Pat Fitzgerald To Michigan State Is A Stupid Hire
Context
Show response to Tyler's question — both hosts hate this hire. Hazing scandal aside, the surface-level facts: Fitzgerald went 4-20 over his last two Northwestern seasons, has zero experience operating in the transfer-portal era, and plays an aesthetically unappealing brand of football. The hire reads as Michigan State going safe — the donor-friendly, "molder of men," dependable, experienced-veteran-coach archetype — at exactly the moment when safe doesn't beat the modern Big Ten.
The conference-context check: Michigan State now plays Indiana (returning national champion), Oregon, USC, Washington, ascending UCLA under Chesney, investing-heavily Penn State under Campbell, Ohio State, ascending Illinois, plus the historical rivals. This is not the level of swing the program needed.
The early-signal red flag the show notes: post-hire portal class and assistant hires didn't suggest Fitzgerald has used his time away to learn the modern roster-management rhythms. The show explicitly says they were willing to wait and see, and what they saw didn't reassure.
Subject(s)
Related
- 2026-05-07 Modern Hires Reward Risk Not Safety — the structural frame this take applies
- 2026-05-07 Sabans Retirement Cascade — adjacent: who Michigan State could have gone after if the cascade hadn't moved