Blueprint for another Colorado overhaul: Fix a broken line, save the 2024 recruiting class
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Adam Rittenberg
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Adam Rittenberg
ESPN Senior Writer
- College football reporter.
- Joined ESPN.com in 2008.
- Graduate of Northwestern University.
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Tom VanHaaren
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Tom VanHaaren
ESPN Staff Writer
- ESPN staff writer
- Joined ESPN in 2011
- Graduated from Central Michigan
Rapper Master P, wearing sunglasses and a Colorado hoodie under his sport jacket, posed for pictures. Terrell Davis, the former Super Bowl MVP running back for the Denver Broncos, milled around with other notable ex-athletes.
Colorado coach Deion Sanders, the man responsible for all the Buffaloes buzz, took his pregame lap around the field, flanked by police, private security and his son Deion Jr., who was pointing a camera toward his father to capture footage of Year 1 under Coach Prime.
The scene on Colorado’s sideline before a Nov. 4 game with Oregon State featured some of the same elements of earlier contests at Folsom Field — celebrities, cameras and a palpable excitement — but the overall mood had changed.
Colorado had started 3-0 and had captivated the college football world, but its fortunes had turned since then. The team had lost four of five. Sanders had switched offensive playcallers, a decision that shocked many coaches who respected CU offensive coordinator Sean Lewis. The team’s personnel warts, masked by outstanding individual efforts and, as it turned out, an opening schedule featuring average opponents, were laid bare.
Colorado would lose to Oregon State 26-19, a game blighted by poor offensive line play and odd coaching decisions. Star quarterback Shedeur Sanders left the field with a towel over his head. The Buffaloes, who had been college football’s team of September, went on to go 0-for-November, completing Sanders’ first season at 4-8.
On Dec. 3, 2022, Colorado hired Sanders because the team had bottomed out, finishing 1-11. Sanders engineered a historic roster overhaul, as Colorado stretched the limits of the transfer portal. The team added an FBS-high 86 new players, while returning an FBS-low three starters. Sanders’ first season brought unparalleled attention to Colorado and undeniable improvement on the field, but also exposed deficiencies that must be fixed for the Buffs to become a true contender. Almost exactly a year later, Colorado has reached another junction.
“We comin,'” Sanders repeated throughout his first year in Boulder, a phrase now displayed on Colorado T-shirts and hoodies, and a rallying cry for Buffaloes fans.
But where is Colorado going? A vital offseason looms, perhaps just as important as the first one under Sanders. The Buffs must fortify their weaknesses, make several coaching staff hires, replenish a recruiting class that has taken hits and prepare to join a new league (the Big 12).
After talking to sources at Colorado and around the Pac-12, here’s a look at four priorities for Sanders and the Buffs as they look ahead.
Jump to:
Better in the trenches
Save ’24 recruiting class
Big 12 transition
Build off momentum
Improve offensive line, get stronger in trenches
When Colorado’s whirlwind winter and spring in the transfer portal subsided, the team produced a roster with clear upgrades at spots such as quarterback, wide receiver and cornerback, but also a potential albatross position: offensive line. Most of Colorado’s portal exits could be viewed as addition by subtraction, but losing several veteran offensive linemen — Austin Johnson (Purdue), Casey Roddick (Florida State), Jake Wiley (UCLA) — proved difficult to overcome. Roddick would earn honorable mention All-ACC honors with the Seminoles.
The Buffs returned two starters in tackle Gerad Christian-Lichtenhan and center Van Wells, as well as transfers with experience such as Savion Washington and Jack Bailey from Kent State. But overall, the incoming offensive linemen weren’t as gifted as other positions. CU had concerns about the line entering the season, and even amid a 4-1 start, the Buffs allowed 31 sacks and 52 tackles for loss.
The problem never went away: Colorado allowed three or more sacks in each of its first 11 games and six or more tackles for loss in nine contests. Shedeur Sanders was sacked an FBS-high 52 times, despite missing the season finale at Utah because of a fracture in his back, according to a video posted by Deion Sanders Jr.
An offensive line fix is different and more difficult than at other positions. Both Christian-Lichtenhan and Wells recently entered the portal. Depth will need to be built through development of current players, some of whom didn’t see the field much this season.
“Are they going to just try to go portal again?” a Pac-12 coach said. “If you try to go portal for the O-line, you’re making a huge mistake, because I don’t think there are any portal O-linemen. There are a few, but the ones that are out there, they want a lot of money. They want to get overpaid.”
