It’s too early in the year to say the season is over, but first-year head coach Pat Fitzgerald’s honeymoon is all but finished.

Losing to Division I-AA New Hampshire by 17 is embarrassing, but it’s not going to send Northwestern into another 30-plus game losing streak. There’s a very good chance that NU will win another game this year, maybe even a handful of games. But this team has problems.

Although the execution wasn’t what should be expected when a Big Ten team faces a lower-tiered opponent (even though New Hampshire is the second-ranked team in Division I-AA), the bigger issue was an inexperienced coaching staff showing it still needs more real-game experience.

Not only are the Cats breaking in a 31-year-old head coach, the team has five assistant coaches either learning new roles or beginning their first season in Evanston.

Defensive end Kevin Mims said the loss came down to more than just a lack of execution.

“New Hampshire obviously did a good job scouting us,” he said. “We’ve got to do a better job mixing up our looks.”

Mixing up looks is something coaches, not players, are charged with.

The offensive coaching was lackluster, as well.

The Cats thrived on momentum and rhythm last year on the way to being one of the top offenses in the nation. So far this season the only thing consistent with NU’s offense is a lack of rhythm.

While the offensive coordinator is the one usually questioned when a team struggles on that side of the ball, in this case it may be a young head coach spreading himself too thin.

“I was a little leery of throwing an interception,” Fitzgerald said of calling a running play for quarterback Mike Kafka on 3rd-and-4 in the second quarter, a conservative approach to the situation. “I wanted to make sure we gave ourselves the chance to get into field goal range.”

Yes, Randy Walker probably called some plays last season, but he was an offensive specialist, not a former linebacker. With all that Fitzgerald has to manage in his first season, calling plays shouldn’t be something he worries about. Fitzgerald could have been using coach speak to take the blame for his assistants, but usually a coach says ‘we’ when he really means his coaching staff. But he said ‘I’.

All the coaches, especially Fitzgerald, have to grow up much faster than their team does if they want to have any success this year.

There were dropped passes, missed holes, botched opportunities for turnovers on defense and miscues on special teams, but the players didn’t do enough wrong to lose the game by themselves.

“They knew our schemes a lot better than we knew theirs,” Mims said.

He probably didn’t mean to fault his coaches, but that’s what it sounded like. In defense of NU’s staff, this was New Hampshire’s first game of the season, so they were forced to study old tape to prepare for the contest.

Fitzgerald didn’t ask for this job: He was forced into the role under the worst of circumstances. But now that he has the responsibility of leading a program he has to do better.

Before the game NU started what it hopes to be a new pre-game tradition by having fans meet the team on newly named Walker Way when NU arrived at the stadium before the game.

“It got me ready to play,” Fitzgerald said.

Unfortunately for NU, it’s not time for Fitzgerald to play anymore – it’s time to lead a team.

The Cats’ word of the year is respond, and it’s time for Fitzgerald to do just that.

Abe Rakov is a Medill junior. He can be reached at [email protected].