MSU HC Pat Fitzgerald Full Pads Live Drills & Team Bonding

Tue, Aug 18, 2026

Video Transcript

Everybody gets a little bit, uh, you know, their blood boils a little hotter when the, when the, uh, when the full pads come on and, you know, doing some really smart controlled live drills and the guys have handled it really, really well.

And, um, you know, what I like the most part is their attitude and their willingness to be really good teammates.

We're practicing hard, we're practicing smart, and I think we're improving, so.

With that I'll love to answer any and all of your questions.

Just to clarify, you guys aren't doing a scrimmage then, uh, between now and, and, yeah, we'll, we'll go to the stadium Thursday and we'll do live periods that I think if you guys were there, you'd look at it probably like a scrimmage, but I think scrimmages as a player are really easy.

Like the one guy's kind of get 4 or 5 reps, maybe 10, then they're out.

I'd rather practice and then do some controlled live stuff where we can put some situational football.

It's typically how I've done it leading up to the opener.

Do you do a dress rehearsal kind of Premock game.

Yeah, we'll do a mock game, uh, some point next, yeah, late in this week.

Yeah, absolutely.

We got a lot going on this week, very busy week as far as those types of little things, yeah, from a structural standpoint.

on Thursday last week, right?

Uh, I thought it was, yeah, I think it was Thursday.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah.

Oh yeah, I mean, everybody gets a little bit, uh, you know, their blood boils a little hotter when the, when the, uh, when the full pads come on and You know, doing some really smart controlled live drills and the guys have handled it really, really well.

Uh, you know, what do you want to reinforce there, right?

Obviously it starts from the ground up, how we handle our feet on contact, uh, you know, how our eyes are, you know, we ball on our necks, eyes are up, seeing everything we hit, you know, teaching the right fundamentals, ABCs and 12, 3s of taking on contact and then creating contact beyond blocking and block destruction and then, you know, ball security and ball disruption are a big part of.

You know how, how you work into those drills and as you guys have seen as you come out every day, we're doing that period one right away of individuals ball, you know, ball security and ball disruption, but then when you put the physicality into it, it I don't know.

I'm sorry, it's a process.

Are you starting to see this team become a team every day?

Yeah, you know, I really think that that started in earnest, um.

You know, somewhere in the middle of spring ball or excuse me, winter workouts when the guys really kind of like, OK, I know who you are, I think, and then spring ball it was like, yeah, we know who each other is, and then that carried over into the summer.

And again, the feedback I've gotten from the guys is they, they, they liked going into case hall, they liked spending their time together, um, they, they like to commute for sure, but, um, they, they, they like that and uh you know, it'll be something that I anticipate that I'll continue as we move forward.