Welcome to the Nick Fitzgerald Era

In the Fall of 2013, I got to witness one of the best performances by a high school QB I'd ever seen. In 35+ years of watching HS football in GA, only twice have I ever seen a QB just take over a game and single handedly destroy an opponent in a big game. One of those was my friend Eric Zeier. The other was Nick Fitzgerald. I wrote about Nick that night on this board and felt confident that we had the next guy on deck. I realize he isn't perfect, and has a lot of growth to do, but if Dan plays to his strengths we are looking at another solid QB to lead us.

I will say this about the concerns about leadership and whether the team responds to him. First, his HS coaches raved constantly about his leadership. Second, culturally, he is different than the bulk of our team. A Savannah, Ga kid is going to be different than just about anyone from MS. I know that from my own experience coming from metro ATL to MSU 25 years ago. That being said, sometimes teams need that different spark or even conflict to make them work. We may only win 6-7 games this year but, I feel a lot better after the shitburger I witnessed last Saturday. Hail State!

This is what I expected to see from him last week.

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Originally Posted by DownwardDawg

This is what I expected to see from him last week.

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But it may wind up being the best thing that could have happened to the team. Dam. Williams is a true Bulldog, and probably a very good leader, he just isn't an SEC QB. Last week proved it to us and the team, so next man up. And that's Fitz.

I never bought into the whole team hates Nick stuff. Dak always talked about Nick being a leader and how good he was. Lot of stuff always floats around when you lose. Proud of Nick and the whole team. He certainly was a leader tonight!

Thanks for the insight Brunswick.

You can tell he has the athletism. He has more talent than some I've seen play the position at MSU. Fitz just had the misfortune of following the greatest QB in our history.

Fitz will be good. He just needs some time and patience from us, fans.

Hes gonna be like Dak was in 2013. Probably a little better by the end. He can tote it hes gotta learn where to go with the ball and he will. We've got another good one folks. Props to Dan

Fitz is the next Dak. He looked good tonight. He's going to be fine for the next 2 or 3 years. The future is bright.

He looks more like Alex Smith to me than Dak. Which I think Mullen could live with.

All Nick needs is reps and patience. Sure he's gonna make some mistakes cause he's still learning but the tools are there and that young man ran his heart out at times when we needed first downs. Also did y'all notice several times he felt the blind side pressure and stepped away from it? That was impressive.

Fitz has a high ceiling. A really high ceiling. Has some learning to do but will be alright. Once he gets that read option down, he might gash that over aggressive blazing OM defense for us at year end.

I’M repeatng myself but I truly believe Fritz can give LSU and UNM a lot of trouble.....Just got a feeling......

[QUOTE=Commercecomet24;609340]All Nick needs is reps and patience. Sure he's gonna make some mistakes cause he's still learning but the tools are there and that young man ran his heart out at times when we needed first downs. Also did y'all notice several times he felt the blind side pressure and stepped away from it? That was impressive.[/QUOT

He had great Blind side awareness!! Also the way he was finishing his runs was really good!

I didn't see his teammates help him up much after tackle or congratulate him after a good play, that could be a tell about how they feel about him. But it's been my experience that success will make you a lot of friends.

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Originally Posted by msbulldog

I didn't see his teammates help him up much after tackle or congratulate him after a good play, that could be a tell about how they feel about him. But it's been my experience that success will make you a lot of friends.

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I also noticed the same thing, but I did see after the game how he was high fiving and stuff the rest of the team... I hope the rumors arent true about it all and we can build off this as a team and go make some noise...

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Originally Posted by TNDawg35

I also noticed the same thing, but I did see after the game how he was high fiving and stuff the rest of the team... I hope the rumors arent true about it all and we can build off this as a team and go make some noise...

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I really liked his elusiveness. Many times the pocket collapsed, he felt pressure and turned a negative play into positive on his on ability

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Originally Posted by msbulldog

I didn't see his teammates help him up much after tackle or congratulate him after a good play, that could be a tell about how they feel about him. But it's been my experience that success will make you a lot of friends.

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And leadership is lonely. If winning is the focus they don't have to behave like blood brothers to be an effective team.

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Originally Posted by msbulldog

I didn't see his teammates help him up much after tackle or congratulate him after a good play, that could be a tell about how they feel about him. But it's been my experience that success will make you a lot of friends.

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Actually several different linemen helped him up when he was tackled. He didn't go down every play. I also saw several teammates go up to him after the game and congratulate him. During the game on the sideline guys were encouraging him too. Didn't appear at all that the team has a problem with him. Winning and battling to win will bring them all together as brothers. He grew up a lot last night, the team followed him into battle and won. The myth that the team wouldn't follow Nick was just that, a myth.

Many times he went down and popped up on his own before anyone could get to him. If Mullen can improve Fitz's passing like he did Daks then Fitz could be ridiculously good by his Senior year.

And the. You have to think you will have both Tiano and Thompson waiting in the wings to take over from there. ��

Fitz was awesome yesterday .

and seeing that just leaves me, and most all of us, wondering what the hell Dan was doing last week by not putting Fitz back in the game. If he keeps him in and we run the offense of last night, no question we win.

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Originally Posted by Bucky Dog

and seeing that just leaves me, and most all of us, wondering what the hell Dan was doing last week by not putting Fitz back in the game. If he keeps him in and we run the offense of last night, no question we win.

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Hopefully last week was to Dan what Bud Adam's telling Jackie that Jeff Fischer was going to be the Titan's HC was to him.

Fitzs has it all, you could see glimpse of it last year. Huge arm, can throw from differnt angles, mobile, feels pressure, perfect size. I love how he looks to go deep on any play and he didn't look like the game was to big for him last night.
He started out taking to much time to release the ball but in the second half that was even getting better.

It pisses me off that he has to go into Baton Rouge with just one game under his belt.

Not sure if anyone else noticed, but after the game Fitz had tears in his eyes. He was so happy to win he was tearing up. The guy wants to win and has always won. Hopefully we build from this all around. And he was standing there arms around all his teammates. Can't post the picture from phone but will try when I get back to computer.