Although Deion Sanders is planning another roster reshape for 2024, he also said, “We’re not an ATM.”
“At some point, you have to develop, teach and develop,” a Pac-12 defensive coordinator said. “There’s some good high school offensive linemen out there, but it’s a rarity that you find true freshman to start on the O-line. It’s such a learning curve, and their bodies have got to get where they need to be.”
Colorado suffered a blow in recruiting when Talan Chandler, its only committed offensive line prospect, flipped to Missouri on Nov. 19. Chandler had been committed to Colorado since February, and was initially drawn to Sanders and the excitement around the program. He stayed committed to the Buffs until he was offered by Missouri, his home state school.
“My flip is definitely more about Mizzou. I mean, Mizzou is my dream school,” Chandler said. “Just being able to stay close to home; it’s three hours from where I live, and all my family can go to games.”
Shedeur Sanders, who has not declared whether he will return next season, will need much better protection in 2024 to avoid injury and maintain his production. Colorado also likely will seek greater balance on offense. The Buffs ranked last nationally in rushing yards per game — 68.9, 7.2 yards less than any other FBS team — but also 119th in rushing attempts (345).
Colorado also had some challenges on the defensive line. The Buffs rank 106th nationally in rushing yards allowed per game (176.4), and allowed more than 200 rushing yards in half of their games.
“The game is won in the trenches, on both sides,” a Colorado source said. “We just didn’t have enough gas in the tank to finish, particularly with the big people.”
Salvage ’24 recruiting class
Colorado’s recruiting class was always going to be smaller, because of the volume the staff brought in through the transfer portal in the previous offseason. The coaches have to balance their total scholarship numbers and stay under the total limit of 85.
Entering Thursday, the Buffs only had eight high school commitments in their 2024 recruiting class, tied for the fewest among all Power 5 teams with Michigan State, Houston and Boston College. Colorado sits outside of ESPN’s list of the top 50 recruiting classes, compared to the 2023 class when Sanders and his staff signed the No. 23 overall class.
To be fair, Sanders has delivered some late recruiting heroics before. He flipped five-star Travis Hunter from Florida State to Jackson State in the 2022 class and then flipped five-star corner Cormani McClain from Miami to Colorado in January. And on Thursday morning, Colorado received a commitment from ESPN 300 lineman Jordan Seaton, the No. 19 overall recruit.
It’s unclear if Sanders has a card up his sleeve this time, but at the moment, he has seen more recruits leave than join his 2024 class. Colorado added a big commitment from ESPN 300 athlete Kamron Mikell in November.
“First time I met him was [on a visit] and it was like [meeting a celebrity and a coach],” Mikell told ESPN in September. “I think recruits are drawn to that; people see him as somebody who turns us kids into believers. He makes everyone believe in themselves. In college there are a lot of confidence boosters and drainers and he tries to be that booster.”
Who Sanders is and what he brings will be appealing to some recruits, but as Colorado faltered, confidence from some recruits began to waver.
Colorado lost a commitment from Danny O’Neil, the lone quarterback in the class. O’Neil had developed a strong relationship with Lewis during his process.
After Lewis lost playcalling duties just before the Oregon State game, O’Neil sensed Lewis was likely on the way out. Last week, San Diego State hired Lewis as its new head coach. Lewis almost immediately offered O’Neil a scholarship.
“Coach Lewis was the main reason I chose Colorado, so knowing he wasn’t going to be there made me take a step back and make sure that it still checked all the boxes for me and my family,” O’Neil told ESPN. The staff also lost a commitment from 2025 ESPN Junior 300 quarterback Antwann Hill, who decommitted a day before O’Neil decommitted. Hill had planned to reclassify to the 2024 class and enroll early, but decided to stay in the 2025 class and back off of his commitment.
Colorado’s recent coaching changes could further impact recruiting. In addition to Lewis leaving, tight ends coach Tim Brewster, who shifted into an analyst role when analyst Pat Shurmur became the playcaller, resigned to become tight ends coach at Charlotte. Defensive ends coach Nick Williams left the program last weekend. Lewis is hiring Colorado offensive line coach Bill O’Boyle, who had come with Lewis to CU from Kent State, and Darian Hagan, a longtime Colorado assistant and former national championship-winning quarterback, who moved into a support staff role under Sanders. Hagan will coach San Diego State’s running backs.
“Tim Brewster was one of their best recruiters, [Lewis] was one of their best recruiters, they got rid of him,” a Pac-12 coach said. “I don’t know what that’s going to look like.”
