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Grading the hire: Pat Fitzgerald gets second act with Michigan State
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- Grading the hire: Pat Fitzgerald gets second act with Michigan State
Former Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald will get his chance to return to coaching, back in the Big Ten with Michigan State .
Fitzgerald went 110-101 over 17 seasons with his alma mater from 2006-22, the entirety of his head coaching career and the Wildcats' longest-tenured coach in school history. Northwestern fired Fitzgerald in July 2023 due to a hazing scandal the school . He reached a settlement in his wrongful-termination lawsuit against Northwestern and was back on the market as an established winner with extensive Big Ten experience.
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Pat Fitzgerald wins Day 1 with MSU: 'There will be no more motivated coach'
Here's how we grade the Spartans ' hire:
Grade: C
Stop me if you've heard this one before: Michigan State hired a coach who won at a place where winning is not guaranteed.
Isn't that what Jonathan Smith did for Oregon State ? Michigan State just fired Smith . So, now the Spartans are trying Pat Fitzgerald , who won more than you'd expect at Northwestern.
The rosy outlook says if Fitzgerald could win 10 games at Northwestern, as he did three times during his 17-year tenure, just think what he could do at Michigan State. Those who see a half-full glass might wonder whether Fitzgerald can rekindle Mark Dantonio-level success.
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And yet, it seems relevant that Fitzgerald went 4-20 in his final two Northwestern seasons. He's unproven in this era of NIL and transfer free agency. Like Mark Stoops, whom Kentucky just fired , isn't it possible Fitzgerald already peaked in a bygone era?
As more and more Power Four jobs opened, though, it became increasingly likely some school would turn to Fitzgerald, whom Northwestern fired in response to a hazing scandal. Fitzgerald said he had no knowledge of the hazing. He filed a wrongful termination lawsuit and reached a settlement. That settlement and the fact no evidence showed Fitzgerald knew about the hazing made him hireable again.
Still impossible to ignore is Fitzgerald went 1-11 in his final Northwestern season.
Unlike Smith, Fitzgerald knows the terrain. He's a native Midwesterner forged inside the Big Ten. Fitzgerald should help Michigan State regain a base competence level it lacked under Smith, but this presents as a dependable-floor, capped ceiling hire.
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If Michigan State desires steady bowl qualification, then Fitzgerald seems likely deliver. This is a meat and potatoes hire, and not an attempt to unearth the next Curt Cignetti. ― Blake Toppmeyer
Grade: A-
There's nothing quite like getting a talented, motivated coach who knows the Big Ten and understands how to build and win in the ground and pound conference.
For years the question lingered over Fitzgerald: what could he accomplish with elite talent around him? He already did the unthinkable at Northwestern, how much better could it get with a program that attract game-changing players?
Michigan State gave up on Jonathan Smith after only two seasons for a reason. Fitzgerald won his lawsuit against Northwestern, and there was no more baggage to a potential hire.
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Fitzgerald is an old school coach, but that doesn't mean he's not on board with the current landscape of the sport, or won't embrace it. He has always been a player's coach, and was at the forefront of paying players long before the explosion of NIL ― publicly declaring players should be paid as early as 2011.
Michigan State once ruled the Big Ten under Mark Dantonio, and can get there again. The infrastructure is in place, the motivation is there from both the school and the coach. Watch how quickly this takes off. ― Matt Hayes
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Michigan State football hires Pat Fitzgerald, expert grades for move
