More B1G shenanigans? Northwestern University, you're up!

[ImissWallyPryor 9046]

3 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

This is going well for you. 

Sounds like you may think I’m defending, Fitzgerald, but I’m not. I was responding to someone on Twitter trying to inject racist haircut rules into a hazing story. Then someone implying that it must be true because it appeared in the school newspaper. I believed my lying eyes that saw a wide variety of hairstyles on their roster. 

43 minutes ago, ChiTownDoc said:

No idea about haircut details but the racism shit is 100% true.  Hosted one of their TE’s wedding party in my condo years ago and he had some of his old teammates there.  He was embarrassed af hearing the jokes many of them made.  Haven’t talked to him in years but I’d guess he would begrudgingly admit this shit is true.  I say begrudgingly because being an ex football player there who went to their law school, he 100% went places with those connections being a big part of his success.  

That wouldn’t shock me one bit.

[Bartles 769]

1 hour ago, GabrielsHorn said:

When does he accept a position at TAMU?

I still think he'll be quietly (at first) hired as a "special assistant" with a Big Ten team after the season starts. These psychos will do anything for an edge in a game or two. I didn't realize how bad NU has been the last couple years, so not sure about his HC prospects in 2024.

I am sure execs at Fox and ESPN are having internal conversations about how much he'd cost and when it's safe to offer him. Spoiler alert: Fox actually doesn't give a fuck about the last part

[0xdeadbeef 1651]

44 minutes ago, gatormarc said:

If anyone is looking for a bad take...

I'm really pleased to see that 99% of the replies to that tweet are not supportive of Danny or Fitzgerald.   This is so cut and dry, there should be no grey area about his firing.

 

[ChiTownDoc 21154]

7 minutes ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

Sounds like you may think I’m defending, Fitzgerald, but I’m not. I was responding to someone on Twitter trying to inject racist haircut rules into a hazing story. Then someone implying that it must be true because it appeared in the school newspaper. I believed my lying eyes that saw a wide variety of hairstyles on their roster. 

That wouldn’t shock me one bit.

I should be measured and  accurate on that type of post.  One, it was off color jokes and not overt N word shit...I think most of us get you can say some racist shit without being an outright klansmen.  And 'many' is wrong, it was 2-3 guys.  Either way, it's 2023, you gots to go...

[0xdeadbeef 1651]

If I was Fitzgerald, I would:

• Hold a press conference tomorrow.
• Clearly accept the firing for cause.
• Clearly state that Hazing is wrong.
• Tell the victims how sorry your are it happened on your watch.
• Claim to not have known about the type and extent of the hazing.
• Then say some crap like "Since the buck stops with the Captain, I need to accept responsibility for my program and to learn to do better next time."

If nothing comes out in the next few weeks that show he did know details, the above might be a path to another multi-million dollar job.

 

...but It would be so much more entertaining if he does the above and then photos drop of him playing Car Wash. 

 

 

 

[Aqua Buddha 14597]

 

[tx 3 putt 76968]

12 hours ago, cabowabo said:

He done.

what a dumb ass and a weirdo 

[Mitch Cumsteen 18549]

46 minutes ago, ChiTownDoc said:

At some point motherfuckers here have wanted pretty much everyone.  Not sure what that really means.  I mean we are morons but that’s pretty well known.  

With all due respect, nobody here ever wanted Brent Venables.

Also... Fitz for sure deserves to be shitcanned over this but the skeptic in me sees a dude with a contract through 2030 who went 4-20 over the past two years and a school that just built a state of the art practice facility that realized, "Holy shit, we just got handed the world's biggest get out of jail free card. Let's play it." 

[The Ace of Aces 5184]

All credit to the Northwestern student journalists. NU tried o sweep this under the rug, they lit it on fire. Major kudos. 

[Blotto 23517]

19 minutes ago, The Ace of Aces said:

All credit to the Northwestern student journalists. NU tried o sweep this under the rug, they lit it on fire. Major kudos. 

Yeah, when I first read about this shit, I laughed about the 2 week suspension  in the middle of the fucking summer. I obviously didn't know the extent of the hazing allegations, but even then it struck me as laughably impotent for a school that doesn't really have expectations for their sports programs. Thats a pretty big first strike for a president about 6 months into his tenure there. 

[DFW Horn 6124]

 

[texifornia 56972]

2 minutes ago, DFW Horn said:

 

 

[Murfdogg21 4412]

If “car washes” include a swirlie, this dude looks like the type that catches a lot of them. 🚽 🌪️ 
 

[MrBig 5398]

Durkin can’t wait to hire this guy for the open coaching spot on defense 

[Skipper 6135]

9 minutes ago, texifornia said:

 

I mean legally, it sure as hells seems like Northwestern did not play this smart.  They paid for a 6 month "independent investigation" that presented findings and determined the appropriate punishment was a 2 week suspension.  Then ex player goes to the student newspaper and starts a media frenzy and they fire him 2 days later.   In the University's statement today, it stated the investigation did not result in any evidence the coaching staff was aware of the hazing.   So unless the University somehow came across a smoking gun in the last 2 days that the 6 month investigation failed to uncover, then Fitzgerald is going to get paid.   

[bullet 1597]

4 minutes ago, Skipper said:

I mean legally, it sure as hells seems like Northwestern did not play this smart.  They paid for a 6 month "independent investigation" that presented findings and determined the appropriate punishment was a 2 week suspension.  Then ex player goes to the student newspaper and starts a media frenzy and they fire him 2 days later.   In the University's statement today, it stated the investigation did not result in any evidence the coaching staff was aware of the hazing.   So unless the University somehow came across a smoking gun in the last 2 days that the 6 month investigation failed to uncover, then Fitzgerald is going to get paid.   

The guy who went to the student newspaper was quoted by several players as saying he was going to bring Fitzgerald down and he was going to lie and exaggerate.

That seems to be true.  Of course, there also seems to be enough collaboration that the hazing did in fact occur.  But there is nothing that indicates Fitzgerald knew about it.  That was the reason he only got two weeks initially.  Nothing new has come out except that it got more publicity.  As for the racism stuff, one of the guys is in therapy and they have tweets of his where he sings Fitzgerald's praises.  The rest are upset because they had 1 or 2 obnoxious racist teammates or because they couldn't wear dreads.  Lots of schools had that rule at the time.

Now you can argue that he should have known and should be fired because it happened on his watch, but that is not the conclusion NW came up with this summer.

 

[Texas Wahoo 3397]

4 minutes ago, bullet said:

The guy who went to the student newspaper was quoted by several players as saying he was going to bring Fitzgerald down and he was going to lie and exaggerate.

That seems to be true.  Of course, there also seems to be enough collaboration that the hazing did in fact occur.  But there is nothing that indicates Fitzgerald knew about it.  That was the reason he only got two weeks initially.  Nothing new has come out except that it got more publicity.  As for the racism stuff, one of the guys is in therapy and they have tweets of his where he sings Fitzgerald's praises.  The rest are upset because they had 1 or 2 obnoxious racist teammates or because they couldn't wear dreads.  Lots of schools had that rule at the time.

Now you can argue that he should have known and should be fired because it happened on his watch, but that is not the conclusion NW came up with this summer.

 

It’s obvious that the President changed his thinking after the details were made public, but he did explain his mistake and why he thinks that it was a mistake pretty clearly.
 

Quote

The confidential report concluded that while there was corroborating evidence that hazing had occurred, there was no direct evidence that Coach Fitzgerald was aware of the hazing. In determining an appropriate penalty for the head coach, I focused too much on what the report concluded he didn’t know and not enough on what he should have known. As the head coach of one of our athletics programs, Coach Fitzgerald is not only responsible for what happens within the program but also must take great care to uphold our institutional commitment to the student experience and our priority to ensure all students — undergraduate and graduate — can thrive during their time at Northwestern. Clearly, he failed to uphold that commitment, and I failed to sufficiently consider that failure in levying a sanction.

 

[tx 3 putt 76968]

It happened under this leadership / watch, it falls on him

the lawyer is to negotiate a golden parachute 

[Sbbruin 21856]

This is a huge surprise in how fast it happened.  Fitzgerald was a fixture in the B1G.

[LTtxfan 49190]

SIAP

Rece Davis 'shocked' by Northwestern hazing claims under Pat Fitzgerald | SportsCenter

[PittsburghTiger 6187]

4 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

SIAP

Rece Davis 'shocked' by Northwestern hazing claims under Pat Fitzgerald | SportsCenter

Then, Rece is an idiot. 

[Huckleberry 32861]

3 hours ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

Sounds like you may think I’m defending, Fitzgerald, but I’m not. I was responding to someone on Twitter trying to inject racist haircut rules into a hazing story. Then someone implying that it must be true because it appeared in the school newspaper. I believed my lying eyes that saw a wide variety of hairstyles on their roster. 

No, I have no opinion regarding what you thought of Fitzgerald. What I saw was your disparaging student journalists because sometimes journalism reveals things you wish weren't true. And it started to appear very quickly after you posted that those students were right and you were completely wrong not only about journalism in general but about those student journalists in particular. 

[Pig Bellmont 8719]

1 hour ago, bullet said:

But there is nothing that indicates Fitzgerald knew about it. 

Bullshit. The hazing described was institutional and there’s no way he didn’t know what was happening in his own locker room 

[Pig Bellmont 8719]

1 hour ago, bullet said:

but that is not the conclusion NW came up with this summer.

Also just because an internal investigation came to a favorable conclusion for the administration that paid for it doesn’t mean that the results (or methods) are above reproach 

[Skipper 6135]

9 hours ago, Texas Wahoo said:

It’s obvious that the President changed his thinking after the details were made public, but he did explain his mistake and why he thinks that it was a mistake pretty clearly.

If that's the best they have got, Fitz' attorney is going to have a field day unless NW has incredibly favorable 'for cause' language in their contract.   This would have been like Texas announcing a 2 week suspension of Beard AFTER doing an investigation only to get media blowback and fire him 48 hours later.  It's amateur hour by Northwestern when a massive contract is at stake.

