Packers Morning Buzz: Next coach could come from college ranks

Welcome to your Morning Buzz, rounding up news and views regarding the Green Bay Packers from around the web and here at PackersNews.com.

The Packers fired coach Mike McCarthy on Sunday after a 20-17 loss to Arizona dropped their record to 4-7-1. Offensive coordinator Joe Philbin will coach the Packers on an interim basis, and Packers president/CEO Mark Murphy will discuss what comes next at a 1:45 p.m. news conference Monday.

We'll start with Tom Silverstein reporting about possible candidates to succeed McCarthy. Tom says the Packers will be looking for someone who brings a cutting-edge offense with him, and that could include someone who's coaching in college.

Tom writes:

It’s almost a lock the Packers will contact Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald, who came up through the ranks on the defensive side of the ball but has a high-octane offense.

Murphy was athletic director at the school and surprised many people when he picked Fitzgerald to coach the team when Randy Walker died of a heart attack before the 2006 season.

Fitzgerald has helped establish the Wildcats as a football contender, taking them all the way the Big Ten championship game Saturday against Ohio State. In 13 seasons, he has 95 wins and has led Northwestern to eight bowl games.

You can read the entire column here:

Tom discusses what kind of candidates Murphy might target with Pete Dougherty and Olivia Reiner:

Pete writes that although McCarthy's firing seemed abrupt, the timing of it was best for all concerned:

Tom wonders whether Aaron Rodgers might wind up regretting that he didn't do more to make things work with McCarthy:

Ryan Wood reflects on the highs and lows of McCarthy's 13 seasons in Green Bay:

Interim coach Philbin knows what being a head coach is all about:

Here's Jim Owczarski's news story about McCarthy's stunning dismissal:

Owczarski has answers to some important questions about the Packers' coaching move:

Jay Glazer got McCarthy's reaction to his firing:

Packers players had no explanation for their lackluster loss to the lowly Cardinals:

The Packers defense again was unable to force a turnover, even while going up against rookie quarterback Josh Rosen:

The perspective from Arizona: Larry Fitzgerald did it again, helping the Cardinals to their first win at Green Bay in 69 years:

The MMQB writes about changing times in Green Bay:

Michael Silver of NFL.com writes that McCarthy and Rodgers maintained a cordial relationship but that everything about it seemed stale:

ESPN's Rob Demovsky writes that the new coach must make it work with Rodgers:

And finally, the Twitter-verse went into a frenzy over the McCarthy firing: