"He failed to do so" - Ahead of Pat Fitzgerald’s $130,000,000 lawsuit, Northwestern releases official statement calling out former coach

Former Northwestern Wildcats football coach Pat Fitzgerald has his day in court as he is seeking $130 million in a wrongful termination lawsuit against the school. Fitzgerald was fired in July after allegations of hazing were raised under his watch within the Wildcats program.

Before today's lawsuit between Pat Fitzgerald and Northwestern University, the school issued a statement:

"As head coach of the football program for 17 years, Patrick Fitzgerald was responsible for the conduct of the program. He had the responsibility to know what hazing was occurring and to stop it. He failed to do so. As part of the six-month independent investigation, multiple current or former football student-athletes acknowledged that hazing took place within the football program."

The statement continued by discussing what acts that were founded and it has been reportedly going on for years.

"Student-athletes across a range of years corroborated these findings, showing beyond question that hazing - which included nudity and sexualized acts - took place on Fitzgerald's watch."

They continue to discuss how the safety of the students is their top priority and that the termination of Pat Fitzgerald was the appropriate direction for them to go.

Fitzgerald was originally suspended without pay by the university for two weeks but once more players came forward with the alleged hazing stories, Northwestern made the decision to terminate his contract. There have also been several lawsuits that have been filed on behalf of former players against both Pat Fitzgerald and Northwestern.

Fitzgerald has denied having any knowledge of hazing activity going on within the program.

How have the Northwestern Wildcats done since terminating Pat Fitzgerald?

The Northwestern Wildcats were behind the eight-ball as they were less than six weeks away from the start of the college football season when they fired Pat Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was one of the longest-tenured coaches before his firing but the Wildcats hold a 2-3 record thus far.

Defensive coordinator David Braun is serving as the team's interim head coach and the team is not doing too well statistically. They are currently 105th in college football with 21.8 points per game and tied for 92nd with 28.8 points per game given up. While the numbers may not sound great, they already surpassed their previous season's 1-11 record(1-8 in Big Ten action).

It will be interesting to see if Northwestern decides to just remove the interim tag from Braun and name him as the official new head coach.