Penn State Athletics Director Pat Kraft is still going through the process of hiring the Nittany Lions next head football coach.
Some names have come off the board as coaches have agreed to extensions with their current school. However, it seems as though former Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald may be gaining some traction.
FOX Sports college football reporter Bruce Feldman joined Chris “The Bear” Fallica on his podcast on Friday and was asked where things stand with the Penn State job opening.
According to Feldman, Penn State has real interest in Fitzgerald, who took Northwestern to the Big Ten Championship game twice during his time as the head coach.
“From people I’ve talked to this week and industry sources, [they] think there is some genuine interest by Pat Kraft in Pat Fitzgerald,” Feldman said. “Now remember, before Fitzgerald got forced out in the middle of that hazing scandal, which he ended up suing his alma mater… he had the Wildcats, twice he got them, to the Big Ten title game coming out of the West.
“And so people around Penn State and inside Penn State brass do feel like this guy has a track record of doing more with less.”
Fitzgerald was 110-101 across 17 seasons at Northwestern before being fired in 2023 after there were allegations of hazing within the football program.
He has since settled a lawsuit with Northwestern after suing the school for wrongful termination and has made it clear that he would like to return to the sidelines.
Pat Fitzgerald led Northwestern to Big Ten West titles in 2018 and 2020. He was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2018 and also won the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award in 2020.
With that said, in three of his last four years at Northwestern he was 3-9, 3-9 and 1-11.
Still, there’s no doubt that Penn State has more resources than Northwestern, and there are plenty of reasons to believe that Fitzgerald could be successful with the Nittany Lions.
“The downside for him is he had one good year in his last four. And the other three years were atrocious at Northwestern,” Feldman said. “And this was before he got fired. He was 4-20 in his last two years, so I think there’s going to be some pushback, people going, ‘You’re really sure you think this is the guy?’”
Prior to getting into coaching, Pat Fitzgerald played at Northwestern and was a star linebacker for the Wildcats.
He won the Chuck Bednarik and Bronko Nagurski Awards twice and is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.
Fitzgerald also led Northwestern to back-to-back Big Ten titles. He was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in 1995 and 1996 and was a consensus first-team All-American.