[gatormarc 911]

8 hours ago, Pig Bellmont said:

Also just because an internal investigation came to a favorable conclusion for the administration that paid for it doesn’t mean that the results (or methods) are above reproach 

But it wasn't an internal investigation. They brought in an external independent investigator.

[Skipper 6135]

9 minutes ago, gatormarc said:

But it wasn't an internal investigation. They brought in an external independent investigator.

 This is why absent extremely favorable contractual language for NW they seem to be f'd here.  When you hire a 3rd party to do an independent investigation over a 6 month period collecting all available evidence (I mean the whistleblower admitted to ESPN he wanted Fitz fired so presumably he gave Arent Fox the ammo he had) and publicly announce a course of action (including discipline for the coach) only to bow to media pressure 2 days later, they f'd this up royally.

This was the course of action Northwestern decided on based on evidence presented to them:

In alignment with recommendations from ArentFox Schiff, Northwestern will enact several measures to prevent future hazing, including the permanent suspension of training camps in Kenosha, Wisconsin, monitoring of the football locker room and the implementation of new anti-hazing reporting processes and education programs for football players, coaches and staff.  In addition, head football coach Pat Fitzgerald will serve a two-week suspension without pay, beginning Friday, July 7.

[Js1 85346]

NU should ask for their money back and then give it to the J school for actually finding the dirt 

[Pig Bellmont 8719]

16 minutes ago, gatormarc said:

But it wasn't an internal investigation. They brought in an external independent investigator.

Don’t get caught up in the language. We’re saying the same thing- I’m just using the accepted term of art for what Northwestern did

[gatormarc 911]

1 minute ago, Pig Bellmont said:

Don’t get caught up in the language. We’re saying the same thing- I’m just using the accepted term of art for what Northwestern did

Gotcha.

[GopherRock 1765]

13 minutes ago, Skipper said:

If that's the best they have got, Fitz' attorney is going to have a field day unless NW has incredibly favorable 'for cause' language in their contract.   This would have been like Texas announcing a 2 week suspension of Beard AFTER doing an investigation only to get media blowback and fire him 48 hours later.  It's amateur hour by Northwestern when a massive contract is at stake.

This.

I initially thought the two week suspension was just so that the general counsel's office could get their documentation in order to fire him for cause at the end of the two weeks. It's now clear that the suspension WAS the punishment and the NU president changed his mind after this went public. In hindsight, they should have fired Fitz straightaway. 

[ChiTownDoc 21154]

10 hours ago, Skipper said:

I mean legally, it sure as hells seems like Northwestern did not play this smart.  They paid for a 6 month "independent investigation" that presented findings and determined the appropriate punishment was a 2 week suspension.  Then ex player goes to the student newspaper and starts a media frenzy and they fire him 2 days later.   In the University's statement today, it stated the investigation did not result in any evidence the coaching staff was aware of the hazing.   So unless the University somehow came across a smoking gun in the last 2 days that the 6 month investigation failed to uncover, then Fitzgerald is going to get paid.   

The President saying ‘it was my decision, and my decision alone’ was pretty fucking stupid too.  Dumbest nerds ever.  

[gatormarc 911]

Between this an the baseball coach hiring decision, this is starting to look like others are going to be cut loose at Northwestern.

[Magus Ossis 2800]

1. Hired external "independent" investigations are done for clients that the firm serves. There is no doubt that certain operating assumptions were in play to ensure that the investigation, its results, and the manner of their reporting would be in some way helpful and/or favorable to the university. See Baylor.

2. The university had its opportunity to act in accordance with the report's recommendations or to suggest an amendment based on newly surfaced evidence. Instead President Knee-Jerk fires Fitz when the water gets hot.

3. Fitz's suspension is an admission of what most here have stated. Coach knew or should have known about widespread, long-term, sexually abusive hazing. The actual hazing seems to be undisputed at this point. The report sounds to me to be crafted with a willing credulity wrt statements exculpating administration to the degree possible, with Fitz as the "gosh even he didn't know, but we are establishing high-level accountability" cutoff.

4. If they were really sexually abusing players (and it sounds as though they were), while Fitz seems to be in position to hurt NU based on their process, he is not being unfairly punished. One would think whispers of this had made it elsewhere in administration over a course of over 15 years. Perhaps not, but if so Fitz's might not be last head that should roll.

5. As above, kudos to the journos.

[Deej 76797]

Has Herbstreit declared the Big 10 a cesspool, yet?

[Texas Wahoo 3397]

13 hours ago, Post Oak said:

Danny beating Clay Travis, Dan Dakich and Whitlock to the punch.

Speaking of which...  I'm sure Pat Fitzgerald appreciates being lumped in with Art Briles by someone trying to defend him.

 

 

[Js1 85346]

The media won’t let Briles coach? Didn’t know they had that power. Impressive that they control every AD and hiring committee 

[Pig Bellmont 8719]

I’m curious to know what lies about Art Briles that Clay Travis thinks the media needs to acknowledge they were wrong about 

[NWAustinDude 2252]

NOT HAZING!

 

 

[Post Oak 20215]

34 minutes ago, Texas Wahoo said:

Speaking of which...  I'm sure Pat Fitzgerald appreciates being lumped in with Art Briles by someone trying to defend him.

