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Chicago — The four most important words spoken by Pat Fitzgerald at Big Ten Media Days:
“I understand our rivalry.”
Those four words are ones Michigan State fans have been longing to hear after two years of Jonathan Smith’s ill-fitting coaching tenure, particularly his lack of understanding of a bitter rivalry. Fitzgerald, the former Northwestern coach, made clear that winning the annual clash with Michigan will be prioritized in his program.
“I think the best part of the Big Ten are the rivalries,” Fitzgerald said Wednesday. “... And every game is important, but that game will just always mean more.”
It’s been four straight losing seasons for Michigan State, both in record and in the rivalry. The latter may be more important for fans to see changed. That 11-2 season in 2021 — and Charles Brantley’s game-sealing pick against Michigan — is distant from the 5-7, 4-8 finishes in the four years since. If Michigan State loses some football games, what it can’t do is lose track of its rival.
Under Jonathan Smith, though, the Battle for Paul Bunyan felt like every other game. The beginning of the end of his tenure came not in 2025, but in a trip to Ann Arbor his first season when he showed a lack of understanding of what the rivalry means.
Fitzgerald, 51, is quite different. There’s a countdown to that rivalry, and with it a chance to reestablish the pride Michigan State once had in its rivalry wins, like its decade of dominance under former coach Mark Dantonio.
More: Mark Dantonio coached 'the greatest modern era of Michigan State football'
“Everyone in the building knows how important the game is,” said quarterback Alessio Milivojevic, who led a late touchdown drive in last year’s 31-20 loss at Spartan Stadium. “Everyone knows about it, and I think it’s just building on what we’ve done game-by-game-by-game until we get to that one, is going to be huge for us.”
Already, Fitzgerald has brought in former Michigan State greats to talk about the rivalry, including Dantonio and strength coach Ken Mannie. That left an impression on players like Jordan Hall. Not only does it matter to win the rivalry, but also to make the season count leading up to it.
The Spartans' chance against the Wolverines this season will come Nov. 7 in Ann Arbor.
“Obviously, we know that that’s a big one, and one that we want to (win),” the senior linebacker said. “Especially me. I’ve gone three years and haven't gotten a win there yet. So definitely a game I’m looking forward to, but not a game that I’m gonna sit and soak in until it happens.
Michigan State isn’t entering the season as a Big Ten favorite. It polled 17th out of 18 teams in USA Today’s preseason poll. Vegas oddsmakers set the wins total at 3½.
And yet, Fitzgerald continues to thump the standard that Michigan State will win Big Ten championships. He isn’t backing off of that goal. Nor should any of his peers.
“I think you’re going to have 18 head football coaches walk up here and have an expectation to win the Big Ten championship,” Fitzgerald said. “And if you don’t have that expectation, I don’t know why you do it. I have no idea why you do it. That’s our expectation.
“When I was a student athlete (at Northwestern), I heard this guy once say, ‘We’re going to take the Purple to Pasadena, and people laughed at him. And we’re going to take the Green back to being Big Ten champions.”
Michigan State hasn’t won the Big Ten since 2015, when it beat Iowa 16-13 in the conference championship game and headed off to its first and only College Football Playoff appearance. In the 10 seasons since, Michigan State has only reached 10 wins twice — 2017 and 2021, when it finished 7-2 in Big Ten play — while finishing with a losing record six times.
Fitzgerald calls his tenure a rebirth of Michigan State, with its former toughness under Dantonio a foundational piece.
“When I was playing and then coaching against Mark’s teams, there was no doubt who the toughest team of the Big Ten was, and that was Michigan State,” Fitzgerald said. “And we’ve let that slip through our fingers, and now we gotta go snatch it back.”
Such a restoration is a big reason why some players came back to play for a team that looks like it will finish low in the Big Ten. Someone, eventually, has to change that.
“Staying and being able to build something, even if it’s not the best, just knowing that we were the first group and just knowing that we set the pavement for everybody else, I feel like that’s the best part,” safety Nikai Martinez said.
