Chicago — It was a bittersweet occasion for Pat Fitzgerald at this month's Big Ten football media day.
On one hand, Fitzgerald had just been named head coach of Northwestern's football program on July 7, becoming the youngest coach in Division 1-A, at the age of 31.
But on the other hand, Fitzgerald knew he was only given the opportunity because former Wildcats head coach Randy Walker unexpectedly died on June 29 at the age of 52 after a successful seven-year stint as the head of Northwestern's football program.
"It's an honor to be here to represent our football family (and) to continue the likes of what Randy Walker created at Northwestern," Fitzgerald said. "It's been a very difficult month for not only myself, but more importantly, for our players."
In seven years as head coach at Northwestern, Walker compiled a 37-46 all-time record and became the first coach in school history to lead the team to three bowl games, including a berth in the 2005 Sun Bowl.
"We've all been called to duty with the passing of coach Walker to continue to make sure that we continue his legacy in the right matter," Fitzgerald said.
Now as the 29th head coach in Northwestern history, the former Wildcats Defensive Player of the Year will have big shoes to fill.
"I'm a brutally honest man, and that's the way that I coach," Fitzgerald said. "If you ask my players, I think I'm a carbon copy of coach Walker when it comes to that. I'm a very demanding coach — I'm very intolerant. I tell our players exactly what they need to hear, not what they want to hear."
Although Northwestern is slowly working through the process of becoming a football family again, other Big Ten coaches were quick to pay respect to Walker.
"Randy and I have known each other since 1972," Illinois head coach Ron Zook said. "The profession and the game of college football definitely will miss Randy Walker."
Year of the quarterback
The Big Ten will showcase nine returning starting quarterbacks in its 2006 season for the first time in more than 20 years.
Of the returning group, MSU's Drew Stanton, Iowa's Drew Tate, Michigan's Chad Henne, Ohio State's Troy Smith, Wisconsin's John Stocco and Minnesota's Bryan Cupito already have two years of starting experience on their résumés.
"I've been in this conference 27 years, and I don't remember a time when there were that many returning quarterbacks," U-M head coach Lloyd Carr said. "It bodes well for this conference and the kind of competition that the fans are going to see.
"Anytime you have veteran quarterbacks, you have a chance to win. With nine returning quarterbacks, it should be quite a race."
Seven of the returning signal-callers amassed the 2,000-yard passing mark last season, foreshadowing an upcoming year of offensive magic.
"The reason there are nine quarterbacks coming back and people are excited about them is because people throw the football," Penn State head coach Joe Paterno said. "If those nine guys hadn't thrown the football, you guys wouldn't even know whether they were coming back or not."
Replacing a legend
Joining Fitzgerald as a debut head coach is Wisconsin's Bret Bielema, who succeeded longtime Badgers coach Barry Alvarez following last season after spending the last two seasons under Alvarez as defensive coordinator.
Alvarez, who is currently the athletic director at Wisconsin, announced that Bielema would replace him nearly a year ago.
"Coach Alvarez probably showed me the way as being the complete package," Bielema said.
"From a football standpoint, he's just down the hallway. He's always a phone call away. He's had a hands-off approach and allowed me to do whatever I needed to do to have success."
In 16 seasons with Wisconsin, Alvarez compiled an all-time record of 118-73-4.
The Badgers will meet Northwestern on Oct. 7 for a gridiron matchup between the Big Ten's two new head coaches.
Big Ten Parity
The 111th season of Big Ten football is expected to kick off as competitively as it ended last year.
Penn State and Ohio State shared last year's crown with respective 7-1 conference records, and Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan and Northwestern all tied for third with 5-3 divisional marks.
Of the top three teams the conference announced in its 2006 preseason poll, Ohio State was predicted as the divisional favorite, followed by Michigan and Iowa respectively. But neither of the coaches are taking anything for granted.
"You better not short-sell Penn State, who still has part of the crown, and Iowa and Michigan State and on down the line," Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel said. "We've got a lot of good teams in this league."
In the last 10 years of Big Ten play, eight different teams have won the conference either outright or as co-champions.
"On any given Saturday, anybody can beat anybody," Zook said. "I know that everybody's got to pick an order — who's going to be picked here and who's going to be picked there — but if you go back and look in the 2000s, it's not (like) back when I was growing up where maybe it was a two-team league."
Eric Fish, State News sports reporter, can be reached at fisheric@msu.edu.