 

 

The irony of a loudmouth, dimwitted, sports media personality calling other loudmouth dimwitted sports media personalities dumb isn't lost on me.

[4th&Five 41557]

 

[Skipper 6135]

1 hour ago, Magus Ossis said:

1. Hired external "independent" investigations are done for clients that the firm serves. There is no doubt that certain operating assumptions were in play to ensure that the investigation, its results, and the manner of their reporting would be in some way helpful and/or favorable to the university. See Baylor.

5. As above, kudos to the journos.

On #1 and #5, the University was also no doubt trying to assess/manage liability as well as determine course of action.  Of course findings are privileged and what is released to the public via executive summary is whitewashed but it stands to reason that Arent Fox would actually be attempting to uncover all the dirt to manage that risk (i.e., what is going to come out in full blown litigation if the whistleblower brings a claim against the University).  The University had access to the info when they made the initial decision on a suspension.

On #5, the journalist presented the whistleblowers case.   He also went on record saying he wanted Fitz fired.  It doesn't make any sense that he would hold anything back with Arent Fox compared to what he told the student newspaper.  In other words, the official investigation took his information + 6 months of research (including contradictory information) and came to conclusions which the University acted on.  Are we really thinking the student journalist uncovered new information Arent Fox didn't have?  Am I missing something?  

If NW fired Fitzgerald on Friday as an initial action, they may still be involved in a lawsuit with him but they are a much better position than they are now given the flip flop.   Any competent administrator dealing with a massive contract and high profile position should have anticipated the whistleblower going to the media with his side of the story.  They had 6 months to game plan this out with PR professionals and come up with a course of action.  If you decide to keep him after understanding the likely media response, you have a plan for that and you keep him absent new actual facts coming to light. Instead, they presumably did not anticipate the public reaction, panicked, and are likely going to settle with Fitz for a large sum while simultaneously leaving program in shambles having to figure out WTF to do a few weeks before fall camp starts.  Absolute Amateur Hour. 

Zero chance CDC would let this chain of events play out at Texas

 

[Jasper_Jester 356]

3 hours ago, Skipper said:

If that's the best they have got, Fitz' attorney is going to have a field day unless NW has incredibly favorable 'for cause' language in their contract.   This would have been like Texas announcing a 2 week suspension of Beard AFTER doing an investigation only to get media blowback and fire him 48 hours later.  It's amateur hour by Northwestern when a massive contract is at stake.

People were sexually assaulted in his locker room. Repeatedly. Even if the only provable thing is that it occurred and happened under his watch with nothing being done to identify or stop it, that is enough to fire a college coach. It might be amateur hour as far as public opinion, but they have plenty to fire him over.

[The Dog 44056]

 

[Skipper 6135]

40 minutes ago, Jasper_Jester said:

People were sexually assaulted in his locker room. Repeatedly. Even if the only provable thing is that it occurred and happened under his watch with nothing being done to identify or stop it, that is enough to fire a college coach. It might be amateur hour as far as public opinion, but they have plenty to fire him over.

That's fine.  Then make that decision initially instead of handing his attorney millions of dollars in leverage by first deciding the appropriate punishment was a 2 week suspension that cost Fitz ~ $100K compared to a termination 48 hours later with presumably the exact same information that cost Fitz $42MM.  

[Auto Driller 2506]

10 minutes ago, Skipper said:

That's fine.  Then make that decision initially instead of handing his attorney millions of dollars in leverage by first deciding the appropriate punishment was a 2 week suspension that cost Fitz ~ $100K compared to a termination 48 hours later with presumably the exact same information that cost Fitz $42MM.  

And naturally the reputational damage of having this thing remain in the headlines is worth a lot more than whatever Fitzgerald will settle for. So he’ll get $15 million, an 18 month vacation, and everyone in the AD and university administration will get their scheduled 12% raise and 7 weeks off.

[Beau Vine 54230]

On 7/10/2023 at 12:00 PM, gatormarc said:

"Old School" coach probably kept the same traditions going that were there when he was a player and an assistant.

Most of the defenders I've seen on the Internet seem to be of the "hazing is a natural part of football, you just don't understand because you're not a real man" line of thinking.

 

[Beau Vine 54230]

21 hours ago, The Dog said:

baseball program too:

 

Their baseball team started the 2023 season in San Marcos.  They got swept and gave up something like 60 runs in 3 games.   They were honestly the worst college baseball team I've ever seen.  I think they ended up something like 10-40.  They would have been at the bottom of the HBCU conferences.

[The Dog 44056]

Here's the full story on the baseball team/coach. 

https://www.insidenu.com/2023/7/11/23790437/former-northwestern-baseball-players-staffers-detail-misconduct-lack-accountability-under-jim-foster

Not sure if it should be here or start a new thread in Baseball. 

Spoiler

In a matter of 72 hours, things have gone from bad to worse for Northwestern.

While already dealing with a hazing controversy related to the football program, news broke via 670 The Score and the Chicago Tribune Monday afternoon that highlighted a variety of allegations against Northwestern baseball coach Jim Foster and the “toxic” environment he created in his first year in Evanston.

