Pat Fitzgerald looks like a pretty good fit as MSU’s next football coach
The Jonathan Smith era of Michigan State football ended Sunday, with athletic director J Batt making the first big move of his tenure. This wasn’t done without a replacement in mind. MSU intends to hire Pat Fitzgerald as its next head football coach shortly, according to multiple sources.
There are some similarities between Smith and Fitzgerald. Both made their names as head coaches at their alma maters, where they had been legends as players. Both Oregon State and Northwestern are tough places to win, and Smith and Fitzgerald built respected programs at each.
But Fitzgerald has some things going for him that Smith didn’t — including Big Ten roots and a sense of what MSU football is at its best, and, notably, the ability to communicate at a high level. He also seems to have a clear understanding of what it takes to win now, compared to his best years at Northwestern, and a vision for how to get that done.
I’d urge anyone who wants to get a sense of that to watch his Nov. 6 interview on the College GameDay Podcast. He talks there in detail about the old era being dead, how he’s studied the landscape and other programs — college and the NFL — over the last two years while out of coaching, about how revenue sharing only gets you to zero as a program, that it’s the additional NIL funds and player development, retention and signings that are the separators. He talked of relationships and culture being important now so that you can have tough conversations with players about their financial worth and place in your program.
“I know how to build a program. I know how to run a program,” be said bluntly.
(Fitzgerald’s interview begins at the 14-minute mark.)
It’s an impressive interview. Fitzgerald has always been an impressive conversationalist. I’ve been trying to check my enthusiasm for this hire for MSU, because I’ve liked him for a long time, that it’s not just because of how he’s come off during interviews I’ve had with him at Big Ten media days, for example. But the contrast between him and Smith as orators is significant. And it matters. We’ve seen the downside the last couple years of not being able to express yourself strongly, especially in difficult times.
Fitzgerald also talks in the College GameDay podcast interview with Reece Davis and Pete Thamel about his regrets with his ending at Northwestern — where he was fired amid hazing allegations in his program — but also feeling vindicated by the university’s findings in its investigation, which did not discover sufficient evidence that Fitzgerald knew about the ongoing hazing, according to the executive summary.
Fitzgerald, who turns 51 on Tuesday, comes across as hungry and as someone who’s been studying for his next job. MSU would seem to be a fit. Certainly a better one than Smith wound up being. After 17 years at Northwestern, including 11 games against Mark Dantonio’s MSU program, Fitzgerald has seen the possibilities in East Lansing, but he also sounds keenly aware that how you build and sustain a program a decade ago is partly irrelevant today.
If it works, the good news for MSU is Fitzgerald is not a climber, not someone likely to be enticed by LSU, for example.
Fitzgerald had some down years at Northwestern, including his last two. The program has bounced back with a lot of his players. He also won nine or more games there five times and won the Big Ten’s West Division twice since 2018. And did so at a place where winning is even less automatic than it is at MSU.
At his next job, he said on Nov. 6, he wanted “alignment” above all else. My understanding is this move — both the firing of Smith and hiring of Fitzgerald — was championed by top donors. MSU has a relatively new president, who hired its AD, who now will have hired its football coach. And the top dog at the school, Tom Izzo, has long been a Fitzgerald fan.
If this doesn’t work, it won’t be for lack of alignment at inception, which was part of what did Smith in.
Why Jonathan Smith didn’t work
I liked the Jonathan Smith hire at the time it was made and I still like Smith. I don’t think he’s a bad coach. And I think he’s a good man, who handled a tough situation without being combative or blaming his players or staff. And that some in the MSU community weren’t onboard with him from a fairly early stage is partly why MSU sometimes struggles to get football coaching hires right. It’s not always just the coaches.
But Smith also didn’t help himself. For a lot of folks, that began with the 2024 loss to Michigan and his inability to connect with fans on just how deep that rivalry burns. Losing too much was ultimately his undoing, especially the unnecessary defeats — including that first Michigan game, when coaching errors contributed, and Nebraska, UCLA, Minnesota and Iowa this season. The lack of fire in his personality as things went wrong in Year 2 drove fans crazy. He struggled to meet fans where they were and to explain to them with clarity and vigor how he was going to bring MSU’s program out of the darkness. Had he simply had that skill, he might have gotten more time, because he would have had more support.
Smith is a relatively young guy. He’ll likely get another chance. He’ll want to make sure he has better alignment at that university before accepting the job.
What this means for MSU
That MSU was in position to make the move, the Smith firing and the planned Fitzgerald hiring, speaks to the ability by Batt — and perhaps MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz — to get top donors on board, though I don’t think this is something Batt had been pining to do. Potentially paying Smith more $30 million not to coach — unless he gets another job that offsets his buyout — means there’s financial support to do so. And to invest in the program going forward with a new coach.
This is partly what Batt was hired to be able to do. Not so much to fire Smith this quickly, but to reinvigorate and align the power players around MSU athletics. I think you’ll see that manifest itself in the coming days.
This is also Batt’s first big hire, one that’ll be tied to him, the way Smith was to Alan Haller, and Mark Dantonio was to Mark Hollis. You’ve got to get these things right. Because an athletic department is only healthy if football is healthy.
MSU didn’t do enough during Smith’s regime to make that happen. One of the statements from Batt in announcing the firing spoke to that understanding.
“While we will have a new coach next season, we must also do more as a department to support the program,” Batt said. “President Guskiewicz and I are fully aligned to take the necessary steps to position our program to compete at the highest level.”
Smith deserved better alignment. I don’t think Fitzgerald would be taking this job without assurances that he’ll have it.
Contact Graham Couch at [email protected]. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky @GrahamCouch.
