Now That it is Over, What is Nick Fitzgerald's Legacy At MSU?

[thf24]

Go look at the 9-4 season for Relf and Last season for Fitz. The stats are virtually identical. Nick was a better athlete like you said.

Relf wasn't asked to throw the ball nearly as many times over the course of his career. If he had been, I suspect his passing line would look significantly worse.

[Tbonewannabe]

Relf wasn't asked to throw the ball nearly as many times over the course of his career. If he had been, I suspect his passing line would look significantly worse.

Mullen did a lot better job hiding his deficiencies than Joe did with Fitz this year.

[Scared_Hitless]

Relf wasn't asked to throw the ball nearly as many times over the course of his career. If he had been, I suspect his passing line would look significantly worse.

I was just comparing both of their 9-4 seasons the stats are identical. Fitz was a better version of Relf but cut from the same cloth tough athletic but limited as a passer.

[BB30]

Dude, come on put Haskins in our offense with our sunbelt WRs, and he won't be as good as Fitz. Wonder what Fitz could do with Urban as a coach with OSU talent. I know he would have been hell on wheels.

Let me preface this by saying I am a Nick fan probably more so than most on this board. If Haskins were our QB this year we win 2 more games at a minimum. We beat UF and we beat Iowa. We have had guys open all season and couldn't get them the ball.

Fitz just got screwed when Mullen left due to an offense that was perfect for him leaving as well. He just didn't really fit what Moorhead was wanting to do and JOMO struggled to mold the offense around him. Not for a lack of trying, I just don't think JOMO could completely get away from what he knows.

Go back and watch some of our games, your always going to have guys open that get missed due to being the 2nd or 3rd read but it happened a lot this year.

That is the one reason I have hope that JOMO will end up panning out. He was able to get our "sunbelt" WRs open quite a bit. We just couldn't get them the ball when they did get open.

[msstate7]

Let me preface this by saying I am a Nick fan probably more so than most on this board. If Haskins were our QB this year we win 2 more games at a minimum. We beat UF and we beat Iowa. We have had guys open all season and couldn't get them the ball.

Fitz just got screwed when Mullen left due to an offense that was perfect for him leaving as well. He just didn't really fit what Moorhead was wanting to do and JOMO struggled to mold the offense around him. Not for a lack of trying, I just don't think JOMO could completely get away from what he knows.

Go back and watch some of our games, your always going to have guys open that get missed due to being the 2nd or 3rd read but it happened a lot this year.

That is the one reason I have hope that JOMO will end up panning out. He was able to get our "sunbelt" WRs open quite a bit. We just couldn't get them the ball when they did get open.

Just forget all that... Haskins is a top 5 QB in the country. He's better than fitz, and that isn't an insult to fitz

[Scared_Hitless]

I wish there was a place to get a coach film to our games, would love to look at the all 22 like I do with NFL teams on Gamepass. Seeing if Nick was all misreads or if our receivers are as bad as we all think.

[Tbonewannabe]

I wish there was a place to get a coach film to our games, would love to look at the all 22 like I do with NFL teams on Gamepass. Seeing if Nick was all misreads or if our receivers are as bad as we all think.

That would also tell you if the playcallling was bad or if it was players not executing.

[msstate7]

I wish there was a place to get a coach film to our games, would love to look at the all 22 like I do with NFL teams on Gamepass. Seeing if Nick was all misreads or if our receivers are as bad as we all think.

Not exactly what you looking for, but PFF rankings for players will tell you how they grade out

[Tbonewannabe]

Not exactly what you looking for, but PFF rankings for players will tell you how they grade out

I am interested in how they grade something like the flea flicker play? It was the perfect play call to the point that Fitz just didn't throw the ball. The play worked exactly like you hope and just depended on a QB being able to complete a 40 yard pass.

I know Joe said Fitz was making the correct reads but is he just saying that because Fitz was already getting enough shit so he was protecting him. Maybe Key or Mayden weren't any better or Fitz was good in practice but not great in games when facing a good defense.

[yjnkdawg]

I am interested in how they grade something like the flea flicker play? It was the perfect play call to the point that Fitz just didn't throw the ball. The play worked exactly like you hope and just depended on a QB being able to complete a 40 yard pass.

I know Joe said Fitz was making the correct reads but is he just saying that because Fitz was already getting enough shit so he was protecting him. Maybe Key or Mayden weren't any better or Fitz was good in practice but not great in games when facing a good defense.

I think Fitz thought he was making the right reads based upon what he was reading on the defense sets, but I know LSU baited him into keeping the ball a lot , and I think Iowa did the same thing.

[maroonmania]

I think Fitz thought he was making the right reads based upon what he was reading on the defense sets, but I know LSU baited him into keeping the ball a lot , and I think Iowa did the same thing.

