In an unsurprising turn of events, Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald was named B1G Coach of the Year Tuesday evening.

Fitzgerald’s squad was one of the biggest surprises of 2018 after winning eight games and the B1G West. Making the achievement even more impressive, the Wildcats went 0-3 in non-conference play but finished a remarkable 8-1 in B1G play.

Fitzgerald was certainly deserving of the award and took time to discuss the award with the Big Ten Network. He deflected attention away from himself while choosing to shine a light on the efforts of his team and staff:

“It starts and ends in the locker room,” said Fitzgerald. “Our young men have been incredibly resilient, we’ve had an amazing brotherhood all year. Just so thankful for all that they do. This is a program award, this isn’t about me. This is about those young men and our great staff.”

Northwestern’s run over the second half of the season has been remarkable, especially after starting the season 1-3. When asked to explain the lessons learned from the early struggles, Fitzgerald simply explained the team learned losing is awful:

“That it’s awful to lose,” Fitzgerald explained while laughing. “It’s nothing magical. We turned the ball over a bunch in one game. In another we obviously got off to a great start (against Michigan) and then just couldn’t finish the job. Then we played a really good Duke football team that played really well against us…Nothing magical, just a team that stuck together and played for each other and won games.”

You can watch the full segment below, courtesy of BTN: