His only answer is a big smile, but it says everything. He just laughs, stuffs his burrito back in his mouth and passes the question on to his wife.

She’s a little embarrassed, so she smiles, too.

Sure, Moscow, Idaho, was a fun town — and so was Boulder, Colo. and College Park, Md. But the migrant life of an assistant football coach isn’t easy for any young couple. And four jobs at four schools in four years is a tough life for anyone.

So just how did it feel to come back to Evanston after chasing odd jobs around the country for five years?

Simply put, Pat and Stacy Fitzgerald are glad to be back home.

Now Evanston isn’t quite their hometown of Orland Park, Ill., where the couple grew up and attended high school. But Evanston is where Fitzgerald carved out his legacy as one of the greatest football players in Northwestern history.

As a linebacker for the Wildcats from 1993 to 1997, Fitzgerald was the linchpin to one of the most dominating college defenses in the country on one of the greatest NU teams ever. His performance twice earned the title of the nation’s best defensive player. In short, Evanston welcomes back Fitzgerald with open arms.

But the years following his shimmering college football career were spent bouncing between apartments and assistant coaching jobs. Fitzgerald learned from famed coaches about the game of football, but he also had to live in places like Moscow, Idaho.

Fitzgerald got a call in July from his friend and former teammate Justin Chabot, NU’s coordinator of football operations. Chabot told Fitzgerald that the Cats needed a new defensive backs coach. Needless to say, Fitzgerald didn’t take long to decide. He moved back to Evanston within weeks.

And he hasn’t looked been back since.

“I’m here for good,” Fitzgerald said. “And I feel very blessed.”

THE POSTER BOY

Things started to come back to Fitzgerald last Saturday when he stepped off the bus at Purdue’s Ross-Ade Stadium. The last time he had seen the big drum at that creaky old stadium in person was back in 1995. With his left leg broken, Fitzgerald was forced to sit out the last game of the Cats’ season — a climactic win over Purdue that gave NU an 8-0 conference record and the Big Ten title.

Despite playing only 10 games that year, Fitzgerald was honored as National Defensive Player of the Year.

“I got to the be the poster boy for a great defense, and it was nothing of my doing — I was just along for the ride,” Fitzgerald said. “If you look at our professional careers, none of have done much. There was just something special about the way we worked together as a team.”

The Cats’ stunning upset victory over the Fighting Irish set in motion a season with only regular-season loss. That defeat came at the hands of Miami (Ohio) and a certain sharp-minded coach who also understands the excitement of coaching where he once played.

“I think there’s a certain passion that follows you when you coach at your alma mater,” NU head coach Walker said. “When your team’s had success, you feel like you’re more than a part of the history — you’re a part of the investment.”

Fitzgerald followed up one outstanding season with another. In 1996, he became the first player in college football history to be named National Defensive Player of the Year in consecutive years. More so, a healthy Fitzgerald followed his Cats all the way to the Citrus Bowl.

It was during those years that Fitzgerald decided football would be his life.

“Without football, I don’t know if I could have been part of the culture here,” Fitzgerald said.

SOAKING IT UP

Following graduation, it didn’t take long for Fitzgerald to get a taste of the real world. He got his walking papers after playing a few preseason games with the Dallas Cowboys. After heading back to Chicago, Fitzgerald shed a few pounds and got a job a local radio station. But after bailing out an economics major his first quarter at NU, Fitzgerald knew the business world was not for him.

He needed football.

His first coaching job came in 1998 as a graduate assistant at Maryland. Then, after NU head coach Gary Barnett did an about-face and headed for Colorado, Fitzgerald followed him, working as a secondary coach for the first time in his life.

“He always related well and he was a very knowledgeable coach,” Barnett said. “He’s one of those guys who was just a natural at the job.”

Next the very next season, when Idaho pegged Colorado offensive coordinator Tom Cable for their head coaching spot, Fitzgerald played follow-the-leader again. But at Idaho, he started coaching a new group — the linebackers.

“Instead of pouring coffee and running scout teams, I was working with the players,” he said.

Fitzgerald looks back on all these jobs as great learning opportunities — chances to soak up more knowledge of the game.

Even at Idaho, Fitzgerald’s eyes were wandering eastward. He and Chabot, his co-captain from the 1996 team, spoke on phone several times per year. Each man was present at the other’s wedding, and whenever Fitzgerald was at home in Illinois, he made sure to stop by his old stomping grounds for a hello and a handshake.

Little visits like these got Fitzgerald an introduction to Walker. And when defensive backs coach Brad Bolinger quit over the summer, Walker thought of Fitzgerald.

DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES

By mid-July, he was working with the struggling Cats’ secondary — reprising the job he had at Colorado. But being at back at the school that made him a legend came as a shock to the young coach.

“It was at first surreal,” Fitzgerald said. “But a dream come true would be a better way to put it.”

But his dream job took a heartbreaking turn when senior safety Rashidi Wheeler died during a workout just a month after Fitzgerald arrived. Following Wheeler’s collapse, Fitzgerald went to Evanston Hospital, where he saw the hurt in the eyes of the players.

Like his other jobs, Fitzgerald said he followed the head coach’s lead. This time, he stood behind Walker as he guided the program through its most trying time.

“We could all see how much (Walker) hurt and we could all see how strong he was,” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald had only met Wheeler a handful of times, but said the safety’s memory has played an important role in keeping the Cats’ positive.

But the season has been a rough one for Fitzgerald’s secondary. In every game, the Cats’ defensive backs have been smoked by opposing receivers and running backs. NU’s hodgepodge of seniors and freshmen have been plagued by injury and inconsistency — topped off by their coach’s inexperience as a defensive backs coach.

Still, when Fitzgerald talks, his players listen.

“He definitely coaches us with a linebacker mindset,” said senior safety Marvin Brown, who remembers looking up to Fitzgerald when he was a recruit at NU in 1996.

“He knew more about football when he was in college than our whole team put together,” said Conrad Emmerich, who was an understudy to Fitzgerald in 1996. “He should have been paid as a coach back then.”

And Fitzgerald knows his trophies speak louder than he can. He said the 1995 and 1996 teams laid the groundwork for an NU football program that can only grow larger.

“There’s a lot of pride that has happened around here,” Fitzgerald said. “When you think of Michigan, you think of the last 100 years of football. We’re in year five or six.”

He and Stacy have moved into their new place, located closer to their parents and siblings in the Chicago area. Back in purple and white, Fitzgerald is content to coach NU football for many years to come.