Michigan State has a coach who isn’t interested in sounding polished for the sake of it.
At Big Ten Football Media Days in Chicago, Pat Fitzgerald came across like someone who knew exactly what his audience wanted to hear - and wasn’t shy about saying it. He joked Wednesday about finally getting a true home-field advantage, a dig at Northwestern’s Ryan Field and the way visiting fans often filled it up.
"I'm just excited to have a home-field advantage," MSU's Pat Fitzgerald said Wednesday, joking about the atmosphere at Northwestern's Ryan Field, which pretty regularly gets taken over by opposing fanbases. "I've never lived that.
It's gonna be really cool. Really excited about it, not gonna lie."
That kind of bluntness has a way of landing with Michigan State fans. Fitzgerald also brushed off the Spartans being picked to finish 16th in the Big Ten with a simple, "I can read," and even brought up the "bag of chips" he had on his shoulder entering the season. The message was clear: he wasn’t going to hide from the low expectations.
The numbers around MSU are brutal. ESPN’s College Football Power Index gives the Spartans just a 0.1% chance to win the 18-team conference. Even so, Fitzgerald didn’t talk like a coach who viewed that as a reason to lower the bar.
"I think you're going to have 18 head football coaches walk up here and have an expectation to win the Big Ten Championship, and if you don't have that expectation, I don't know why you do it," he said during the televised portion of his availability. "I have no idea why you do it. That's our expectation."
He also pointed back to his own playing days at Northwestern, where he heard a coach talk about taking "the purple to Pasadena" and sending "the green back to being Big Ten champions."
That didn’t come off like a dramatic declaration so much as Fitzgerald making the target plain. He won two Big Ten titles as a player at Northwestern, reached the title game twice as a coach there, and now he’s at a program that won the conference three times during his 17 years leading the Wildcats.
"Our football program should be winning," Fitzgerald also said Wednesday. "We should be winning championships.
We have every resource. We have not a good fanbase; we have one of the best fanbases in all of sport."
There’s still no way to know whether that attitude turns into wins in East Lansing. But there is value in a coach who doesn’t duck the standard, especially when the odds are long.
Fitzgerald also made it obvious that Michigan matters. In a clip with CBS Sports this week, he said the Wolverines were the opponent he most looked forward to beating. That stood out, especially compared with Jonathan Smith, who seemed to understand the rivalry last year but in a more rehearsed, obligatory way.
"The best part of the Big Ten is the rivalries. I understand our rivalry [with Michigan]," Fitzgerald said. "Every game's important, but that game will just always mean more."
That’s the kind of language that resonates because it doesn’t sound packaged. Fitzgerald didn’t oversell anything, and he didn’t retreat into safe coach-speak either.
He said the program should be winning championships. He said the Michigan game means more.
That’s enough to give Michigan State fans something they can recognize.
It also fits the image of the program many want to see: tougher, more direct, more willing to aim high. The work ahead is obvious, but Fitzgerald isn’t talking like someone afraid to put real expectations on the table.
In Other News...
Tom Izzo Faces A Tough Roster Call As NCAA Fight Looms
A federal ruling out of Colorado has added another layer of uncertainty to Michigan States long-range planning, because it opened the door for college basketball players in the 2022 class to seek an extra year of eligibility. For Tom Izzo and the Spartans, the issue is not about the coming season so much as the one after that, when roster math could get complicated if veterans decide they want to come back for a fifth year.
The NCAA, for its part, has said it will stick with its original eligibility rules and may challenge the decision, which leaves the whole situation in limbo for now. Michigan State can only plan so far ahead with that kind of legal cloud hanging over it, and the potential impact on the 2026-27 roster is real even if the final shape of the ruling is still unresolved. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Freshmen Are Already Creating Real Playing Time Pressure
Michigan States new freshman class is arriving with a little more runway than classes of the past, and that could matter quickly for a roster still sorting out its depth chart. Under the NCAAs new 5-in-5 eligibility rules, the Spartans are no longer working around the old four-game limit, which opens the door for young players to get on the field without burning a year of eligibility in the same way they once would have. With five four-star recruits in the 2026 class, the talent level alone is enough to make this group worth watching as the season unfolds.
Pat Fitzgerald pointed to that flexibility at Big Ten Football Media Days, noting how the new setup can help teams find real roles for freshmen sooner rather than later. For Michigan State, the bigger question is how quickly those newcomers can turn recruiting buzz into actual snaps, especially with several spots already carrying competition and the staff evaluating where the best matches might be. The opportunity is there, but the freshmen still have to earn it, and that is where the pressure starts to build. [Read more 🡒]