[NU Sports] Penn State and Bowl hopes

[Jim Leonard]

Paul's email just reminded me of something I am rather proud of. I cannot remember the last time one of our football player's made the news for a negative reason. Not many of the big schools with sellout crowds can say that. Fitz definitely gets it. 

Victory & Honor,
Jim





----- Original Message ----
From: "NEONRye at aol.com" <NEONRye at aol.com>
To: Hakirsch at aol.com; tkmaycock at yahoo.com; nwu-sports at tssi.com; artmiller_news at yahoo.com
Sent: Tue, October 27, 2009 6:15:18 PM
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Penn State and Bowl hopes

Harry,

You and I have been "list buddies" for years, and I love your posts, but I  
have to take issue on this one.  Seriously, we may never do better than  
having Fitz as HC.  No one, I mean no one, who has held or will hold the  
position of Head Coach will ever care or feel for the University like Pat  
Fitzgerald.  He is Purple and White to his core, and he GETS IT--i.e., what  
being an NU student-athlete is all about.  Our best chance of ever building  a 
continuing program where we hopefully reload rather than rebuild is with Fitz 
in charge (aided by Hankwitz, a fabulous teacher who seems to relate well 
to the  "young men" on defense, notwithstanding the age gap).   He 
understands  the ethos and the values of our program--he lived it and he epitomizes 
it.   Having met him a couple of times, I can say that he is earnest, honest, 
plain-spoken, humorous and passionate.  And he is a Chicagoan and  
midwesterner all the way, which ultimately should help in marketing.  With  Fitz I 
don't worry every week about who might come after him, as I don't believe  
he is looking to leave like his original mentor, Gary B.  In that regard,  he 
more closely resembles his second mentor, Randy W.  Yes, the team is not  
meeting expectations this year in some respects, but the problems we all  
anticipated (lack of a running game, inexperienced offensive line, 
vulnerability  to injuries to key players) have, not surprisingly, surfaced and taken 
their  toll.   But our players never quit, and they may have turned a corner  
last Saturday.  Let's look at our glass with Fitz as half-full, not  
half-empty.

Paul Levinson
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