EAST LANSING – To say Pat Fitzgerald has a big personality would be an understatement.
Michigan State’s new football coach has some big jokes, too.
Fitzgerald twice took lighthearted jabs at lightning rod LSU coach Lane Kiffin during his debut radio show on Tuesday, Sept. 1.
The first came when offensive lineman Conner Moore joined the broadcast with Fitzgerald, host Dalton Shetler and former MSU running back Jehuu Caulcrick. Shetler listed a bunch of superlatives for Moore, a senior who played a team-high 765 snaps last season for the Spartans and was fifth in the Big Ten with an 80.4 run blocking grade after arriving from Montana State.
“Should we keep going with showering with praise?” Shelter asked Fitzgerald.
“Yeah, go ahead, this is great,”
the coach replied. “He’s staying, he’s not leaving. He just told us that.”
“There’s not a spring portal, I can’t leave,” chuckled Moore, who grew up near Toledo as an MSU fan.
“Maybe Lane Kiffin will take him or something,” Fitzgerald quickly quipped through the laughter. “Is that too soon?”
A little later during the broadcast, while discussing the current state of college athletics and the travel non-football programs have in front of them during a school year, Fitzgerald mentioned that, “There’s no way that you can be putting your volleyball team halfway across the country every other week or so on and so forth with those sports.”
Shetler interjected that MSU under coach Kristen Kelsay on Tuesday afternoon swept LSU, 3-0, during the Big Ten/SEC Volleyball Challenge in Ann Arbor.
“Lane Kiffin wasn’t there, huh?” Fitzgerald dryly remarked, quickly adding that it was his second joke about Kiffin during the show. More laughter ensued.
“He’s my friend, too,” Fitzgerald added. “I love you, brother.”
MSU kicks off Fitzgerald’s debut season against Toledo on Friday night at Spartan Stadium (8 p.m./FS1).
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Pat Fitzgerald pokes fun at LSU's Lane Kiffin over transfer portal
