Pat Fitzgerald Makes Bold Prediction Ahead of Michigan's Matchup against His Spartans

It is rivalry week and the Michigan Wolverines are in the throes of getting ready for a matchup against the Michigan State Spartans.

This year, the battle for the Paul Bunyan Trophy will feature two first time head coaches for the rivalry.

Whittingham is relatively new to the landscape of the Big Ten in general. Pat Fitzgerald is not. Fitzgerald was the head coach at Northwestern for 17 seasons, which came after he was an assistant coach and player for the university.

He knows Big Ten football.

Whittingham was asked about his opinion on the rivalry before the week began in earnest.

“This game is the Super Bowl, particularly for them,” Whittingham said. “We don’t want to downplay it at all. I’m not trying to downplay it. But still, when all is said and done, you’ve got to keep everything in perspective. I guess that’s the position I’m trying to take. Maybe weird isn’t the right word, but I don’t know. It’s different being at a school where they do have two rivals. I’ve been through that before where there’s an in-state rivalry. I don’t think that’s that uncommon. We have a couple teams that are targeted.”

Different Approaches

Whittingham’s approach to rivalry games has been under fire. It’s sensible that Whittingham did not have a footprint in the area until taking the job at Michigan.

Fitzgerald took a different approach on the rivalry this week in the midst of some significant struggles that the Spartans have faced this season. Still, his fanbase is not buying it as the attendance at the stadium appears to be declining.

Fitzgerald was asked about that, before delivering a proclamation of sorts.

"Yeah, I need to do my job. I need to win football games,” Fitzgerald said. “And we need to play winning football in Spartan Stadium. So, yeah, this could be huge. I think it’ll be pretty electric against Washington when we get a win. Should be. Better be. Yeah, or I’ll go around the frats and sororities and bars and go recruit people. I’ve got nothing else to do. It’s just me here. No family."

The comments about moving recruiting those around the area were worth a laugh, but that’s not the comment that’s going to make headlines.

Fitzgerald said his team was going to get a win against Michigan in his first game in the rivalry.

Potential Consequences

Michigan has not had the season that they were hoping for. They’re unlikely to be playing for anything significant as the season enters its final month.

There has been conversation about whether Whittingham is a fish out of water at Michigan.

There is some validity to those discussions, and that conversation will only get louder if Michigan loses to this iteration of Michigan State.

Yes, the Wolverines are bad by their standards. The Spartans are worse and clearly in a rebuilding year with a new head coach.

Michigan players hold up the the Paul Bunyan Trophy after 31-20 win over Michigan State at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing on Saturday, October 25, 2025. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Their signature moment this season is nearly defeating Illinois or Northwestern. Otherwise, the Spartans have not won a conference game, and lost three of their five conference games by at least two scores.

Fitzgerald just tossed some red meat at Whittingham for potential motivation purposes. It should be easy to motivate his team knowing that the opposing head coach said they were going to win the game publicly.

Losing the Paul Bunyan Trophy this weekend would cause some significant conversations that Kyle Whittingham likely does not want to have.

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