Michigan State’s new season hype video does more than pump up the fan base. It reaches straight for memory.
The Spartans are 23 days from their 2026 kickoff, and the timing makes the whole thing feel even more familiar. Javon Ringer comes to mind first, one of the best players from the Mark Dantonio era and his first running back before Michigan State’s remarkable turnaround in the 2010s.
That stretch also gave the program one of its most enduring phrases: “Why not us?”
Dantonio made that line famous during a visit to the Rose Bowl before the 2013 season, asking his team “why not us?” in the context of winning the Big Ten and reaching the Rose Bowl. Michigan State answered with a 13-1 season and a Rose Bowl win over Stanford.
So when Pat Fitzgerald used the same phrase after taking the job, it hit a nerve with Spartan fans. He brought it back again to open fall camp last week, and now it anchors an eight-minute hype video the official MSU football account posted Tuesday night.
Every season starts with a single question.
Why not us? pic.twitter.com/8SJTQXpE9g
- Michigan State Football (@MSU_Football) August 12, 2026
The video leans hard into the message Fitzgerald delivered at the report day meeting. Behind him on the projector were images of the Big Ten Championship, the College Football Playoff and other major goals and accomplishments, while he told the team that anyone who didn’t want to chase those targets didn’t need to stick around for the rest of camp.
It also gives fans a look inside the program, including the moment Kenny Soares Jr. learned he had been voted “The Spartan” and the first No. 1 of the Fitzgerald era at Michigan State.
There’s a different energy around fall camp this year than there was a season ago, and that kind of shift can happen fast when the coaching staff changes. The video captures that feeling.
Michigan State football might be back?
That’s still a big statement, and it will take more than one summer and one hype reel to prove it. The Spartans will need winning seasons and Big Ten title contention before anyone can really say that with a straight face. But the tone here is unmistakable.
Dantonio ran a program built on toughness, structure and accountability, and he knew how to push his players while still giving them praise when it was earned. Fitzgerald carries that same edge, only with more fire. That alone feels like a real change after the last head coach, who couldn’t have ripped a wet paper bag when he was “angry” during games.
Intensity is back. Culture is back. The Spartan mindset is back.
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Jordan Hall and Kenny Soares give Michigan State some needed star power, and the secondary looks steadier than the groups in front of it. The issue is how much the linebacking corps and defensive line can hold up when so much of the front seven is still built around transfers and less experienced players, leaving the Spartans with a thin margin for error if injuries or inconsistency show up. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Finally Looks Like A Pat Fitzgerald Team
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What stood out most was the sense that the Spartans are beginning to take shape around a clear blueprint, one built on defense, the run game and efficient play under center. Pat Fitzgeralds influence, along with the defensive staff around him, has started to show up in the culture and the way the group works, even if this is still very much a team in progress. [Read more 🡒]
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Pat Fitzgeralds first season in East Lansing already carries the feel of a program audit, with Michigan State moving through a reset that asks a new coach to steady the roster while also reestablishing what the Spartans want to be. The early signs have been aimed at the trenches, where the staff has brought in multiple offensive line transfers to try to improve a group that needs to look more functional right away, and the broader message has been just as important as the personnel moves.
Fitzgerald has also made a point of connecting with fans and alumni, a detail that matters in a place looking for clear identity as much as short-term wins. On the field, the next layer is finding who actually carries that identity, with running back Cam Edwards, linebacker Jordan Hall and cornerback Charles Brantley positioned to matter most as Michigan State tries to make the first chapter under its new coach look like the start of something real. [Read more 🡒]