It’s not all gloomy for Colorado, though. The Buffs are hiring Oklahoma analyst Phil Loadholt to be their offensive line coach, and they got the commitment from Seaton. There are several other highly regarded 2024 recruits still available. The staff is in the mix for ESPN 300 defensive end King Joseph Edwards out of Georgia, the No. 275 prospect overall. Colorado is also pursuing ESPN 300 safety Dre’lon Miller, the No. 85 recruit.
“This is where the scouting department, where they start doing their thing,” Sanders said after a season-ending loss to Utah. “Everything you see that we have a lack thereof, a deficit, we’re going to fill that need. … We’re getting ready to start cooking. We’re getting ready to go pick up that grocery.”
Just two weeks until the early signing period, Colorado is again using the transfer portal to add talent to the roster, and Sanders is ready. The offensive line is the big focus, but there are needs across the board. While the portal is a useful tool to manage rosters, eventually Sanders and his staff must build more momentum on the recruiting trail to start growing the foundation of the program.
“The hard part is you can’t turn over that roster again,” a Pac-12 coordinator said. “Half the guys you brought in were transfers, and [the majority] can’t transfer anywhere.”
Prepare for Big 12 transition
On Sept. 2, Sanders made his Colorado coaching debut in a Big 12 stadium, stunning defending national runner-up TCU 45-42. In 2024, Colorado will return to the Big 12, where it was a charter member, and where it remained until joining the Pac-12 after the 2010 season.
In July, Colorado became the first of four Pac-12 schools to depart for the Big 12. Sanders, who had lived primarily in Texas and raised his family there until becoming a college coach, was among the key stakeholders supporting and driving the move. After the season finale, Sanders said he was “tremendously happy” to be making the move to the Big 12.
Conference changes are often rocky, even for programs going through much less transition than Colorado has under Sanders. The four new additions to the Big 12 in the 2023 season — BYU, Cincinnati, UCF and Houston — combined to go 8-28 in conference play. A Colorado source described the team’s 2024 schedule as “extremely competitive,” although a Pac-12 coach at another transitioning school said the move to the Big 12 shouldn’t be as extreme as the one to the Big Ten for departing league members USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington.
The Buffs won’t be sneaking up on any of their future Big 12 opponents.
“What a lot of people missed with Colorado is they thought they beat last year’s TCU team,” said a coach who faced Colorado. “They were like, ‘That was the national championship runner-up,’ and it really wasn’t. Everyone kept trying to come up with different ways to justify who [Colorado was], and no one wanted to say they’re just average.”
There should be down-the-road benefits for Colorado in the Big 12, including the ability to play games consistently in Texas and even occasionally in Florida, where Deion Sanders is from. Colorado’s top two recruits in Sanders’ first class — McClain, from Lakeland, Florida, and running back Dylan Edwards, from Derby, Kansas — hail from states in the Big 12’s footprint.
“It’s a more conducive time zone for us,” a team source said. “That fits us. And from a staff standpoint, we’re going to areas that we’re more familiar with. We’re very excited about it.”
The conference shift also provides an opportunity for Colorado to further define its identity.
Colorado’s first staff under Sanders had a mix of coaches he brought from Jackson State and others, like Lewis and O’Boyle, who had no connection to him before coming to Boulder. As a source close to Sanders said of the coaching staff, “Very rarely do you get it 100 percent right the first time around.”
Sanders’ network throughout the football world, not just the college scene, broadens coaching candidates. Shurmur, a longtime NFL coach, is set to remain Colorado’s offensive coordinator, and Sanders after the Utah game praised his performance and how he had communicated with Shedeur Sanders since taking over playcalling.
But there will be some new faces on staff. Last month Sanders said Warren Sapp, the Hall of Fame defensive lineman, will come aboard in 2024.
“He’s going to be invaluable to what he brings to the table,” Sanders said of Sapp on his radio show. “The [players] are going to love him. … The recruits as well.”
Sanders and those in and around Colorado often point to their approach as pioneering and distinct, the type that makes people uncomfortable. The Buffs are entering a new league, but they also can figure out how to set themselves apart.
“It just feels like they’re still trying to find their way,” a Pac-12 coach said. “Like, who are they? Who do they want to be?”
Build off momentum
Colorado’s season ended on a down note, but the team clearly had its bright spots, on and off the field, which can be accentuated.
“They’ve got a chance to be really good,” a Pac-12 coordinator said. “It seems like there’s turmoil over there, but I think Prime actually does a really good job. Their skill players, they’re as good as damn near anyone we’ve played. They’ll be fine.”
