coach.
He was like kryptonite to Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, similar to how Dan McCarney used to be to Ferentz as the Iowa State head coach.
There were times when it almost seemed like Iowa found ways to lose to Northwestern, but that no longer is the case.
Fitzgerald’s spell on the Hawkeyes has been lifted.
Iowa has won four of the last five games against Northwestern, including the last two games by a combined score of 88-17.
The Wildcats limp into Saturday’s game with a 1-3 record, their only victory coming against Duke by the score of 24-13 on Sept. 17 in Evanston, Ill.
Fitzgerald probably has as much job security as anybody in college football, and deservedly so, considering everything he has done for Northwestern as a player and coach.
But there are some cracks showing up in the foundation, mostly in the form of too many losses. Northwestern is at risk of having a losing season for the third time in four years.
That would have made Fitzgerald a coaching legend in the 1970s and 1980s when defeating Northwestern was mostly a foregone conclusion.
But times changed a long time ago, thanks largely to Fitzgerald.
He is now trying to live up to the standard that he helped to establish at Northwestern, but it’s getting more difficult to sustain success.
Northwestern’s season started with a 22-21 loss to Western Michigan at home. The Broncos are considered the favorite to win the Mid-American Conference title this season, but that still doesn’t justify losing to them if Northwestern is to be taken seriously.
The real head-scratcher came in week two when FCS member Illinois State defeated Northwestern 9-7 in Evanston.
The Wildcats rebounded to defeat Duke in the third game before losing the Big Ten opener to Nebraska 24-13 last Saturday in Evanston.
Fitzgerald didn’t take the Nebraska loss very well, or maybe it was just the fact that it was his team’s third loss in four games, because his emotions spilled over in the post-game press conference as Fitzgerald talked about facing Iowa a week later.
“If we don’t go out there (to Iowa) with the right attitude and right preparation, we’ll get our fannies whipped,” Fitzgerald said. “We’ll get crushed. These guys had better figure it out pretty quick.”
Fitzgerald always has good things to say about Iowa to the media and he probably believes most of it. You can dislike a rival, but still like the way they go about their business.
Former Northwestern coach Gary Barnett used Iowa as a model when building the Northwestern program into a Big Ten power in the mid-1990s. Barnett respected Iowa, but wanted nothing more than to defeat Hayden Fry and the Hawkeyes.
The desire to defeat Iowa grew even stronger following a 49-13 Hawkeye victory over Northwestern in 1994 at Kinnick Stadium. Fry supposedly said to Barnett during their post-game handshake that he hoped Iowa hadn’t hurt any of his players.
Barnett resented the sympathy and used it as motivation for his players, which included a sophomore linebacker named Pat Fitzgerald.
The series hasn’t been the same since that post-game handshake. Northwestern has a 10-9 record against Iowa since 1995 with four the victories coming at Kinnick Stadium.
Most signs point to Iowa winning on Saturday, but that also creates a stage for Fitzgerald to steal the show by orchestrating an upset.
His team is like a wounded animal fighting for survival.
A victory wouldn’t just stop the bleeding, but would help to refuel Fitzgerald’s legacy, which has been running on fumes lately.
“They’re always dangerous,” Ferentz said of Northwestern. “If you look at our series with them historically, it’s always been a tough game, and I’m sure they’re disappointed right now. There aren’t a lot of people in the country probably happy with where they’re at; I think most of us want to get better right now. They’ve got great young people on their team, and I expect them to come in here and fight.”
The Wildcats have every reason to fight for survival. But do they have enough to defeat their head coach’s biggest rival on the road?
Probably not.
Iowa 28, Northwestern 21