[NU Sports] Fitz: The Future is Now

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

Well, some much-needed good news after a week of
sadness -- and a choice I think Wildcat fans
everywhere can agree on! He played under Barnett but
coached under Walker and is the fan favorite.

I think we all were hoping Fitz would be our coach
down the road and the only real drawback was his age
... but as my former NU roommate Jim Leonard told me,
Mark Murphy is a pretty smart guy who wasn't going to
be influenced by Fitz being a past player (i.e. he
earned the job) and as other listers have posted, John
Gruden, Avery Brown and other coaches in other sports
have proven that if you got it, you got it no matter
what the age.

The best upside is that Fitz bleeds purple -- he'll be
our coach and not looking for a stepping stone ... and
I think the fans and administration will be patient
with Fitz, especially this coming season, realizing
that this could be a great investment in the future.

So the Fitz era is about to begin and I think it's a
great decision by AD Murphy. Fitz' biggest recruiting
task may be finding/keeping a staff though, as the age
thing will probably matter more to coaches upset about
being passed over than it will to recruits who will
love this guy's intensity and fire and respect him as
a former player who knows his stuff on the field and
what it's like to be an NU student athlete.

I can't say it better than Paul did -- a silver lining
on the large cloud of the past week. I hope everyone
in purple is excited to do whatever he or she can to
help Fitz succeed and I think Coach Walker would be
proud of the young coach he hired into the program now
in charge of the purple.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!

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