Shedeur Sanders had a record-setting debut season at Colorado and ranked 19th nationally in passing yards (3,230) and tied for 12th in passing touchdowns (27), despite missing the last game. He will be one of the nation’s top quarterbacks in 2024.
Colorado also excelled at wide receiver, as Xavier Weaver, Jimmy Horn Jr. and Travis Hunter — the remarkable two-way star who this week won the Paul Hornung Award, given to the nation’s most versatile player — all had at least 57 receptions. Horn and Hunter are eligible to return, although tight end Michael Harrison (31 receptions, 5 touchdowns) entered the portal earlier this week.
Hunter, despite missing three games because of a lacerated liver, led the team in pass breakups (5) and tied for the team lead in interceptions (3) as a cornerback. Safety Shilo Sanders, Deion’s son and Shedeur’s brother, is eligible to return after leading Colorado in tackles (70) and forced fumbles (4). Other productive defenders such as LaVonta Bentley, Trevor Woods and Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig are eligible to return in 2024.
“Real football enthusiasts, football people know what we are doing here,” Deion Sanders said last month. “A lot of people think we’re just losing, but you have to find a win in the midst of a loss. Football people understand what time it is without looking at their watches.”
Sanders repeatedly praised his team’s resilience in games, even ones in which it fell short. Colorado was outscored in each of the first three quarters this season, but held a 116-85 edge in the fourth. The Buffs rallied in losses to USC and Oregon State, although they also squandered a 29-0 halftime advantage against Stanford, and blew four leads in a three-point loss to Arizona.
Other than lopsided road defeats to Oregon and Washington State, the Buffaloes battled, which Sanders acknowledged after the finale at Utah.
“You have nothing to hang your head down with,” Sanders told the team, in a video posted by Well Off Media. “One thing about the Boulder faithful, you gave them all hope, and they cannot wait until tomorrow and the next day and the next day, to see what we build. I’m proud of y’all.”
The spotlight will remain on Boulder. Sanders appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America” earlier this week to discuss the new season of “Coach Prime,” which will air on Prime Video. KFC is still airing commercials featuring Deion Sanders with his children. Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter will enter 2023 as two of college football’s most recognizable players.
Colorado sold out all of its home games for the first time in school history and likely will remain one of the hottest tickets — and top ratings-grabber on TV — in 2024.
“Our head coach is maybe the greatest marketer in this industry, as an individual,” Alec Roussos, Colorado’s associate director for administration and chief of staff, told ESPN in October. “So for us, it’s how do we align our marketing efforts, so when [Sanders’] brand raises, the University of Colorado’s brand also raises. You can never rest on your laurels.”
Sanders brings eyeballs to Boulder, but he’s not there just to help merch sales and ticket revenue. After the Utah game, Sanders said he could “see around the corner,” and could sense the team’s progress but also that more was needed to take the next step.
“I could not prosper if I didn’t glean from what transpired this season,” Sanders said. “I could not be who I am if I didn’t have these tasks at hand. I’m truly thankful. This is not the first challenge I’ve had in my life, but I know how I finish.
“I know how this is gonna end.”
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Texas A&M
Committed
10/27/2024
Carvers Bay High School
S Carolina
Committed
03/21/2205
Watkins Memorial High School
Ohio State
Committed
11/16/2024
Willis High School
Billings West High School
Rogers High School
Pascagoula High School
McEachern High School
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Chris Low
AUBURN, Ala. — About three months after his second straight losing season at Auburn, Hugh Freeze found out in February that he had prostate cancer.
“At the time, the only thing you hear is that ‘C’ word,'” Freeze told ESPN on Tuesday.
Admittedly rattled, and more scared for his family than anything else, Freeze has since settled on a course of treatment, and after getting some encouraging news recently from doctors that his form of cancer was low aggressive, he has decided to wait until January and let doctors reexamine his situation instead of having surgery.
“I’m only 55. We’re a family of faith, and I just didn’t feel like it was time to rush into surgery,” Freeze said. “I’m at peace with it.”
The same goes for his football team as Freeze enters his third season on the Plains. He’s by no means content with the results the past two seasons — and neither is he naïve about the lack of patience within the realm of SEC football — but Freeze was outspoken when he arrived that it would take three full recruiting classes to get Auburn back into championship contention. His first two have both been top-10 classes nationally.