Inside NU had the chance to speak to several players and people close to the team about what it was like to be a part of the team during the 2022-2023 season. All information reported by 670 The Score’s Danny Parkins and the Chicago Tribune’s Jonathan Bullington will be attributed as such; otherwise, the remaining information was confirmed and compiled by Inside NU.

The culture around Jim Foster’s baseball team was so bad, half the team ended up in therapy.

According to someone close to the situation, it wasn’t just the team’s performance on the field that suffered as a result of the coach, but the mental health of the athletes as well. The environment that the Northwestern baseball players existed in and played in was harmful to everyone involved, and roughly 16 players have entered the transfer portal since the conclusion of the season.

“Unlike the situation with Fitz, you without a doubt will not be seeing any support for him being signed off on by our team, which speaks volumes,” a transferring player said about Foster, referring to the football team’s letter of support of Pat Fitzgerald.

According to several people near the situation, the head baseball coach made no effort to get to know his players. At practices, he was often virtually absent, sometimes seen on his computer with his back facing the players. That, of course, doesn’t even include when he was literally absent. In January, there were approximately 18 preseason team workouts. Foster was in attendance for four.

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“I didn’t even know he was on campus,” another former player said. “I was told he was in his office over in Anderson [Hall]. I had no reason to believe he was ever on campus in that month.”

In several press conferences and interviews months into the season that Inside NU attended or watched, Foster incorrectly pronounced many players’ names. At the end-of-the-year banquet in which parents of the athletes were also present, Foster gave speeches to honor each of the graduating seniors. His speeches were brief and seemed “disingenuous” and unprepared, with someone in attendance saying it was like he didn’t even know the guys he’d been coaching for nearly a year at all.

For one of the seniors at the banquet, in front of his family and everyone in attendance, Foster said, “You know, sometimes your natural talent can only take you so far.”

Foster may have been often disengaged from the team, but it was far worse when he was involved. The coach was abrasive during practices and games to not only the players on the team but also other staff members.

Against Saint Louis in March, an opposing player hit a ball that got through the infield. According to a player, Foster approached an assistant coach, who was in charge of defensive positioning, after the inning, and asked him why the shortstop was in that specific spot on the play. The assistant started to explain his reasoning, but Foster responded by getting in his face and yelling, “You shut the f—- up!” repeatedly until the assistant walked away.

“I have never seen an adult speak to another adult in that disrespectful of a manner,” the player said. “Especially not in the dugout in front of a team of players.”

Foster’s relationship with the assistant coaches was volatile, and the lack of respect given from him to his coworkers was a major reason for the filing of an HR report in November. The document of the report, obtained by the Chicago Tribune, described “bullying and abusive behavior” from Foster. The Tribune noted that there were times the coach would go into “expletive-laced tirades directed at his staff” and also mentioned inappropriate comments made regarding a female staff member.

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The HR report found evidence that these claims were true prior to the start of the season, yet Northwestern did not make any changes to protect the coaches, players and staffers from the abusive environment. As a result, two assistant coaches — Dusty Napoleon and Jon Strauss — and the team’s Director of Operations, Chris Beacom, stepped away from the program around the time of the beginning of the season in late February.

The former Army Black Knight coach’s culture was one that lacked accountability, for himself and players on the team. If he made a mistake, he usually made it someone else’s fault, not his own, according to a player who has since transferred.

“When he was wrong, it was never, ‘Oh, I made a mistake, I apologize, I’ll fix it,’” the player said.

The team had a series of signs they’d relay to the position players with specific arm movements and orientations during games. Foster once discussed the signs with the team but did the signs backwards, which a player said may have messed the team up. Instead of taking responsibility, Foster tried to gaslight the players into believing his way had been correct the whole time.

There was also an incident in January between Foster and Strauss in practice. The Wildcats were practicing bunt coverages that didn’t work because no one ended up covering first base, and when Strauss called out Foster and said they needed to fix the issues, the head coach dismissed the fact that they needed to change anything. This devolved into a screaming match between the two coaches, according to someone near the event.

Accountability was a major issue within Northwestern baseball this year. Under Spencer Allen, who coached the Wildcats from 2016-2021, the team had to sign a commitment that if they failed a drug test, they were kicked off. A source close to the team said Allen's policy created a sense of commitment that was bigger than one’s self, something that didn’t exist this year.

There were virtually no punishments for those who didn’t uphold the standards that are normally assumed of Northwestern baseball, with one example just being to show up on time for practice. The same source noted there was an athlete who missed a lift workout once, and his “punishment” was to get his plane ticket last. The player ended up starting a game the next day.

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Practices were also “a toss in the air” in how unpredictable they were. Foster often failed to put together plans, leaving the responsibility to the assistant coaches and not telling anyone what to do. When he did set up practices, it was often on things that a source close to the team said didn’t help them in games.

“We would have practices sometimes [when] we’d be bunting in four of our five cages for 30, 40 minutes,” the source said. “Nothing against bunting, but we’re going to go face Texas State Week One, and we’re facing Levi Wells throwing 95 [miles per hour]. We have our pinball machine, which can throw 95-mile-per-hour fastballs, curveballs, sliders, any pitch you want. We have it for 85-mile-per-hour fastballs, and we’re bunting off of it. That is not the way to win baseball games.”

