Fitzgerald Fired, Sonny's Hot Takes & the History of NBA Street

1) Pat Fitzgerald fired by Northwestern

In what’s becoming a yearly trend, another unexpected bombshell rocked the college football world in July.

On Monday, Northwestern fired Pat Fitzgerald amidst hazing allegations within the football program. University president, Michael Schill made the decision after a tumultuous weekend marked by The Daily Northwestern — the university's esteemed student newspaper — revealing the explicit details of the hazing activities involved. Though initially suspended for just two weeks, it quickly became clear that the situation was untenable and Fitzgerald needed to go.

Fitzgerald WAS Northwestern football. He was the best player in team history, the program’s winningest coach by the time he was 40 years old, and a favorite among the powerful donors that have helped fund football operations. Earlier this week, we spoke with Rodger Sherman, formerly the sports editor at The Daily Northwestern, about the power structures behind the scenes within the Wildcat program. We also chatted with Matt Brown on today’s episode about the fallout that seems destined to affect others beyond Fitzgerald.

Where do things go next for the Cats? For the interim, David Braun will be taking over as head coach. Braun was hired in January from North Dakota State as defensive coordinator. Longer term, the list of candidates is far more interesting than you might’ve expected. Oh, and before you ask, that Internet rumor about Ed Orgeron being a candidate is apparently not true.

2) Notre Dame’s slow dance with the Big Ten

Shoutout to Scott Dochterman from The Athletic for cobbling together the complicated history of Notre Dame’s relationship with the Big Ten. The quotes in his piece from former Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany offer great insight into why the biggest realignment no-brainer has yet to happen. For his part, Delany maintains that the Irish are well-insulated from the current climate of tectonic conference shifts:

Dochterman’s piece is part of a full “Realignment Revisted” series that The Athletic is running and is well worth your time.

3) Sonny Dykes = Realignment Takesman

Conference media days are a manufactured event to drum up interest in the upcoming season. To be honest, that’s part of the charm. If nothing more, Big 12 Media Days are delivering quotables from some of the conference’s biggest names. Sonny Dykes, for example, had some THOUGHTS on realignment. The full video is here from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. For my money, the best part of these quips is the low key delivery. I’d like to hear what Sonny really thinks after a few cocktails.

Also: Quinn Ewers got rid of his mullet, Brett Yormark is very satisfied, Dana Holgorsen consulted with Case Keenum on the best time to name a starter, Jalon Daniels wears a chain containing his highlights from last season, and a “major musical performer” will play at halftime of the Big 12 Championship Game.

4) Aflac swoops in for kickoff

After 15 years of being sponsored by Chick-fil-A, Atlanta’s annual kickoff game will fly the Aflac flag for this year’s Georgia Tech vs. Louisville game. Here’s the backstory on how the insurance giants swooped in and grabbed the sponsorship for one of college football’s most prominent games.

For what it’s worth, Chick-fil-A will still be prominently featured as a sponsor this coming season and the upcoming Peach Bowl.

5) This tweet from Lincoln Riley set Twitter ablaze

Does this look good to you?

✍️ Others Receiving Votes (from our esteemed Verballers.com community)

The complete history of NBA Street? Hell yeah and hat tip to “Captain Mortgage” on our Discord for the rec:

Shout out to “Ranch Hand Dan” on our Verballer Discord for finding this monster of a man who ate everything on the menu at every fast food restaurant in a very short span of time:

Because we got to talking about the upcoming EA Sports College Football video game this week, here’s something from a guy still playing the old one, courtesy of Josh G on our Discord:

WHAT'S GOOD IN THE VERBALLERHOOD?

This week, we dedicated much of our coverage to the dismissal of Pat Fitzgerald. But we also tackled some other issues with our friend Matt Brown, who gave us an update on the upcoming EA Sports video game, the San Diego State vs. Mountain West squabble, and more.

Listen to the podcast by clicking here or check out this week’s episodes below. You can also view full episode videos and smaller clips on our YouTube channel. If you’re already a subscriber, I’d kindly emplore you to tell as many of your friends as possible about The Solid Verbal College Football Podcast.

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST EPISODES: