Entering his second decade as the head coach at Northwestern, Pat Fitzgerald has grown leaps and bounds in his in-game management, improved his recruiting ability and turned Northwestern into a program that is a perennial bowl contender. In six of the last eight years, his Wildcats have gone bowling, and two of his past four teams have hit double-digit wins on the season. He has given the smallest school (and the only private one) in the Big Ten a relatively consistent football program.
Yet when asked to list the "best coaches in America," most people will not name Pat Fitzgerald.