The Chicago Bears head coaching job could be available come early January. Matt Nagy has lost control of the 2020 season. His offense is a mess and he can’t get this team to play with any sort of discipline or urgency when it’s needed most. Barring a monumental turnaround over the final four games, he is probably gone. This is why rumors are already popping up about new candidates. One of the hottest being Pat Fitzgerald.
It’s not hard to see why people are making connections. He grew up in Orland Park, Illinois. He went to school at Northwestern and has since returned to coach their football team since 2006. Fitzgerald is one of the steadiest head coaches in college football and has routinely gotten the most out of rather pedestrian rosters for years.
Most experts believe the only NFL job he’s interested in is the Bears.
Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports started the ball rolling a week ago when he said there was mutual interest between the two sides. That the Bears view Fitzgerald as the top of their head coach wishlist. Tony Pauline of Pro Football Network also indicated some serious smoke between the two sides.
However, not everybody is getting the same sense like them. ESPN insiders Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler surveyed sources across the college football landscape. When it came to head coaches who might make the jump? Fitzgerald wasn’t one of the names that generated a ton of movement. Quite the opposite in fact.
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“Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald can get involved whenever he wants, but there’s no real movement with him and the Bears, at least not this early. Chicago might be the one NFL job he would consider. Bears minority owner Pat Ryan is a Northwestern grad and a big Fitzgerald fan. But there has been no evidence that Fitzgerald is willing to jump, and 15 years into his Northwestern tenure, he has more job security than he ever has.”
Pat Fitzgerald has no real incentive to make the jump
Be honest. People keep connecting him to the NFL but there’s never been any sort of hint from the man himself that he wants to leave Northwestern. Why would he? He’s basically royalty at that school and is in zero danger of losing his job anytime soon. The man is still just in his 40s and can continuing coaching for a long time to come. There isn’t much to sway him. Money isn’t a big issue. The only thing left is the personal challenge of the pro level.
Is that really enough to leave such a cushy position? Probably not. Pat Fitzgerald has the look and feel of the perfect college coach. A person who can turn kids into young men and prepare them both for the NFL and also adult life in general. Would his message resonate the same with older veteran players? That is a problem all such coaches run into.
It just doesn’t make much sense.
Maybe the Bears really are interested in him. Maybe they can make a strong enough offer he can’t turn down. Truthfully that doesn’t feel like it’s going to happen. Historically the franchise has always hired the GM first and letting him dictate the head coaching search. So unless whoever replaces Pace is a big fan of Fitzgerald, this doesn’t feel like something that will happen. It’s more heavy speculation with insiders trying to make more out of connections than really should be.