“I think it’s as settled as we’ve been as a program, the continuity of our staff, the pieces of our staff that we’ve added and what we’ve been able to do in building our roster in high school recruiting and in the portal,” Freeze said. “Now, we’ve got to go compete and win some more games, but I don’t feel any sense of panic.
“We’re on our way to getting where we want to be and where we should be.”
Auburn last had a winning season in 2020, when it was 6-5, and has won more than eight games only twice (2017 and 2019) since playing for the national championship in 2013. The Tigers finished 5-7 last season.
Freeze said the support and commitment from Auburn chancellor Christopher Roberts and athletic director John Cohen couldn’t be stronger, and in the world of name, image and likeness, Auburn is going all-in on locking in key players financially. The payroll for the 2025 roster will exceed $20 million.
One of the key acquisitions was quarterback Jackson Arnold, who transferred from Oklahoma. Arnold was ESPN’s No. 2-ranked dual-threat quarterback prospect in the 2023 signing class, but he was benched for part of last season after some early struggles.
“One hundred percent, I needed a reset,” Arnold said. “It was just time to move on. I needed to go to a place where I was going to put myself in a better position. I’m never going to say anything bad about OU or any of the people there, but it just wasn’t a fit. And as the season went on, maybe it was them losing confidence in me or whatever, but I never doubted that I could play at this level and win at this level.”
Arnold said it was especially important to him to play for an offensive-minded head coach and one with a history of coaching and developing quarterbacks. Freeze said he plans to call the majority of the plays this season (although new offensive coordinator Derrick Nix might call some), and Freeze said he will spend more time with the quarterbacks on the practice field this fall.
“[Quarterbacks coach] Kent Austin is great,” Freeze said. “From fundamentals and coverage recognition and all that, he’s better than I am, but I think it’s vital that they’re hearing my thoughts, and I just think this fall it would be even more vital that Jackson is hearing my thoughts.”
As spring practice winds down this week for Auburn, Arnold said his rapport with the receivers grows stronger every practice. And for Freeze, he said he has seen a “monumental difference” in the receivers, particularly with the addition of transfers Eric Singleton Jr. from Georgia Tech and Horatio Fields from Wake Forest.
“We’ve got more depth, and there’s a maturity factor, too,” Freeze said. “I know quarterbacks take the brunt of the deal, but there were times that [last year’s starter] Payton [Thorne] was ready to pull the trigger on something that should have been there and we didn’t run the right depth of a route or the right route.”
Cam Coleman, who averaged 16.2 yards per catch and had eight touchdown receptions a year ago as one of the more heralded true freshman receivers in the country, said his emphasis has been more consistency. He said the entire receiving corps has taken on a leadership role to push each other and hold each other accountable, which wasn’t necessarily the case a year ago.
“Every receiver brings something different to the table, and our identity is we’re going to catch anything and everything, by any means as possible,” Coleman said. “That’s no matter if we make the quarterback look good or the quarterback makes us look good. We’re going catch the ball and make things happen.”
Singleton’s speed should complement Coleman’s ability to win one-on-one battles down the field, and Malcolm Simmons is equally explosive. He returns for his sophomore season after catching 40 passes last season. The 6-3 Coleman said he’s up to 205 pounds.
“Good luck. That’s all I can tell anybody trying to cover him,” Singleton said of Coleman.
Arnold said his role is to come in and “play point guard” and that Freeze also likes his ability to extend plays. The Tigers struggled mightily to score last season. They finished 14th in the SEC in scoring offense (19.1 points per game) and were 13th in third-down conversions, while scoring just six rushing touchdowns in eight SEC games. But they did move the ball on offense and finished second in the league in yards per play (6.67 yards). Three of their seven losses last season were by a touchdown or less.
What plagued the Tigers were crippling turnovers, coming up empty on key third downs and not being able to finish drives — or even make field goals. They were 8-of-17 on field goal attempts in SEC play, but the good news is that regular kicker Alex McPherson is back after missing almost the entire past season a with gastrointestinal issues.
“We’re all in this together, and I know for a fact these coaches believe in me and they know I can do it, and in turn, I’ve been able to play a lot more,” Arnold said. “Mistakes are going to happen. No one’s going to be perfect, but my confidence is really high right now. I’m playing free and just being myself.”
Even with the cancer diagnosis, Freeze has also felt a sense of freedom. His players have seen it up close and personal.
“He’s out here every day, and it gives the whole team the sense that he cares, and that whatever he’s going through, he’s going to push through,” junior defensive end Keldric Faulk said. “It gives us the confidence to just ride behind him.