Northwestern ended up losing all three games in the opening weekend to Texas State by a combined score of 56-18. The Wildcats allowed 24 runs in the final game of the series.

In practice, the players were also instructed to bunt fastballs and hit curveballs. Meanwhile, in games, they were taking curveballs and hitting fastballs, so the time they spent practicing did not help the team in games all that much.

This obviously did not translate to winning, as the Wildcats went 10-40 in 2023 with a lowly 4-20 record in Big Ten play. Players went so far as to say that from a developmental standpoint, none of the players got better because of anything that Foster did. In fact, one player said those who improved did so in spite of Foster and because of the massive amounts of work they put in on their own.

Another issue that really hit the team hard came right after the season ended regarding Buddy Baseball, a “non-competitive recreational league for boys and girls with special needs,” according to the Buddy Baseball website. One of the Northwestern managers, who regularly volunteers with the organization, brought up the idea of the Wildcats helping volunteer to Foster, who has a daughter with autism. Foster was on board with the opportunity, but it only went downhill from there.

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The manager told Inside NU that Foster would consistently push back their meetings to set up the event and postpone them without telling her. Eventually, they finally met and planned a volunteer date with the help of Northwestern’s Assistant Director of Community Relations, Rebekah Sigman.

However, five days before the event, Foster told the manager that since it was during Northwestern’s pre-finals Reading Week, NCAA rules prohibited organized team activities, and they would have to cancel the event. The ruling, though, does not prevent the players from volunteering on their own time, and after the manager had discussions with Sigman and Northwestern higher-ups, players were allowed to go to the event under the presumption that it was on their own time and not an organized activity. Twelve players planned to volunteer at the event.

Two hours before the Buddy Baseball game, the manager received a text from one of the players saying Foster was not allowing any of them to go, even though they had been cleared by Sigman and other members of the Northwestern athletic department. The organization had rescheduled the day to fit with the baseball team’s schedule, they had ordered pizza for the event, the Buddy Baseball players and parents were all “decked out in Northwestern gear,” and when they found out the team wouldn’t be there, they were heartbroken.

The Wildcat players who were planning on attending understood how bad it made them look, but felt even worse inside by the sheer fact that they had promised to go and couldn’t be there, even if it was out of their control.

“The NCAA prohibits organized activities during specific times and defines what an organized team activity is, and this did not fall under it,” the manager, who quit the team shortly after said. “Someone above him okayed it. He didn’t even give the players a reason, he just told the players they couldn’t go.”

In the aftermath of the troubling Northwestern baseball season, at least 16 players have entered the transfer portal out of the 35 that were on the team’s roster this past year. The team also loses several graduate students and seniors, meaning the Wildcats will likely return less than half of their roster if Foster remains as head coach. All three of the team captains from 2023 are also transferring to another school next year, two of which would’ve been seniors next year.

The ‘Cats are no strangers to losing talent to the transfer portal. Sean Sullivan just became a second-round MLB draft pick after transferring last year to Wake Forest, while Ethan O’Donnell (Virginia) and Jay Beshears (Duke) were each sixth-round selections on Monday. However, an exodus often comes with a coaching change, such as last summer, and is highly unusual for a team in which the coach remains at the school.

A source involved with the program emphasized just how massive it is for the program to lose not only that many players, but also those who are currently rising seniors.

“Those are kids that have put three years into this university, into the school, into the team, into this community and are willing to forego their Northwestern education so that they can play for a different head coach,” the source said. “That is something that we should be embarrassed by.”

Another former player, who’s since left NU via the transfer portal, echoed the same sentiment.

“I feel bad for the underclassmen; this was their first experience of college baseball and it’s not supposed to be like this,” the player said. “You’re not supposed to get a new coaching staff midseason. You’re not supposed to be 10-40. I feel for those guys that had to leave through the portal, the freshmen and sophomores who are eligible, because they’re getting the chance to get a world-class degree taken away from them because their baseball experience wasn’t what it was supposed to be, and that’s just not right.”

After being recruited to a top 10 academic university with the promise of developing their baseball skills against Big Ten competition, many of the same athletes who marched through the Arch with starry eyes and big aspirations will not even get the chance to walk across the graduation stage with their Northwestern degree, let alone finish out their collegiate careers in the purple and white. In an average transfer class, athletes have a variety of reasons for leaving. For former Northwestern baseball players leaving this year, there is one common denominator.

Things will likely get worse before they get better. The NU baseball team would likely have to completely reshape its roster to rebuild after the major losses, and the program would require a complete culture makeover.

However, there’s one thing that former players, coaches, staffers and managers all agree on, and that’s that nothing will get better until Jim Foster is gone.

 

[gatormarc 911]

Speaking of the baseball coach. Helluva writeup.

https://www.insidenu.com/2023/7/11/23790437/former-northwestern-baseball-players-staffers-detail-misconduct-lack-accountability-under-jim-foster

Spoiler

Former Northwestern baseball players, staffers detail misconduct, lack of accountability under Jim Foster
Things could not have gone worse in Foster’s first year in Evanston.

