Northwestern fired Pat Fitzgerald after hazing and culture issues came to light. With the season approaching, these hires would get them back on track.
Pat Fitzgerald was a Northwestern institution, first as a player, then as a coach. He had his hands in the Wildcat program for the last 20 years. Now he's out.
Allegations of hazing, racism and overall culture issues resulted in Fitzgerald's firing on Monday.
Now Northwestern has a seemingly impossible task on its hands: They need to hire a new head coach to lead them through the 2023 season with just a couple of months before Week 1 kicks off.
The simplest move would be to promote an assistant as an interim head coach. Both offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian and defensive coordinator Jim O'Neil could be options.
But if the Wildcats want to bring in an outside voice to clean up the program, the options aren't too shabby actually.
No. 3 Northwestern option to replace Pat Fitzgerald: David Shaw
David Shaw resigned as Stanford's head coach after 12 seasons. He was 96-54 with six ranked finishes at a Power 5 program with high academic standards.
The parallels between Stanford and Northwestern as football programs are pretty clear. It wouldn't be so different for Shaw to begin the next stage of his career in Chicago.
It's not clear how interested Shaw actually is in coaching at the major college football level, to be fair. He had expressed frustration with the direction of the sport in recent years. Still, Northwestern would be wise to reach out.
No. 2 Northwestern option to replace Pat Fitzgerald: Ken Niumatalolo
At this stage in the summer, Northwestern won't be able to find too many people with head coaching experience willing to take over a program in shambles. With a fresh buyout, someone like Bryan Harsin should be enjoying his vacation until other jobs come available. Clay Helton would represent an option for a solid culture reset, but leaving Georgia Southern right now wouldn't track. But someone like former Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo might have an incentive to jump into the fire.
Niumatalolo had been linked to Power 5 job openings even before the Midshipman chose not to renew his contract after 16 years in charge. It's not likely he would get another opportunity like this any time soon if he waited for other jobs to pop up.
Winning at a service academy is no easy feat but Niumatalolo manages to keep Navy competitive for much of his tenure. He went to 11 bowl games and managed a few 10-win seasons along the way.
He took a role as UCLA's Director of Leadership, but that's not the kind of position that would be hard to break from in order to take over a head coaching role.
No. 1 Northwestern option to replace Pat Fitzgerald: Paul Chryst
It's quite simple: Hiring Paul Chryst after this whole mess would be a home run for Northwestern.
The long-time Wisconsin head coach has won consistently in the Big Ten already. The Badgers ousted him after a 2-3 start to the 2023 season, a move that felt like a massive risk considering his 67-26 record with the program. They wanted someone to aim higher than just a string of 10-win seasons. Northwestern, on the other hand, would snatch your hand off for a string of 10-win seasons.
The biggest issue with targeting Chryst would be convincing him that Northwestern is his best option. Takng over a program coming off a 1-11 season, with a long-time head coach fired in July and a locker room that sounds pretty divided on the whole question of hazing, is a massive undertaking.
Chryst got a gig as an offensive analyst for Steve Sarkisian at Texas. If things go south for the Longhorns, you've got to think he might be positioned for a run at that job if he played his cards right and made nice with the right people. Northwestern would need to make it worth his while to head to Chicago instead. If they did, it might feel like hitting the jackpot.
Even better? Go out and convince former Wisconsin defensive coordinator and interim head coach Jim Leonhard to take the job.
