MSU's Pat Fitzgerald Uses First Practice To Set 'Championship Standard'
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EAST LANSING, Mich. -- One of Pat Fitzgerald's biggest complaints about his first fall camp practice at Michigan State is that the water break wasn't good enough. Yes, the water break.
"It may sound silly, but we weren't very good at it," Fitzgerald said about it after practice on Thursday afternoon. "So we'll be better at it tomorrow. It's about the attention to detail in everything that we do."
What also didn't help was that Fitzgerald found some Gatorade bottles and food wrappers on the ground out on the practice field. It seems like players will get away with it this time, but Fitzgerald said the team will go on a "little fun run" the next time that happens.
Obviously, it's a lot more about the principle than about doing the water break quicker or "better." The message seems to have sunk in quickly with the team, as well.
Comments From Milivojevic, Martinez
Starting quarterback Alessio Milivojevic and safety Nikai Martinez are two players expected to be among the team's leaders this season. Being a leader naturally comes with Milivojevic's position as QB1. Martinez is one of the Spartans' best and most tenured players; he's entering his third year with the program and will be the starting free safety.
"Obviously, the trash part, it's unacceptable," Milivojevic said. "It's something the team should be doing; it's something I should be doing as a leader. I should be picking that up. Coach should never have to pick something up off the field."
"I love it," Martinez said. "That's because it just teaches us discipline. He [Fitzgerald] teaches us a lot of stuff that's gonna benefit us off the field that we probably don't understand now, but when we get older and we become fathers and husbands, we'll understand the importance of the little stuff."
It's peak "Day 1" stuff, because, well, it's Day 1. This is Fitzgerald's "first first" practice with a team since 2006. The No. 1 movie at the box office back in August 2006 was Talladega Nights. It's been a while since Fitzgerald operated with a totally blank slate.
More on the (New) Standard at MSU
Faster water breaks, spotless fields, and spotless meeting rooms are among the first bricks towards a larger goal. Fitzgerald hasn't shied away from setting lofty goals for himself and his team. He said he's hoping to win a Big Ten title right away last week during the conference's media days.
The team also posted a video of him speaking during a team meeting on Wednesday, and on the projector were the dates and logos of the Big Ten title game and each College Football Playoff round. ESPN's College Football Power Index gives MSU only a 32.7% chance to reach a bowl game. The odds of a CFP berth or a Big Ten title 0.8% and 0.1%, respectively. Still, that's where the sights are being set right away.
"You move towards and become like what you think about the most," Fitzgerald said when I asked him about that part of the video. "If you think about how you're going to be a champion, you will be... I think [getting that level of belief] is an ongoing process. I think it's an individual choice. I think you've got to create the right mental habits. And when you do that kind of individually, then we get it by position, side of the ball, and then collectively as a team, we can reach our full potential."
The water breaks and the trash pickup are a start. First impressions matter a lot, so quickly stomping out those seemingly minute issues is extremely purposeful. If it's allowed now, it'll be allowed during the season, and then those small issues can snowball into big ones.
"You're taking over a program, like, how we look in practice [matters]," Fitzgerald said. "We shouldn't have our tails hanging out of our shirts. We shouldn't have tails streaming down to the ground. It's not what we do. I don't really give a s*** if they do that other places. That's not what we're gonna do. This is how we're gonna do it, and then once we get to a point where we don't have to have those conversations anymore, then we'll reinforce it even harder."
"We're building a standard of expectation, because that's gotta be the bedrock we build this thing on. It's not gonna be built on sand. And so it's a path less traveled. And to do something special, we've gotta get ourselves up to a championship standard, and that's everybody that touches the Spartan football program."
Pat Fitzgerald Press Conference
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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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