Pat Fitzgerald is the new head football coach at Michigan State.

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What was once one of the Big Ten’s premier programs, Michigan State football has been hard to watch the last four seasons. After the golden years of Mark Dantonio, his controversial replacement, Mel Tucker, gave the school not one, but two scandals to deal with.

Jonathan Smith was brought in to right the ship, but failed and was fired after just two seasons. They’ve suffered four losing seasons in a row, and three of them had their wins vacated due to recruiting violations from the aforementioned Tucker.

They’ve had three athletic directors in the last three years, and six university presidents since 2018. To say things are turbulent in East Lansing would be putting it mildly.

To get things moving in the right direction, former Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald was brought in after three years away from football. Fitzgerald’s time at Northwestern was a mixed bag. He had three 10-win seasons and made it to two Big Ten championships at arguably the most difficult program to have success at in College Football. However, he went 4-20 in his final two seasons, notably his only two in the NIL era.

There isn’t much to write home about in the talent Fitzgerald brought in through the at. 2026 will be about player development and getting the best players to stick around long term. The Spartans have had quite a lot of talent transfer away in recent years, and only four players have been drafted in the last three seasons.

It will be interesting to see what Fitzgerald can do with a program with resources. He was always known for doing more with less, so if the Spartans give him what he needs to succeed, the hope is he can turn things around. However, it will be a long and slow process.

Record projection: 3-9 (1-8 in Big Ten)

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