“The only difference I see is that he’s brought way more energy, and it’s contagious to the whole team.”
Freeze would tend to agree that his cancer diagnosis has helped him to narrow his focus, although life as an SEC head football coach tends to have that effect naturally.
“I don’t know. I think as much as anything it’s just been a reminder that every day is a gift, and man, I’m going to give my best to these kids, my family and our fans,” Freeze said. “That’s what I should be concerned about.”
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Adam Rittenberg
Northwestern is finalizing settlements with former athletes who filed hazing-related lawsuits against the university and former coach Pat Fitzgerald, whose $130 million wrongful termination lawsuit against the school is set to go to trial in November.
In a motion filed last week, requesting a continuation of the trial date in Fitzgerald’s claim, Northwestern stated it recently began mediation with the athletes that resulted in an undisclosed settlement currently being finalized. Northwestern said athlete plaintiffs “will be witnesses in the ongoing litigation” involving Fitzgerald.
“While the terms of the provisional settlement are confidential, we intend to continue to work through the remaining outstanding issues to finalize a settlement that will hopefully allow both sides to move forward in a positive way,” attorneys Patrick Salvi and Parker Stinar, who are representing some of the former football players, said in a statement.
Fitzgerald’s attorneys on Tuesday said Northwestern’s motion for continuation was denied, and that the trial date for his case remains set for Nov. 3. They have repeatedly requested earlier trial dates so that Fitzgerald, fired in July 2023 for cause, can return to coaching college football.
“Coach Fitzgerald committed no wrongdoing,” Fitzgerald’s attorneys Dan Webb and Matthew Carter said in a statement. “Despite extensive written and testimonial discovery, there remains no evidence to show or suggest that Coach Fitzgerald was aware of any hazing at Northwestern. The discovery has thus confirmed what Northwestern said through President Michael Schill both before and after Coach Fitzgerald’s termination: that there is no evidence that Coach Fitzgerald was aware of any hazing.”
Dozens of former athletes filed hazing-related lawsuits against Northwestern and Fitzgerald in 2023 and 2024. They cited sexualized acts and other troubling rituals that occurred during Northwestern’s preseason training camp and at other times.
In last week’s filing, Northwestern said that after repeated requests, attorneys representing the athletes responded Jan. 29, noting that 81 athletes had relevant information. Northwestern said it had conducted six depositions and has 33 more scheduled, and has identified 40 former athletes to be witnesses in its defense against Fitzgerald’s claim, as well as non-plaintiffs “identified as having information related to the hazing and other conduct in the football program during Fitzgerald’s tenure.”
The school requested the continuation so it could finish depositions with athletes and depositions or document requests with approximately 70 “third-party” individuals identified as having relevant information, including many who live outside of Illinois.
Northwestern fired Fitzgerald three days after announcing a two-week offseason suspension for the coach, following the completion of a university-commissioned investigation into allegations of hazing from a sole football player in late 2022. The investigation found that hazing had occurred in the program but that there was no evidence Fitzgerald knew about what had happened.
The player went public with his allegations to The Daily Northwestern and then ESPN, and Schill ultimately fired Fitzgerald amid significant backlash. Fitzgerald had led the program since 2006 as is Northwestern’s all-time winningest coach and a two-time national defensive player of the year at linebacker.
Fitzgerald filed his lawsuit in October 2023, claiming that Northwestern violated a verbal contract by firing him for cause, after agreeing to the suspension following the conclusion of its own investigation. He also claimed Northwestern and Schill violated his written contract. He’s seeking $68 million that remained on his contract, which ran through 2030, as well as future earnings losses of approximately $62 million. Fitzgerald has been a volunteer assistant for his son’s high school team but has not re-entered college coaching.
“Coach Fitzgerald has proven himself a staunch advocate of student well-being, including consistently emphasizing a zero-tolerance policy on hazing,” Webb and Carter’s statement reads. “He implemented and maintained some of the strongest anti-hazing programs and policies in collegiate sports.”
They added that every Northwestern player signed a hazing policy form before being allowed to practice, and that his actions to prevent hazing were “fully integrated” into the program.
“He continues to assert that Northwestern illegally terminated his employment, violated an oral contract, and defamed him, causing significant damage to his sterling reputation,” the attorney statement reads.
Former Northwestern offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian also sued the school for defamation and spreading false information in the wake of the hazing scandal. Bajakian’s case has been consolidated with Fitzgerald’s and also could go to trial. Bajakian spent the 2024 season at Utah and is currently offensive coordinator at Massachusetts.
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