Huskers a Huge Outlier When Comparing Turnover Margin to Win Percentage

Mavric said:
Eh ... it's kind of a semantic argument.  I don't think he's necessarily a really good coach.  I do give him credit for preparing his team to win how they have to win - don't turn the ball over, don't get penalties, play defense, hope to be close at the end - but I don't think that's all that huge of an accomplishment.  And I think he's a pretty below-average in-game coach.

I think he gets a lot of credit because he's kind of in a win-win situation.  If they have a good season, he's said to have done a great job.  If they have a bad season, people shrug it off as it's a tough place to win.  And of course there's truth to that.  But I'm not sure really good coaches are still going 5-7 and finishing at the bottom of their division after they've been at a place for 9 years. 

I'm not sure what you're getting at by trying to compare him the the worst coach we've had in the last 70 years.  He's better than our worst?  OK.  Good for him I guess.

I think all fans are probably homers to some extent.  But I'm not discrediting them to make us look better.  It's a fact that we have completely out-played them most of the times we've met up since we joined the B1G.  The main reason most of the games have been close is because we've shot ourselves in the foot repeatedly.  That doesn't make Fitzgerald a better coach.

Total Offense Yards vs. Northwestern

2011 (L): NU - 411; NW - 468

2012 (W): NU - 543; NW - 301

2013 (W): NU - 472; NW - 326

2014 (W): NU - 471; NW - 290

2015 (L): NU - 373; NW - 333

2016 (W): NU - 556; NW - 388

 2017 (L/OT): NU - 337; NW - 475

 2018 (L/OT): NU - 482; NW - 487

Really only 2011 and 2017 did they out-play us. 

2012-2014 we dominated them - two of them we only won by one and three points but we did that to ourselves.  

2015 we out-played them but still managed to lose

Last year they ended up just ahead of us only after we checked it in six minutes early and they racked up 170 yards late.  Credit to them for that but we dominated most of that game.

Last year was a really good year for them.  They had the #64 defense in the country and the #108 offense.  Those are below-average and abysmal numbers.  Those aren't the marks of a very good coach.  
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Pretty sure what makes him a good coach is the fact he wins at NW.  Its not an easy school to get into.  He could have a kid like Mo washington wanting to commit but, whoops your grades suck

 
MyBloodIsRed16 said:
Pretty sure what makes him a good coach is the fact he wins at NW.  Its not an easy school to get into.  He could have a kid like Mo washington wanting to commit but, whoops your grades suck
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You are proving Mavric’s point. Fitzgerald is thought as a good coach, because Northwestern is thought of as a tough school to coach.  The point about Northwestern is that they aren’t better or worse from year to year. They are mainly average, and their wins vary due to the outcome of close games.  In 2018, they won a high number of close games. This year, they will probably gravitate back towards the mean, and they will be around .500. 

 
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We still aren't taking care of the damn ball but at least the D does seem to be doing what UCF's did in year-two, force turnovers. 

 
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