Did Pat Fitzgerald expect to have a longer tenure than his athletic director when Sept. 4’s opening kickoff came around? No, but he’s been through athletic department shifts, and so the loss of J Batt — someone he called a friend for hiring him in December — isn’t the seismic shift it may seem.
Losing President Kevin Guskiewicz, however, would have been.
“Keeping Kevin was essential for the football program,” Fitzgerald said.Michigan State's leader since 2024, Guskiewicz accepted the presidency at Clemson on May 27 amid disagreements with certain Board of Trustees members around transparency issues with new athletics fundraising arm Spartan Ventures. After a dramatic month, Guskiewicz decided to stay at Michigan State on July 7 after the urging of Tom Izzo and other stakeholders won him over.
The highest compliment Fitzgerald can pay Guskiewicz is that he’s normal — “he’s kind of a burger and a beer guy,” as he put it. That’s also a big reason that Izzo wanted to keep Guskiewicz in place.
Both MSU coaches see the Guskiewicz retention as a major coup for the university and its athletic department, particularly that the president understands what athletics means to universities and their communities, as well as what resources programs need to be successful.
Fitzgerald believes vertical alignment from coaches to ADs to presidents is essential in today’s college sports world. Everyone needs to be on the same page to succeed.
“If we don’t have that, we won’t be able to compete,” Fitzgerald said. “It just won’t happen.”
About that athletic department: director J Batt left for Kentucky this summer in a drawn-out exit that had a lot to do with Guskiewicz’s potential departure. Interim athletic director Jon Palumbo, brought in by Batt from his previous tenure at Georgia Tech, is leading the department while it finishes up interviews for a full-time AD.
Palumbo is quite familiar with Fitzgerald. He’s the football sport administrator for Michigan State, and was a big part in his hiring back in December.
“We’ve been working with him every day for the past seven months,” Fitzgerald said. “And so to have Jon put into the role — we’ll see how things play out, he has been terrific. And if he ends up becoming the full-time athletic director, he would do an outstanding job.”
[email protected]
@ConnorEaregood
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Pat Fitzgerald hits right notes at media day: ‘I understand our rivalry’
Continue reading...
“I understand our rivalry.”
Those four words are ones Michigan State fans have been longing to hear after two years of Jonathan Smith’s ill-fitting coaching tenure, particularly his lack of understanding of a bitter rivalry. Fitzgerald, the former Northwestern coach, made clear that winning the annual clash with Michigan will be prioritized in his program.
“I think the best part of the Big Ten are the rivalries,” Fitzgerald said Wednesday. “... And every game is important, but that game will just always mean more.”
It’s been four straight losing seasons for Michigan State, both in record and in the rivalry. The latter may be more important for fans to see changed. That 11-2 season in 2021 — and Charles Brantley’s game-sealing pick against Michigan — is distant from the 5-7, 4-8 finishes in the four years since. If Michigan State loses some football games, what it can’t do is lose track of its rival.
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Under Jonathan Smith, though, the Battle for Paul Bunyan felt like every other game. The beginning of the end of his tenure came not in 2025, but in a trip to Ann Arbor his first season when he showed a lack of understanding of what the rivalry means.
Fitzgerald, 51, is quite different. There’s a countdown to that rivalry, and with it a chance to reestablish the pride Michigan State once had in its rivalry wins, like its decade of dominance under former coach Mark Dantonio.
More: Mark Dantonio coached 'the greatest modern era of Michigan State football'
“Everyone in the building knows how important the game is,” said quarterback Alessio Milivojevic, who led a late touchdown drive in last year’s 31-20 loss at Spartan Stadium. “Everyone knows about it, and I think it’s just building on what we’ve done game-by-game-by-game until we get to that one, is going to be huge for us.”
Already, Fitzgerald has brought in former Michigan State greats to talk about the rivalry, including Dantonio and strength coach Ken Mannie. That left an impression on players like Jordan Hall. Not only does it matter to win the rivalry, but also to make the season count leading up to it.
The Spartans' chance against the Wolverines this season will come Nov. 7 in Ann Arbor.
“Obviously, we know that that’s a big one, and one that we want to (win),” the senior linebacker said. “Especially me. I’ve gone three years and haven't gotten a win there yet. So definitely a game I’m looking forward to, but not a game that I’m gonna sit and soak in until it happens.
