Why Shift to MSU No Biggie for OC Nick Sheridan

EAST LANSING, Mich. --- A former Wolverine now has the keys to the Spartans' offense.

Michigan State hasn't been productive on that side of the ball since Kenneth Walker III left for the NFL, ranking no better than 96th in the FBS across the last four bowl game-less seasons. After cycling through Jay Johnson and Brian Lindgren, MSU and new head coach Pat Fitzgerald are hoping former Michigan quarterback Nick Sheridan is the guy who jumpstarts the offense.

Michigan State's offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan works with the team during spring football practice on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in East Lansing. | Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Sheridan spoke publicly for the first time as the Spartans' offensive coordinator on Tuesday morning. His time in a maize-and-blue winged helmet has long passed. Before that time even arrived, Sheridan was living at Michigan State as a kid. His father, Bill, was the linebackers coach at MSU from 1998-2000, where he overlapped with Mark Dantonio, then the Spartans' defensive backs coach.

"This is an incredibly proud program that has a great history, great tradition, and I didn't need to be educated on that," Sheridan said. "I was very well aware of it, and I've seen it firsthand."

Fitzgerald's Note

Michigan State Spartans head coach Pat Fitzgerald addresses fans during a men's basketball game against the Iowa Hawkeyes on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, at the Breslin Center. Fitzgerald had been formally introduced earlier that day. | Starr Portice, Michigan State Spartans on SI

One thing that drew Sheridan to Michigan State was Fitzgerald. The two of them were not particularly close over the years. Fitzgerald's Northwestern program bested Sheridan's Wolverines, 21-14, back in 2008.

Once Sheridan was done playing at U-M, he actually wrote Fitzgerald a note around 2010 or 2011. This wasn't the only note Sheridan wrote to somebody he admired. There were plenty of other notes sent out to coaches, but Fitzgerald is one of the few who wrote something back.

"It was really one of admiration on my end," Sheridan said. "When I was a young coach, and I was a graduate assistant, I wrote him, wishing him luck and having him keep me in mind if he had any graduate assistant positions open in the future, and he wrote me back."

The two of them have had some common links, though. Both of them coached quarterback Peyton Ramsey, who played at Indiana while Sheridan was the tight ends coach there before transferring to Northwestern, where he was the starting quarterback for the Wildcats when they made the 2020 Big Ten title game.

Sheridan was also a GA for Mike Bajakian at Tennessee in 2014; Bajakian was Fitzgerald's offensive coordinator from 2020-23 and was MSU's quarterbacks coach for about a month before accepting the same position with the Cleveland Browns. Michigan State hired John McNulty as the team's quarterbacks coach instead.

F.A.S.T. Offense

Michigan State's Alessio Milivojevic throws a pass during spring football practice on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in East Lansing. | Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

As for Sheridan's offensive philosophy, he used an acronym to describe what he's looking for, called F.A.S.T., which stands for "fundamentally sound, attacking, smart, and tough."

Part of the hope for Sheridan being the one who can form a formidable offense again is his history with quarterbacks. During his career, Sheridan has worked with Joshua Dobbs at Tennessee (fourth-round pick), Michael Penix Jr. at Indiana and Washington (first-round pick), Jalen Milroe at Alabama (third-round pick), and then Ty Simpson at Alabama (likely first- or second-round pick).

Nick Sheridan\ — Dec 19, 2025; Norman, OK, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide quarterbacks coach Nick Sheridan with quarterback Ty Simpson (15) against the Oklahoma Sooners during the CFP National Playoff First Round at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Alessio Milivojevic is in line to be the starting quarterback for the Spartans next fall. He performed pretty well in four starts at the end of last season, but the key will be whether he can adjust when defenses get more tips on his tendencies. With a lot of new faces in the running back and wide receiver rooms, the offense is bound to get interesting.

"We wanna make sure that we give our players answers, and then we wanna feature our playmakers," Sheridan said. "We wanna put our players in the best position to be successful, and that includes everybody: wide receivers, running backs, tight ends, quarterbacks, and certainly, offensive line. We've had great success in this offense doing that and utilizing people in a lot of different ways at all positions."