Northwestern has fired their baseball coach, who has been accused of creating a toxic environment in his first season as coach.
Also, David Braun, the DC who was hired in January, has been named the interim coach for 2023.
The fallout from the Fitzgerald firing has begun, and coaches are pouncing on the opportunity.
Several 2024 recruits have already decomitted, one has committed to Wisconsin, others are still considering their options. No word on current players entering the transfer portal yet, a 30 day window opened up when Fitz was fired.
I read that there were a number (4 or 5) of new assistant coaches. So they could dump everyone who possibly have known about it and still field a competitive team.
Your idea of ‘competitive’ differs from mine, I guess. I have my doubts that the Cats will be competitive in any conference games this year, an 0-12 record doesn’t strike me as impossible. But I’m willing to be proven wrong.
As I recall, the NCAA allows 10 assistant coaches, but that doesn’t include grad assistants, trainers, strength coaches, nutrition coaches, and other non-coaching positions. A recent trend at many schools is to have ‘consultants’ in various areas who can’t work directly with players but can do things like help prepare game plans, coaching routines, etc.
One has to wonder how many people were aware of the ‘traditions’ and chose to look away. Probably too many.
Yeah but since they won 1 game last year they really cannot crater much further.
At least they were competitive in some of those games. 2023 might not be the bottom of the barrel, the 2024 recruiting class is already leaking badly, and I haven’t heard yet whether any current players will enter the transfer portal. (Would schools seriously entertain bringing them in at this late date and with the potential for baggage?)
Maybe they’ll bond together to show folks what they’re made of, but I’m not counting on that. But then I didn’t expect Nebraska to beat Iowa last November, either.