Pat Fitzgerald after winning rivalry game over Illinois: 'Today was just a physical domination'

Northwestern was struggling mightily in 2019. The Wildcats were coming off a 2018 Big Ten West title, but hadn’t won a conference game this season leading up to the final week.

Week 14, marked as rivalry week, was exactly that for Northwestern. Pat Fitzgerald got his chance to beat Illinois, which is an in-state rival for his team.

After the Wildcats got their first B1G win of the season, beating the Fighting Illini 29-10, Fitzgerald talked about what the rivalry means to him:

Fitz: "I'm a proud Carl Sandburg High School graduate, an Illinois native. As long as I'm the head coach, this will be our rivalry game…it's very important to everybody in Evanston."

— HAT (@insidenu) November 30, 2019

He was focused on the game, and not his future:

Understandably, Fitz did not want to answer questions about the future right now, choosing to focus only on the Illinois game. We did ask though!

— HAT (@insidenu) November 30, 2019

He also talked about what the game came down to and how Northwestern dominated:

Fitz: "Today was just a physical domination by our offensive line."

— HAT (@insidenu) November 30, 2019

Fitz: "The quarterback issue hurt them, but I have very little sympathy. We were on what, our fourth quarterback?"

— HAT (@insidenu) November 30, 2019