EAST LANSING – Everything felt vital. Just a few hours earlier, it looked as listless as it has all season for Michigan State football.
A fourth-quarter touchdown pass from Alessio Milivojevic to Fredrick Moore with 7:47 to play breathed new life into the Spartans after an abysmal first half. A perfectly executed onside kick by Liam Boyd followed, recovered along the Illinois sideline by a diving Samson Gash. Suddenly, the remaining fans in Spartan Stadium were rocking and sensed something major might happen.
But the crescendo of cheers whiplashed into anger and anguish when umpire Keith Vaverchak threw a penalty flag that negated the entire play. Birds began flying in the stands as Pat Fitzgerald exploded on the MSU sidelines, spit and swear
words flying everywhere.
Then his bird took flight, as well.
“I lost my cool at times,” Fitzgerald said after the Spartans’ eventual 38-37 overtime loss Saturday, Oct. 10. “I've got to be more disciplined for our team to be more disciplined. That starts and ends with me.”
Pat Fitzgerald gives the bird to the Illinois sideline #Footballguy pic.twitter.com/uEqNH9ZFaO
— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) October 10, 2026
Yet with one little hand gesture, coupled with a whole lot of towel-swirling and arm-waving defiance, Fitzgerald might have had his “Little Brother” moment with his fanbase after immediately becoming a meme-worthy visual.
It whipped the remaining MSU fans who stayed as part of a homecoming crowd that already was on the lighter side (65,837) into a frenzy that sounded far louder than it did at kickoff. And certainly more energized than when the Spartans found themselves in a 23-7 hole midway through the third quarter. A little TV broadcast lipreading showed what those on the sidelines were hearing from their head coach: “[Screw] these guys! Let’s go!”
It certainly resonated with his players around him, much like how Mark Dantonio’s comments about Mike Hart after a loss to Michigan in 2007, his first season as coach, shaped the identity of his program for the next 13 years.
“I’ve known coach Fitz for a very long time. The fire that you see from him is the reason why I’m back with him, 100%,” said defensive end Kenny Soares Jr., who was part of one of Fitzgerald’s final recruiting classes at Northwestern in 2022. “Like, I wouldn’t want my head coach to be any other way because he’s in the game as much as we’re in the game. We may be on the field, but he’s the one calling the shots, and we've got to be in there together. Point blank, period.
“So him having that fire under him, it’s the true sign of a real leader and a real head coach.”
MSU (2-4, 0-3 Big Ten) lost its fourth straight game in the first two months of Fitzgerald’s second coaching job. It was the Spartans’ fifth straight conference loss at Spartan Stadium and their second straight homecoming defeat
After falling behind 17-0 in the second quarter to the Illini (3-3, 1-2), MSU scratched and clawed and willed its way back. Even after the controversial and errant onside kick penalty, the Spartans summoned up a defensive stop on Illinois’ ensuing possession and tied the game 31-all to send it to overtime with Jaziun Patterson’s 2-yard TD run with 1:17 to play.
Despite being a defensive disciple like Dantonio, Fitzgerald continued to show his “scared money don’t make money” approach to MSU’s offense. That started when offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan called a flea-flicker pass on MSU’s first play, though Milivojevic was sacked after holding on to the ball too long with two receivers breaking open. It ended on the Spartans’ last play of the game, a 2-point conversion attempt in overtime that Fitzgerald said he called because his defense was depleted by injuries and running out of bodies.
The Spartans gave up a 25-yard touchdown pass from Illinois backup quarterback Michael Clayton II to Hudson Clement on the first play of overtime. The Spartans matched the touchdown, with Patterson taking a direct snap while lined up next to Milivojevic and plowing into the end zone from a yard out behind a heavy set that included offensive linemen Rustin Young and Antonio Johnson in the backfield blocking for him.
Fitzgerald immediately held up two fingers – his index finger joining the gesture this time – after the score.
“We were just so beat up on defense,” he said. “To go for 2 at the end, that was a no-brainer, frankly. We made that decision pretty quickly.”
Milivojevic motioned to his left, with Marvis Parrish taking the shotgun snap. The running back went left and flipped the ball as Milivojevic came back to his right. Tight end Jayden Savoury leaked into the flat, but the Illini had the play well covered, from pressure on Milivojevic to a defender blasting Savoury as he tried to catch the pass 3 yards short of the end zone.
The Illini celebrated. The Spartans and their fans tried to process what happened, on that play and over the course of a roller coaster afternoon.
“The loss is gonna sting, for sure. Losing any game, a loss is gonna sting. But a tight game like that, it hurts even worse,” said Milivojevic, who finished 22 of 26 for 196 yards with two touchdowns and completed 12 straight passes after MSU went three-and-out on its first two possessions. “But I think one thing about this team is we still understand there’s six games left. No one is waving the white flag or throwing in the towel. There’s six games left to go play, and we’re gonna get back to work and work our butts off every single day to win games.”
That has yet to happen against a power conference opponent, with surging Fitzgerald’s alma mater Northwestern (4-1, 1-1) and former MSU quarterback Aidan Chiles visiting next Saturday. Emotions will be high on both sidelines with all of the storylines ahead.
And Fitzgerald expects the same to carry over with MSU’s fans, whom he thanked for responding to his sideline show of passion to boost his players when they needed it.
“Just stay with us,” Fitzgerald said, “we're gonna get this thing going in the right direction.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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Next up: Wildcats
Matchup: Michigan State (2-4, 0-3 Big Ten) vs. Northwestern (4-1, 1-1).
Kickoff: Noon, Saturday, Oct. 17; Spartan Stadium, East Lansing.
TV/radio: Peacock*; WJR-AM (760).
*Online streaming only
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Pat Fitzgerald went crazy on the sideline and got Michigan State believing again
