EAST LANSING − Pat Fitzgerald went straight from the practice field to the podium inside the bowels of Spartan Stadium.
It might have been a midday Monday, but it marked the dawn of a new day for Michigan State football.
As the Spartans prepare to open the Fitzgerald era on Friday night against Toledo (8 p.m./FS1), their new coach remained cautious about revealing too much about what to expect from his team. Yet the 51-year-old spoke with the optimism that has defined his offseason to revive MSU’s program and his own career.
“I think we're just a perfect match for each other,” Fitzgerald said Monday, Aug. 31. “Right school for me, and hopefully everybody after my run will say it was the right fit for Michigan State for me to come here.”
The Spartans
are coming off a fourth straight losing season without a bowl berth, the program’s longest postseason drought since going from the Rose Bowl at the end of the 1965 season until the 1984 Cherry Bowl. They are undergoing a third coaching change since Mark Dantonio’s retirement after the 2019 season and are just 33-38 overall and 18-35 in Big Ten play since. Dantonio had just two losing seasons and missed a bowl game just once in his 13 seasons in becoming the program’s all-time winningest coach, which included winning three Big Ten championships.
MSU went 4-8 a year ago, costing Jonathan Smith his job after just two seasons. Fitzgerald was hired in early December and made a sweeping overhaul of the roster, bringing in 32 transfers who have started a combined 181 games on defense and 176 games on offense at their previous stops.
With so much newness and four days away from kicking off against a Toledo team with a new coach as well, Fitzgerald hesitated to go too deep into his own analysis of where the Spartans are right now.
On ongoing position battles: “Roles are still being earned. And that will continue to be throughout the whole year. I firmly believe in a meritocracy, and I believe that you gotta be playing well and continue to play well and be consistent for us to be able to be the team we aspire to be and for you to be the player we want you to be.”
On the potential for a rotation at wide receiver (as well as on the defensive line): “I think from a competition standpoint, that’s going to be ongoing throughout the whole season. And then you have the health component. As we move forward in the year, we expect to play a lot of guys. Who that is, that’s gotta be earned.”
On any injury updates heading into Week 1 against the Rockets: “I feel great,. It’s the best I’ve felt in years. Thanks for asking. I feel really good. We've got an injury report obligation by the Big Ten, so you'll get one before we play Nebraska. Until then, see you on Friday night.”
Cryptic, to say the least. But it also is the first time for Fitzgerald to coach at a school other than his alma mater Northwestern. He went 110-101 in his 17 seasons at Northwestern with a 65-76 Big Ten record and two West Division titles between 2006-22. He was dismissed prior to the 2023 season and went a combined 4-20 overall and 2-16 in the Big Ten in his final two seasons with the Wildcats.
It puts Fitzgerald and the Spartans on a similar trajectory looking for both a rebirth and at the outset of a potential redemption arc going into the season.
“I think pressure is a privilege. I really do,” Fitzgerald said. “I think that means you’re prepared for an opportunity. I look forward to the challenge. I don’t look at it as pressure, I look forward to an unbelievable opportunity.”
Toledo is coming off an 8-5 season and is picked in the top three of the Mid-American Conference going into new coach Mike Jacobs’ debut. The 47-year-old former Ohio State offensive lineman arrives from Mercer and takes over for Jason Candle, who is now at Connecticut after piloting the Rockets to an 81-45 record and eight bowl appearances in his 10 seasons.
Fitzgerald knows this won’t be a typical creampuff opener, with Toledo’s talent and hunger to continue its success under Jacobs – along with an opportunity to give the new coach a marquee opening win on the road against a Big Ten foe – making it a far different challenge than beginning his MSU career against a lower-division opponent or a program that has been in the dumps.
“You’d rather have preseason games like the NFL, especially in Year 1. That’s not the case,” Fitzgerald said. “We’re playing a perennial MAC championship program that doesn’t need me to say this – they know how to win championships, they know how to win. … This is a storied program that, as you look at their talent, this is a hard matchup in Week 1 for us.
“But our focus is internally, really. We gotta get better, we gotta keep improving this week and then learn how to operate the way we want to operate in a game week. And then the same thing on game day for the first time collectively together.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Pat Fitzgerald, Michigan State a 'perfect match' ahead of opener
