On Monday night, Northwestern University head football coach Pat Fitgerald made an impassioned statement following his team’s 31-20 Holiday Bowl victory over Utah. In a post-game interview, Fitzgerald said that he would not be leaving Evanston, and that Northwestern is “home forever” for him.
To be fair, coaches have made statements like that before only to bolt for other jobs soon afterwards. Perhaps the best example took place in December of 2006, when then-Miami Dolphins coach Nick Saban said “I’m not going to be the Alabama coach.” Two weeks after making that statement, he agreed to a contract with the Crimson Tide.