Clueless in East Lansing

Ex-NU head football coach Pat Fitzgerald is taking over as head coach of the Spartans after being hired this week following the dismissal of coach Jonathan Smith. If I were a parent looking to keep my football-playing son out of someplace where hazing might occur, the Spartans would top my list of programs to avoid. Fitgerald told the media yesterday, “We [will] develop our young men as people, as students and as world-class athletes. This will happen through a values-based approach.” [all quotes from story in today’s Tribune] Fitzgerald did not bother to enumerate those values, which seemed to be missing in the locker room at NU. Like Sgt. Schultz on “Hogan’s Heroes,” Fitzgerald knew nothing, saw nothing. In other words, a football program based on the three wise monkeys. If we’re to believe Fitzgerald, the hazing scandal at NU affected him deeply. “The experience has made me a better leader, a better man, a better husband, a better father and a better coach. And it has reinforced my commitment to creating an environment that’s going to be built on trust, discipline, communication and accountability.” None of which, I would argue, was present during Fitgerald’s seventeen years as head coach at NU.