Apparently every team we played every week baited him into keeping the ball inside the 5 yard line because that is about the only play we ever ran although it became clear every team was keying in him. It's odd that people were surprised that Fitz kept the ball 3 straight times against Iowa from the one. Going back to the Auburn game he kept it 4 straight times where he questionably scored the TD on 4th and goal. For this year I would dare say that 90% of our plays inside the 5 were delayed runs by Fitz. Whatever Fitz was reading it always seemed to end up in him taking the ball himself.

[yjnkdawg]

Apparently every team we played every week baited him into keeping the ball inside the 5 yard line because that is about the only play we ever ran although it became clear every team was keying in him. It's odd that people were surprised that Fitz kept the ball 3 straight times against Iowa from the one. Going back to the Auburn game he kept it 4 straight times where he questionably scored the TD on 4th and goal. For this year I would dare say that 90% of our plays inside the 5 were delayed runs by Fitz. Whatever Fitz was reading it always seemed to end up in him taking the ball himself.

Well, he did also like to run the ball. So that could be a determining factor in some instances. I know LSU said they were not going to get beat by our running backs, and they weren't scared of our passing game. So if they got beat, it would be our quarterback running the ball. I don't like those delayed RPO checks when you are down inside the 5 yard line. That just seems to give the defense more time to react.

[Todd4State]

Mullen did a lot better job hiding his deficiencies than Joe did with Fitz this year.

Dan's offense was so QB run heavy no one noticed when Fitzgerald made a bad read. The thing is Dan's offense steadily declined every year since 2014. And Nick's stats were pretty comparable this year to when Dan was here. Maybe even better considering that Nick didn't play against Stephen F Austin who I am sure he would have lit up.

I am interested in how they grade something like the flea flicker play? It was the perfect play call to the point that Fitz just didn't throw the ball. The play worked exactly like you hope and just depended on a QB being able to complete a 40 yard pass.

I know Joe said Fitz was making the correct reads but is he just saying that because Fitz was already getting enough shit so he was protecting him. Maybe Key or Mayden weren't any better or Fitz was good in practice but not great in games when facing a good defense.

PFF grades players individually. So if the running back "did their job" on a flea flicker by giving the QB a good pitch back it's graded on a scale of like a 1. If you make an exceptional play you get like a 2. Nick missing the wide open receiver probably would have gotten a 0 or a -1. At the end of the game they add up all of the players points and then they are rated. I'm probably off on the scale that they use but it's an example of how they do it.

Apparently every team we played every week baited him into keeping the ball inside the 5 yard line because that is about the only play we ever ran although it became clear every team was keying in him. It's odd that people were surprised that Fitz kept the ball 3 straight times against Iowa from the one. Going back to the Auburn game he kept it 4 straight times where he questionably scored the TD on 4th and goal. For this year I would dare say that 90% of our plays inside the 5 were delayed runs by Fitz. Whatever Fitz was reading it always seemed to end up in him taking the ball himself.

Well, he did also like to run the ball. So that could be a determining factor in some instances. I know LSU said they were not going to get beat by our running backs, and they weren't scared of our passing game. So if they got beat, it would be our quarterback running the ball. I don't like those delayed RPO checks when you are down inside the 5 yard line. That just seems to give the defense more time to react.

The RPO works better with the "P" option. I don't know that I buy Nick making the right reads. You can't tell me that he's making the right read when he keeps the ball on a RPO and there are two guys in front of him looking like they are unblocked tackling him while Kylin is running free by himself. Someone should have been open or we should have been able to hand it off for a walk in TD. The only other possibility is our o-line getting beat which I'm sure happened at times as well. If anything if I'm a DC and I want Nick to try to beat me I'm going to try to bait him into a throw- not a run.


I think Joe is protecting the players. As he should.

[Matty Dispatch]

I'll remember Nick as a player who when he stepped between those lines he was gonna give you everything he had. He definitely had his deficiencies in his decision making and accuracy, but I never doubted that the kid wasn't giving everything he had for us. His toughness and game breaking speed is what I'll remember the most.

That's all you can ask for. It is up to the coaches to recruit and play the best players. If they thought Nick was the best QB to play for 3 years than that's what it was. I don't ever recall anyone saying he didn't give it 100% on and off the field, so you have to respect him for that. He may not have played how we wanted a QB to play at times, but he did the best he could with his abilities and the coaches are the ones who put him in the position and called the plays.

[Matty Dispatch]

IMO, don't think he has one. Just another QB who was a good runner and couldn't pass. Bout like John Bond. I would rate Bond ahead of him for managing to beat an undefeated #1 ranked BAMA team in 1980. Of course, Fitz probably would have been awesome running the wishbone at one of the service academies.

Fitz would've beat #1 Bama if his defense hadn't given up two late scores in 2017. He did enough in that game and was much more productive vs. Bama than Bond was in his win. I beat if you put Fitz in the 1980 wishbone he dominates a lot more than Bond did.

[Saltydog]

option offense...?..

[was21]

I worked with several Naval Academy graduates and they weren't all that intelligent.