Fitzgerald won’t shy away from Big Ten chip, or bag of chips on shoulder
Michigan State isn’t entering the season as a Big Ten favorite. It polled 17th out of 18 teams in USA Today’s preseason poll. Vegas oddsmakers set the wins total at 3½.
And yet, Fitzgerald continues to thump the standard that Michigan State will win Big Ten championships. He isn’t backing off of that goal. Nor should any of his peers.
“I think you’re going to have 18 head football coaches walk up here and have an expectation to win the Big Ten championship,” Fitzgerald said. “And if you don’t have that expectation, I don’t know why you do it. I have no idea why you do it. That’s our expectation.
“When I was a student athlete (at Northwestern), I heard this guy once say, ‘We’re going to take the Purple to Pasadena, and people laughed at him. And we’re going to take the Green back to being Big Ten champions.”
Michigan State hasn’t won the Big Ten since 2015, when it beat Iowa 16-13 in the conference championship game and headed off to its first and only College Football Playoff appearance. In the 10 seasons since, Michigan State has only reached 10 wins twice — 2017 and 2021, when it finished 7-2 in Big Ten play — while finishing with a losing record six times.
Fitzgerald calls his tenure a rebirth of Michigan State, with its former toughness under Dantonio a foundational piece.
“When I was playing and then coaching against Mark’s teams, there was no doubt who the toughest team of the Big Ten was, and that was Michigan State,” Fitzgerald said. “And we’ve let that slip through our fingers, and now we gotta go snatch it back.”
Such a restoration is a big reason why some players came back to play for a team that looks like it will finish low in the Big Ten. Someone, eventually, has to change that.
“Staying and being able to build something, even if it’s not the best, just knowing that we were the first group and just knowing that we set the pavement for everybody else, I feel like that’s the best part,” safety Nikai Martinez said.
Keeping Kevin Guskiewicz vital for football
Did Pat Fitzgerald expect to have a longer tenure than his athletic director when Sept. 4’s opening kickoff came around? No, but he’s been through athletic department shifts, and so the loss of J Batt — someone he called a friend for hiring him in December — isn’t the seismic shift it may seem.
Losing President Kevin Guskiewicz, however, would have been.
“Keeping Kevin was essential for the football program,” Fitzgerald said.Michigan State's leader since 2024, Guskiewicz accepted the presidency at Clemson on May 27 amid disagreements with certain Board of Trustees members around transparency issues with new athletics fundraising arm Spartan Ventures. After a dramatic month, Guskiewicz decided to stay at Michigan State on July 7 after the urging of Tom Izzo and other stakeholders won him over.
The highest compliment Fitzgerald can pay Guskiewicz is that he’s normal — “he’s kind of a burger and a beer guy,” as he put it. That’s also a big reason that Izzo wanted to keep Guskiewicz in place.
Both MSU coaches see the Guskiewicz retention as a major coup for the university and its athletic department, particularly that the president understands what athletics means to universities and their communities, as well as what resources programs need to be successful.
Fitzgerald believes vertical alignment from coaches to ADs to presidents is essential in today’s college sports world. Everyone needs to be on the same page to succeed.
“If we don’t have that, we won’t be able to compete,” Fitzgerald said. “It just won’t happen.”
About that athletic department: director J Batt left for Kentucky this summer in a drawn-out exit that had a lot to do with Guskiewicz’s potential departure. Interim athletic director Jon Palumbo, brought in by Batt from his previous tenure at Georgia Tech, is leading the department while it finishes up interviews for a full-time AD.
Palumbo is quite familiar with Fitzgerald. He’s the football sport administrator for Michigan State, and was a big part in his hiring back in December.
“We’ve been working with him every day for the past seven months,” Fitzgerald said. “And so to have Jon put into the role — we’ll see how things play out, he has been terrific. And if he ends up becoming the full-time athletic director, he would do an outstanding job.”
[email protected]
@ConnorEaregood
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Pat Fitzgerald hits right notes at media day: ‘I understand our rivalry’
Continue reading...