By Gavin Dorsey@gjdorsey7  Jul 11, 2023, 8:00am CDT  11 Comments / 11 New

In a matter of 72 hours, things have gone from bad to worse for Northwestern.

While already dealing with a hazing controversy related to the football program, news broke via 670 The Score and the Chicago Tribune Monday afternoon that highlighted a variety of allegations against Northwestern baseball coach Jim Foster and the “toxic” environment he created in his first year in Evanston.

Inside NU had the chance to speak to several players and people close to the team about what it was like to be a part of the team during the 2022-2023 season. All information reported by 670 The Score’s Danny Parkins and the Chicago Tribune’s Jonathan Bullington will be attributed as such; otherwise, the remaining information was confirmed and compiled by Inside NU.

The culture around Jim Foster’s baseball team was so bad, half the team ended up in therapy.

According to someone close to the situation, it wasn’t just the team’s performance on the field that suffered as a result of the coach, but the mental health of the athletes as well. The environment that the Northwestern baseball players existed in and played in was harmful to everyone involved, and roughly 16 players have entered the transfer portal since the conclusion of the season.

“Unlike the situation with Fitz, you without a doubt will not be seeing any support for him being signed off on by our team, which speaks volumes,” a transferring player said about Foster, referring to the football team’s letter of support of Pat Fitzgerald.

According to several people near the situation, the head baseball coach made no effort to get to know his players. At practices, he was often virtually absent, sometimes seen on his computer with his back facing the players. That, of course, doesn’t even include when he was literally absent. In January, there were approximately 18 preseason team workouts. Foster was in attendance for four.

“I didn’t even know he was on campus,” another former player said. “I was told he was in his office over in Anderson [Hall]. I had no reason to believe he was ever on campus in that month.”

In several press conferences and interviews months into the season that Inside NU attended or watched, Foster incorrectly pronounced many players’ names. At the end-of-the-year banquet in which parents of the athletes were also present, Foster gave speeches to honor each of the graduating seniors. His speeches were brief and seemed “disingenuous” and unprepared, with someone in attendance saying it was like he didn’t even know the guys he’d been coaching for nearly a year at all.

For one of the seniors at the banquet, in front of his family and everyone in attendance, Foster said, “You know, sometimes your natural talent can only take you so far.”

Foster may have been often disengaged from the team, but it was far worse when he was involved. The coach was abrasive during practices and games to not only the players on the team but also other staff members.

Against Saint Louis in March, an opposing player hit a ball that got through the infield. According to a player, Foster approached an assistant coach, who was in charge of defensive positioning, after the inning, and asked him why the shortstop was in that specific spot on the play. The assistant started to explain his reasoning, but Foster responded by getting in his face and yelling, “You shut the f—- up!” repeatedly until the assistant walked away.

“I have never seen an adult speak to another adult in that disrespectful of a manner,” the player said. “Especially not in the dugout in front of a team of players.”

Foster’s relationship with the assistant coaches was volatile, and the lack of respect given from him to his coworkers was a major reason for the filing of an HR report in November. The document of the report, obtained by the Chicago Tribune, described “bullying and abusive behavior” from Foster. The Tribune noted that there were times the coach would go into “expletive-laced tirades directed at his staff” and also mentioned inappropriate comments made regarding a female staff member.

The HR report found evidence that these claims were true prior to the start of the season, yet Northwestern did not make any changes to protect the coaches, players and staffers from the abusive environment. As a result, two assistant coaches — Dusty Napoleon and Jon Strauss — and the team’s Director of Operations, Chris Beacom, stepped away from the program around the time of the beginning of the season in late February.

The former Army Black Knight coach’s culture was one that lacked accountability, for himself and players on the team. If he made a mistake, he usually made it someone else’s fault, not his own, according to a player who has since transferred.

“When he was wrong, it was never, ‘Oh, I made a mistake, I apologize, I’ll fix it,’” the player said.

The team had a series of signs they’d relay to the position players with specific arm movements and orientations during games. Foster once discussed the signs with the team but did the signs backwards, which a player said may have messed the team up. Instead of taking responsibility, Foster tried to gaslight the players into believing his way had been correct the whole time.

There was also an incident in January between Foster and Strauss in practice. The Wildcats were practicing bunt coverages that didn’t work because no one ended up covering first base, and when Strauss called out Foster and said they needed to fix the issues, the head coach dismissed the fact that they needed to change anything. This devolved into a screaming match between the two coaches, according to someone near the event.

Accountability was a major issue within Northwestern baseball this year. Under Spencer Allen, who coached the Wildcats from 2016-2021, the team had to sign a commitment that if they failed a drug test, they were kicked off. A source close to the team said Allen's policy created a sense of commitment that was bigger than one’s self, something that didn’t exist this year.

There were virtually no punishments for those who didn’t uphold the standards that are normally assumed of Northwestern baseball, with one example just being to show up on time for practice. The same source noted there was an athlete who missed a lift workout once, and his “punishment” was to get his plane ticket last. The player ended up starting a game the next day.

Practices were also “a toss in the air” in how unpredictable they were. Foster often failed to put together plans, leaving the responsibility to the assistant coaches and not telling anyone what to do. When he did set up practices, it was often on things that a source close to the team said didn’t help them in games.

