Why Pat Fitzgerald is a High-Risk, High-Reward Hire for MSU

It feels like the Spartans are rolling the dice a bit with Pat Fitzgerald.

Oct 30, 2021; Evanston, Illinois, USA; Northwestern Wildcats head coach Pat Fitzgerald looks on in the second half against the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Ryan Field. Mandatory Credit: Quinn Harris-Imagn Images | Quinn Harris-Imagn Images

Michigan State has to get this coaching hire correct. The Spartans have been below mediocre ever since Mark Dantonio's retirement, excluding the 11-win 2021 season. Making a third bad hire in a row would only set the program back even further.

It would have been easy for MSU to go with a "safe" hire, but that's what Jonathan Smith was viewed as when the Spartans hired him. He only lasted two seasons. Instead of going in that direction, Michigan State is rolling the dice a bit with former Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald.

The Risk

Nov 12, 2022; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Northwestern Wildcats head coach Pat Fitzgerald looks on during the second quarter against the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Huntington Bank Stadium. | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

It's always a bit of an unusual move to hire somebody who was previously out of coaching. Fitzgerald's chance to get back into coaching emerged in August when he settled his wrongful termination lawsuit with Northwestern and largely cleared his name, as the school could not prove that he knew about the hazing going on within the program while he was there.

Whether it's fair to Fitzgerald or not, the fact that he hasn't had a college football job for three seasons is a minus. This sport is not the same as it was in 2022. NIL was just taking hold then, revenue-sharing is now a thing, the transfer portal is nearly as important as high school recruiting, and Michigan State-Oregon, MSU-UCLA, and MSU-Washington next year will all be conference games.

Four-year plans of steady improvement aren't quick enough anymore. Coaches don't get to slowly build a culture and develop three-star recruits and hope to overperform in year three or four. It's a world now where everything must be done as quickly and efficiently as possible, especially as everyone tries to replicate Curt Cignetti's one-year miracle of making Indiana go from national laughingstock to powerhouse.

That's going to be new territory for Fitzgerald. It was different enough in 2022, but it was even more different in 2006, when transferring was rare, and the only way to build a roster was through recruiting well at the high school level.

Jul 26, 2022; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Northwestern Wildcats head coach Pat Fitzgerald talks to the media during Big 10 football media days at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Goddin-Imagn Images | Robert Goddin-Imagn Images

What doesn't help is that Fitzgerald has not done very well during his time as a head coach with some of these changes. NIL first took effect before the 2021 season, and Fitzgerald's Wildcats went a combined 4-20 that year and in '22.

Certainly, Fitzgerald has several accolades during his time in Evanston before those two seasons. Northwestern made the conference title game in 2018 and 2020, finished ranked in the AP Top 25 five times, and made 10 bowl games --- all at the school that is probably the least committed to athletics in the Big Ten. But all of that was before NIL and the transfer portal had such a huge impact on the sport.

The (Potential) Reward

Oct 29, 2022; Iowa City, Iowa, USA; Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald and the Wildcats team before the game against the Iowa Hawkeyes at Kinnick Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images | Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

But that's the thing: Those accolades at a place like Northwestern are so impressive that it might be worth giving Fitzgerald a shot in this newer era of college football. Michigan State is almost certainly going to provide him with better resources than what he was getting in Evanston.

Just because Fitzgerald hasn't coached in an era where you take in so many transfers every offseason and succeed doesn't mean that he cannot do so when given a shot. If, emphasis on if, it does work, that will result in wins for Michigan State and be a return to competitiveness in the Big Ten, as the conference only gets stronger by the year and separates itself from every other conference, besides the SEC.

The other potential reward is Fitzgerald's history of loyalty. He stayed at Northwestern, his alma mater, for 17 years and would likely still be there if he hadn't been fired. Fitzgerald didn't play for or attend Michigan State, but the school is always going to be the one that gave him his second chance at being a head coach.

For MSU to compete for College Football Playoff berths and perhaps Big Ten titles, it needs a coach who has traditionally done more with less. Dantonio did it, and that was the line of thinking when the Spartans hired Smith. We'll all see if it works with Fitzgerald.

Oct 29, 2022; Iowa City, Iowa, USA; Northwestern Wildcats head coach Pat Fitzgerald enters Kinnick Stadium before the game against the Iowa Hawkeyes. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images | Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

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