New Coach Fitz Right In : Fitzgerald Will Help Northwestern From Sideline

Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern’s “coach on the field” and college football’s No. 1 defensive player, won’t be on the playing field Monday at the Rose Bowl, but he will be in the game.

No. 51, all 6 feet 2 and 233 pounds of him, will be roaming the sideline, giving spiritual leadership to his teammates and advice to his replacement, sophomore Donny Holmes.

“I’ll be there, doing whatever I can to help the coaches, the players, everything my leg will let me do,” the All-American linebacker said.

“It’ll be better than the Purdue game, where my leg was in a cast and I was on crutches and couldn’t get around. I don’t know exactly what I’ll be able to do in the Rose Bowl, but I’ll do all I can.”

Fitzgerald, a junior, sat out the Purdue game and more than a quarter against Iowa, the game in which his leg was broken in two places. But he still was the second-leading tackler in the Big Ten with 130, of which 99 were solo tackles, and won the Bronko Nagurski Award as the nation’s top defender.

His season ended as he was getting to his feet after a play with four minutes left in the third quarter. Teammate Danny Sutter and Iowa tackle Ross Verba fell on him, breaking his tibia and fibula.

“I’ve been playing football since I was in the second grade, and that was the first time I’d ever been hurt or ever come close to missing a game,” he said. “I knew right then my leg was in bad shape. I heard something pop and it felt like it was bleeding. It was, inside.

“I hate the thought of not playing in the Rose Bowl, but I’m not worried about our defense. Donny will do just fine.”

Holmes started the Purdue game in Fitzgerald’s inside linebacker spot and came through with 12 tackles in a 23-8 victory that assured Northwestern at least a share of its first Big Ten championship since 1936.

“The pressure’s on Donny, for sure, but he’s ready,” Coach Gary Barnett said. “At the start of the year, there wasn’t much to choose between Donny and Fitz. Fitz got the job because he was more a student of the game, more disciplined than Donny, but Donny is a more physical player. We have plenty of confidence in him, and just having Fitz on the sideline will pick us up emotionally.”

Holmes didn’t turn 19 until Dec. 4, but he received the ultimate praise from Fitzgerald: “He stepped in there and helped me win a ring, that’s what I really appreciate.”

Holmes, a 6-foot, 240-pounder from South Holland, Ill., is an honor student with plenty of confidence.

“In high school, I called defensive signals, so it’s not new to me,” he said. “And all year I’ve been studying the position playing behind Fitz.”

Holmes is also something of a prophet. In Northwestern’s preseason media guide, he said he expected this to be an exciting season because “this is the year of the Rose Bowl for the Wildcats.”

Fitzgerald is one of the prizes in Barnett’s first full recruiting class, a surprise catch because Fitzgerald was raised in a Notre Dame-oriented family.

“Notre Dame, that’s all my folks talked about, and from the time I started playing football it was sort of expected that I’d go there,” Fitzgerald said.

Two things happened to change that.

“When I was a junior, I went to a postseason awards banquet and Coach Barnett was the speaker. Even though I went to high school in Orland Park and was around Chicago all my life, I never gave Northwestern a thought until I heard Coach talk. I heard him a few more times and every time I was more and more impressed with his sincerity, his honesty.

“Some coaches give you snow jobs, but I never had that feeling with Coach Barnett. I felt he was a coach I could believe in. And he’s never disappointed me.

“My folks were still pushing Notre Dame, and I had a visit coming there in my senior year, but they canceled it when they filled their scholarships. Right then I knew I was going to Northwestern.

“I’m kind of happy the way things turned out, especially after we beat Notre Dame. You know, it’s kind of funny. On a visit to Northwestern, one of their guys asked me if I would rather play for the Irish or beat them. I like it this way.”

Ron Vanderlinden, the defensive coordinator Barnett brought with him from Colorado, scouted Fitzgerald in his senior year at Carl Sandburg High.

“When we saw Pat, his team was backed up to its goal line, and he made three straight tackles.” Vanderlinden told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Four years later, Fitzgerald did the same thing in the Wildcats’ 19-13 win over Michigan in probably the team’s most significant victory.

This time the player he stopped was Tim Biakabutuka, the powerful Michigan back who led the Wolverines to an upset of Ohio State that sent Northwestern to the Rose Bowl instead of the Citrus Bowl.

He threw Biakabutuka for one-yard losses on first and goal and second and goal in the first quarter, forcing Michigan to settle for a field goal.

Fitzgerald is already thinking of next season.

“You bet I’ll be back,” he said. “I can’t wait until spring practice, and if I’m not ready then, I’ll be at full strength in the fall. The doctors say my broken leg should be stronger than it was before, if I do all the rehab they have planned.

“If I’m ready for spring practice in April, I’d hate to be the offensive lineman in front of me on the first day. I’ll be so pumped up. I can’t wait.”

Neither can Barnett, who calls his star linebacker “a sponge” because he absorbs everything the coaches tell him.

After the 21-10 victory over Penn State, in which Fitzgerald was named Big Ten defensive player of the week for the third time, Barnett said, “He’s not just a great player, he’s a coach on the field.”

Or, in the Rose Bowl, another coach on the sideline.