“We would have practices sometimes [when] we’d be bunting in four of our five cages for 30, 40 minutes,” the source said. “Nothing against bunting, but we’re going to go face Texas State Week One, and we’re facing Levi Wells throwing 95 [miles per hour]. We have our pinball machine, which can throw 95-mile-per-hour fastballs, curveballs, sliders, any pitch you want. We have it for 85-mile-per-hour fastballs, and we’re bunting off of it. That is not the way to win baseball games.”

Northwestern ended up losing all three games in the opening weekend to Texas State by a combined score of 56-18. The Wildcats allowed 24 runs in the final game of the series.

In practice, the players were also instructed to bunt fastballs and hit curveballs. Meanwhile, in games, they were taking curveballs and hitting fastballs, so the time they spent practicing did not help the team in games all that much.

This obviously did not translate to winning, as the Wildcats went 10-40 in 2023 with a lowly 4-20 record in Big Ten play. Players went so far as to say that from a developmental standpoint, none of the players got better because of anything that Foster did. In fact, one player said those who improved did so in spite of Foster and because of the massive amounts of work they put in on their own.

Another issue that really hit the team hard came right after the season ended regarding Buddy Baseball, a “non-competitive recreational league for boys and girls with special needs,” according to the Buddy Baseball website. One of the Northwestern managers, who regularly volunteers with the organization, brought up the idea of the Wildcats helping volunteer to Foster, who has a daughter with autism. Foster was on board with the opportunity, but it only went downhill from there.

The manager told Inside NU that Foster would consistently push back their meetings to set up the event and postpone them without telling her. Eventually, they finally met and planned a volunteer date with the help of Northwestern’s Assistant Director of Community Relations, Rebekah Sigman.

However, five days before the event, Foster told the manager that since it was during Northwestern’s pre-finals Reading Week, NCAA rules prohibited organized team activities, and they would have to cancel the event. The ruling, though, does not prevent the players from volunteering on their own time, and after the manager had discussions with Sigman and Northwestern higher-ups, players were allowed to go to the event under the presumption that it was on their own time and not an organized activity. Twelve players planned to volunteer at the event.

Two hours before the Buddy Baseball game, the manager received a text from one of the players saying Foster was not allowing any of them to go, even though they had been cleared by Sigman and other members of the Northwestern athletic department. The organization had rescheduled the day to fit with the baseball team’s schedule, they had ordered pizza for the event, the Buddy Baseball players and parents were all “decked out in Northwestern gear,” and when they found out the team wouldn’t be there, they were heartbroken.

The Wildcat players who were planning on attending understood how bad it made them look, but felt even worse inside by the sheer fact that they had promised to go and couldn’t be there, even if it was out of their control.

“The NCAA prohibits organized activities during specific times and defines what an organized team activity is, and this did not fall under it,” the manager, who quit the team shortly after said. “Someone above him okayed it. He didn’t even give the players a reason, he just told the players they couldn’t go.”

In the aftermath of the troubling Northwestern baseball season, at least 16 players have entered the transfer portal out of the 35 that were on the team’s roster this past year. The team also loses several graduate students and seniors, meaning the Wildcats will likely return less than half of their roster if Foster remains as head coach. All three of the team captains from 2023 are also transferring to another school next year, two of which would’ve been seniors next year.

The ‘Cats are no strangers to losing talent to the transfer portal. Sean Sullivan just became a second-round MLB draft pick after transferring last year to Wake Forest, while Ethan O’Donnell (Virginia) and Jay Beshears (Duke) were each sixth-round selections on Monday. However, an exodus often comes with a coaching change, such as last summer, and is highly unusual for a team in which the coach remains at the school.

A source involved with the program emphasized just how massive it is for the program to lose not only that many players, but also those who are currently rising seniors.

“Those are kids that have put three years into this university, into the school, into the team, into this community and are willing to forego their Northwestern education so that they can play for a different head coach,” the source said. “That is something that we should be embarrassed by.”

Another former player, who’s since left NU via the transfer portal, echoed the same sentiment.

“I feel bad for the underclassmen; this was their first experience of college baseball and it’s not supposed to be like this,” the player said. “You’re not supposed to get a new coaching staff midseason. You’re not supposed to be 10-40. I feel for those guys that had to leave through the portal, the freshmen and sophomores who are eligible, because they’re getting the chance to get a world-class degree taken away from them because their baseball experience wasn’t what it was supposed to be, and that’s just not right.”

After being recruited to a top 10 academic university with the promise of developing their baseball skills against Big Ten competition, many of the same athletes who marched through the Arch with starry eyes and big aspirations will not even get the chance to walk across the graduation stage with their Northwestern degree, let alone finish out their collegiate careers in the purple and white. In an average transfer class, athletes have a variety of reasons for leaving. For former Northwestern baseball players leaving this year, there is one common denominator.

Things will likely get worse before they get better. The NU baseball team would likely have to completely reshape its roster to rebuild after the major losses, and the program would require a complete culture makeover.

However, there’s one thing that former players, coaches, staffers and managers all agree on, and that’s that nothing will get better until Jim Foster is gone.