MSU Catches Stray from IU's Cignetti on Nick Marsh's Cleats

Michigan State football is still in a tough place.

The Spartans haven't made a bowl game in four consecutive seasons, and now some people in other places are wondering what has been going on in East Lansing lately. One of those people is Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti, who just won a national title at Indiana, of all places.

On Thursday, Cignetti talked about Nick Marsh, who led MSU in receiving yards in each of the last two seasons and transferred to IU this past winter. Marsh had apparently worn gold cleats out to a practice. Cignetti definitely didn't like that, and he let Marsh hear it.

"He learned what getting your ass ripped is all about," Cignetti told reporters. "I don't know if that happened to him very often at Michigan State."

Indiana WR Nick Marsh wore gold cleats to IU's first spring camp session. Curt Cignetti was not pleased to see that.

"He learned what getting your ass ripped is all about. I don't know if that happened to him very often at Michigan State." #iufb pic.twitter.com/UHRMM0i2bf
— Jared Kelly (@Jared_Kelly7) March 26, 2026

The clip of Cignetti's quote has gone viral, with the original post from Jared Kelly of 247Sports having amassed 2.5 million views with over 16,000 likes on Thursday evening.

Michigan State catching a stray here from Cignetti is interesting. Even if the "I don't know" part of Cignetti's quote is actually true, it's never great when your school is being used as the punchline when addressing a part of a player that the coach doesn't like, especially when it's from the defending national champion who turned a perennial doormat into the newest superpower.

Changing the Culture

On the positive side, there is a new era at Michigan State. Jonathan Smith, the head coach for both of Marsh's seasons at MSU, has been gone since the day after the end of the 2025 regular season, and it's been about Pat Fitzgerald since.

Players who have experienced both regimes are noticing a substantial difference between the two coaches. Spring practices during the week have begun not long after 6 a.m., but the energy is still definitely being brought by Fitzgerald and his staff. Michigan State football's Twitter/X account has posted a handful of videos showing that, too.

Michigan State's head coach Pat Fitzgerald instructs players during spring football practice on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in East Lansing. | Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

"I would say the energy aspect," returning safety Nikai Martinez said Tuesday when asked about the biggest differences between the two staffs. "I don't know how many of y'all have been at practice. I know we have it early, but we practice at 6:30 in the morning, and Coach Fitz is screaming. All the coaches are screaming, yelling, jumping."

Being the calm-and-collected head coach can be OK. Cignetti hardly reacts to anything on the sidelines himself, but he does it with an intensity in his eyes that you never saw with Smith. Fitzgerald will certainly turn up the volume on the sideline, but let's just hope other coaches don't make saying "I don't know" a trend when talking about whether MSU is disciplining its players enough in the future.