Official Digital Program of Northwestern Football

Dan and Susan Jones Family Head Football Coach PAT FITZGERALD 17 participation in Northwestern Dance Marathon, Special Olympics, Misericordia, the NU chapter of Uplifting Athletes, weekly school and children's hospital visits, and dozens of other organizations. Additionally, a Wildcat also has been selected to the prestigious Allstate AFCA Good Works Team® in seven of the last eight years (only 11 players from FBS football claim the honor each season), most recently place-kicker Jeff Budzien in 2013. As a player in 1995, Fitzgerald was the leader of a suffocating Wildcats defensive unit that led the nation in scoring defense and anchored NU's storybook run to the Big Ten championship and Rose Bowl. He capped the year by winning both the Nagurski and Bednarik Awards as the nation's top defensive player and also was the Big Ten, Chevrolet and Sports IllustratedDefensive Player of the Year. Fitzgerald accomplished all of this despite suffering a broken leg in the penultimate regular-season game. Fitzgerald recovered from that injury and in 1996 he again led the Wildcats to a share of the Big Ten title. He repeated as recipient of the Nagurski and Bednarik Awards, becoming the first two-time winner of both honors and laying the groundwork for his selection in 2008 to the College Football Hall of Fame. A two-time first-team All-American, Fitzgerald started 23 career games and totaled 299 tackles, including 20 for loss. He also forced five fumbles and intercepted three passes. Prior to his return to Northwestern, Fitzgerald was a defensive graduate assistant at Maryland (1998) and Colorado (1999) before taking his first full-time position at Idaho in 2000. In 2001, esteemed NU head coach Randy Walker brought Fitzgerald back to Evanston, hiring him to coach the defensive secondary and eventually tabbing him the 'Cats' recruiting coordinator. Named one of college football's top recruiters by SI.com in 2005, Fitzgerald mentored two-time All-Big Ten linebacker and former St. Louis Ram Tim McGarigle, the all-time leading tackler in NCAA history. Fitzgerald remained an assistant coach before being named Northwestern's 29th head coach on July 7, 2006, under the most difficult of circumstances, succeeding Walker after his sudden passing on June 29, 2006. Fitzgerald remained the youngest head football coach among Football Bowl Subdivision schools until Lane Kiffin was hired by Tennessee on Dec. 1, 2008. In May of 2011, NU Director of Athletics Jim Phillips announced that Fitzgerald and the school agreed to a new 10-year deal that will keep him on the Northwestern sidelines through 2020. The 10-year deal is unprecedented in Northwestern Athletics history. The program has steadily gained momentum in the years since Fitzgerald took over as head coach, starting with a challenging 4-8 campaign in 2006, when just weeks before the season began, Walker's death rocked the NU football program. In 2007, the Wildcats achieved bowl-eligibility with a 6-6 mark but did not play in a postseason game due to a lack of bowl slots for Big Ten teams. The 2007 Wildcats boasted a prolific offense that has become synonymous with NU teams of late, leading the Big Ten in regular- season total offense. In 2008, a dramatically improved defense and strong special teams play led the 'Cats to a nine-win season and a berth in the Valero Alamo Bowl against Missouri, their first postseason appearance since taking on UCLA in the 2005 Sun Bowl. Northwestern touted the nation's fifth-most improved scoring defense and the Wildcats set a single-season school mark for rushing defense (126.4 ypg), breaking the mark that Fitzgerald and his teammates established in 1995. NU's 5-0 season start in 2008 was its best since the 1962 campaign, when the Wildcats were 6-0 and ranked No. 1 in the nation. For his efforts, Fitzgerald was named the 2008 Big Ten Coach of the Year by the Touchdown Club of Columbus, a semifinalist for the George Munger Coach of the Year Award and a finalist for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award. In 2009, the Wildcats returned to a New Year's Day Bowl game, their first since Fitzgerald was a student-athlete playing Tennessee in the

• Cover