Pat Fitzgerald has barely gotten settled in East Lansing, and already he’s changing the temperature around Michigan State football.
With the 2026 season set to begin in seven days, the first-year head coach has started to restore something the program had been missing for a while: real belief. After three seasons that felt flat and lifeless - including Mel Tucker’s 2023 campaign, which drew almost no buzz before he was fired, followed by the stale Jonathan Smith years - the mood around the Spartans has shifted fast.
Fitzgerald has brought a different kind of energy. He’s been more animated than Smith ever was, and he’s pushing the kind of tough, hard-nosed edge that defined the Mark Dantonio era. It even feels a little Dantonio-like again, and not just because Coach D has been around practice plenty lately.
That confidence is starting to spread beyond campus, too. Barstool Sports college football personality Liam Blutman picked Michigan State over Michigan as his biggest upset of the Big Ten season.
. @BFW and @Blutman27 make their Big 10 predictions pic.twitter.com/t2qVNdMovC
- Brandon Walker College Football Show (@BFWshow) August 27, 2026
The idea of Michigan State taking down Michigan doesn’t sound crazy anymore. In fact, it’s becoming one of those predictions that keeps popping up, and it probably won’t be the last time it gets floated for 2026. With Fitzgerald’s staff in place - including Max Bullough, Hank Poteat, and Courtney Hawkins - the buy-in is growing.
Maybe it’s the Dantonio feel. Maybe it’s the way Kyle Whittingham looks like a strange fit at Michigan. Either way, the mood in the state is changing.
A win over Michigan in Year 1 would be a massive jolt for the program, and right now it looks possible.
That has to become the standard again.
Under Dantonio, Michigan State expected to beat Michigan every year, and when the Wolverines won, it felt off. That’s the mindset the Spartans need back.
Being competitive in the rivalry is nice, but that’s not the bar. The bar is winning it, year after year, and making sure Michigan State owns that game again.
For a stretch, Michigan State and Ohio State were the teams putting Michigan in its place. Lately, the roles have flipped, and that’s not good enough. Fitzgerald feels like the right coach to change that - and to make “beat Michigan” the expectation again.
In Other News...
Michigan State Receivers Face Mounting Pressure Around Chrishon McCray
Montorie Fosters latest NFL chapter has him back in the spotlight on HBOs Hard Knocks, where the former Michigan State wideout is trying to earn a roster spot with the Seattle Seahawks. Foster already knows the grind in that building, having spent time on the Seahawks practice squad and picked up a Super Bowl ring along the way, which makes his path a familiar one even as his college program keeps moving in a different direction.
At Michigan State, the receiver room looks very different now, with a wave of departures leaving Chrishon McCray as the most experienced returnee in the group for new coach Pat Fitzgerald. That puts even more pressure on the Spartans to find answers quickly on the perimeter, and it also makes Fosters NFL journey a useful reminder of how much turnover can reshape a position in a short time. [Read more 🡒]
Jeremy Fears Jr. Has Michigan State Fans Dreaming About A Different Ceiling
Jeremy Fears Jr. has already given Michigan State fans a reminder of how much talent was sitting just beneath the injury report. After missing the rest of his freshman season following a gunshot wound that forced him to relearn how to walk, the Spartans guard has been back in the spotlight for all the right reasons, including a recent video that showed him throwing down a 360 windmill dunk. For a player whose return once centered on recovery and basic mobility, that kind of burst is a sign of how far he has come.
Michigan State has plenty of reasons to be intrigued by what that could mean once the season starts. Fears was always viewed as a guard whose value would come from pace, pressure and control, but a renewed edge as an athlete could change the way he attacks the game and how much ceiling the Spartans can reach around him. The full answer still has to wait until he gets back on the floor in competitive games, but the early signs have fans imagining a version of Fears that looks a lot more explosive than the one they were already hoping to get back. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Already Has A 2026 Number Fans Will Debate
FanDuel has already put a 2026 number on Michigan States football season, and it is the kind of line that will get fans talking long before the teams ever take the field. The board includes an opening-game spread against Toledo, championship odds and a fresh look at how the market views the Spartans as they head toward a season that is still far off enough to invite plenty of debate.
There is also player intrigue attached to the early numbers, with quarterback Alessio Milivojevic among the Spartans listed in the betting mix. Odds like these do more than frame expectations, they give fans an early read on how outside observers see Michigan States path, even if the most interesting part of the conversation is still what those numbers might look like once the schedule and season start to take shape. [Read more 🡒]