Spartan Sundays: Nebraska Loss Shows Fitzgerald's Massive Work in Progress
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EAST LANSING -- Year 4 of a program rebuild beat Year 1 of another one on Saturday.
Nebraska has been in Michigan State's current shoes before. The Cornhuskers, who handled MSU 31-13 on Saturday, went seven years without a bowl game from 2017 to 2023. The Spartans' Week 4 performance was certainly disappointing, but Michigan State can take a lot of lessons from Nebraska.
Parallels With Past Nebraska Teams
Nebraska's bowl drought came about 15 years after its program's modern "Golden Age" ended after 2001. Michigan State's gap was about half as long, but things move and change more quickly now than they did in the 2000s and early 2010s. Regardless, both fan bases have memories in the not-so-distant past about what their program is truly capable of, and both programs therefore knew that they were vastly underperforming.
MSU's Pat Fitzgerald and Nebraska's Matt Rhule share some real similarities. Rhule is 70-62 overall (.530) in his college career and is a "do more with less" kind of coach. Fitzgerald is 112-103 overall (.521) and was also known as a "do more with less" guy at Northwestern.
Rhule turned around both Temple and Baylor prior to his days at Nebraska. He went 2-10 and 1-11 in his first years at each of those spots, respectively. Those were in the pre-NIL, pre-transfer portal days when rebuilds were a lot different, but Rhule didn't instantly turn around Nebraska, either. The Cornhuskers went 4-8 in the final year of the Scott Frost era (firing him midseason) -- Rhule only added one win to that record in his first season in Lincoln.
Fitzgerald was never going to be a quick-fix, Curt Cignetti-type figure at Michigan State. Perhaps a candidate would have been better suited for a Year 1 turnaround, but MSU signed up for another "longer" rebuild when it hired Fitzgerald. If The Athletic's estimation that the Spartans' roster is worth roughly $20-23 million is true, which is a slightly below-average figure in the Big Ten, the thought of an 8-4 or 9-3 type season was a pipe dream, anyway.
'We're Going To Be Fine'
This is also just Game 4 of Year 1. It's also Michigan State's first truly disappointing performance. It's tough to know just how good a "complete" performance from the Spartans would be this year, but we haven't seen it yet.
"We're going to be fine," Fitzgerald said. "We're not fine now. We're going to be fine. We're going to build a program on bedrock. We're not there yet. I got it. Trust me, every day, it's just going to be a relentless pursuit of getting there, and I believe in these guys. We've just got to get them to play cleaner and play smarter and play more disciplined. You can't do the things we're doing right now and expect to win."
Returning to the Spartans' NIL efforts, Nebraska's roster has been valued at between $31 and 35 million. At best, assuming both teams are within the article's margin of error, the Cornhuskers have spent an additional $8 million on their roster this year. At worst, that number is $15 million. Nebraska is supposed to have the better roster, and that's how things looked on Saturday.
The reality is that Michigan State has to ramp up the financial side of things to have a realistic shot at turning itself around. Fitzgerald says he wants to build through the recruiting rankings, but it's tough to convince worthwhile recruits to come play for you when your program hasn't had a winning season in a while. Members of the 2027 recruiting class were in seventh grade during the 2021 Kenneth Walker III year.
It's not great to say when talking about a college program, but the way to make up for that is...money. Those dollars have to be spent wisely in the transfer portal and on recruits, but sometimes MSU might just have to pony up and outbid its opponent to get the talent it needs for a competitive roster. The lack of high-end talent was the biggest knock on this 2026 roster entering the year, and that seems to be the way things are after four games.
Fitzgerald has brought Michigan State a much-needed identity. This actually seems like the most well-coached MSU team in a few years, too. College football is a bit more about getting the best possible personnel than it is about X's and O's, compared to the NFL. Saturday's loss to Nebraska showed that Michigan State isn't there yet.
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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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