MSU's Fitzgerald Reveals Part of Transfer Portal Strategy
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Not every college football coach uses the same strategy in the transfer portal. No one strategy necessarily works more than the other, but some seek potential, and some prefer more tangible, on-field production.
Michigan State's Pat Fitzgerald prefers the production side of things. That hasn't stopped him from taking a few other prospects who are more on the potential side, but Fitzgerald's philosophy is evident in the Spartans' current transfer portal class. He spoke about it on Thursday while attending a convention for Michigan high school football coaches.
"We will build a winning program based on bringing the right guys into the program," Fitzgerald said. "It starts with our evaluation. I don't care where they're coming from. I don't care what level they've played. I want to see production.
"Do not show me a young man that we want to think about having come transfer that has not produced. I want to see on-field, college production. Projection, for me, is in high school. I'll project high school kids, or maybe a chosen freshman or two that are in the portal down the road. That'll probably be guys that we recruited out of high school that maybe went somewhere else."
MSU's Portal Class
Fitzgerald's actions in the portal mostly reflect this. Every single member of Michigan State's portal class has played and gotten true on-field experience before. Not every player was a starter on their previous team, but there has always been at least a little bit to point to.
As Fitzgerald has also said, he's also been willing to look at some younger players who lean towards the potential side. The best example of a projection addition is probably Southeast Missouri State EDGE transfer Trey Lisle. He wasn't a starter at the FCS level this year, but he still has three years of eligibility remaining and has serious upside at 6-foot-7 and 246 pounds.
Fitzgerald also said this year is naturally a bit different. He has more slots to fill than usual and isn't planning on losing 40+ players to the portal every offseason.
"I hope we never have to do that again," Fitzgerald said about the incoming portal class' size. "But with that, we were able to bring guys that we believe fit what we're trying to do and have already had production on the collegiate field."
Fitzgerald is certainly willing to use the portal, but he seemed to kind of consider it a necessary evil for building a program. His vision seems to be that MSU will build itself up through high school recruiting.
"We're gonna be a high school recruiting outfit," Fitzgerald said. "Are you gonna have to take players out of the portal? Sure, you have to fill holes. The way the structure of the calendar is right now, you have to. So yeah, absolutely, you have to do that. But no, we're going to start and end recruiting with high school talent. You have to. It's essential to build a culture."
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A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
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