Pat Fitzgerald calls MSU opportunity ‘almost a no-brainer’

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Pat Fitzgerald spoke to eight schools about the possibility of coaching their football teams, looking for the best place to resume his career, before choosing Michigan State.

The former Northwestern coach and All-American linebacker signed a five-year, $30 million, incentive-laden contract to return the Spartans to relevance.

“It was almost a no-brainer for me when the opportunity presented itself,” Fitzgerald, 51, said Tuesday.

Fitzgerald will make $5 million guaranteed in his first year and will receive at least $500,000 more in each of the following four seasons. If he helps Michigan State win seven games in any of his first three seasons, an extra year and $500,000 will be added to his contract.

If the Spartans simply win six or more games in the regular season, he will earn a $500,000 bonus; seven wins would give him an additional $1 million and an eight-win season would trigger a $1.5 million bonus.

Fitzgerald would earn more than $1 million in bonuses if Michigan State wins a national championship — for the first time since 1952, according to an Associated Press poll — and $400,000 for leading the school to its first Big Ten championship since 2016.

It won’t be easy to get one of these incentives.

Michigan State fired Jonathan Smith on Sunday after going 9-15 and 4-14 in the Big Ten, giving him more than $30 million to buy out the remainder of his contract. Two of the team’s best players, receiver Nick Marsh and running back Makhi Frazier, plan to enter the portal.

The program has struggled since Mark Dantonio retired and ended a record 13-year streak with 7–6 consecutive seasons and a two-year Big Ten record of .500.

With choices limited in the winter of 2020, inexperienced athletic director Bill Beekman hired Mel Tucker after going 5-7 in one season at Colorado. Tucker led the Spartans to an 11-2 record in 2021. The school fired him at the start of the 2023 season after investigating a sexual misconduct complaint against him.

Fitzgerald lost his job at Northwestern in July 2023, after 17 years at his alma mater, due to a hazing scandal.

“It blew me away,” he said. “It shook me to my core.”

Fitzgerald sued the school for $130 million for wrongful termination and reached a settlement in August after the school said “there was no direct evidence that Coach Fitzgerald knew about the hazing,” in its investigation.

On what he called a sabbatical, Fitzgerald visited NFL and college teams to prepare for his next opportunity.

“I’ve been dreaming of this day for a long time,” he said, choking up. “There will no longer be a motivated coach.”

Fitzgerald led the Wildcats to Big Ten West championships in 2018, when he was voted Big Ten Coach of the Year, and in 2020 with a 110-101 record. The Chicago-area native played on the 1995 Northwestern team that won the Big Ten and played in the Rose Bowl.

“Pat is a great fit for Michigan State football because he understands the Big Ten, has great relationships throughout the Midwest and embodies the values ​​our program was built on,” said Athletic Director J Batt.

Michigan State fans greeted Fitzgerald with a rousing ovation upon his arrival at the Breslin Center, where the seventh-ranked basketball team faced Iowa.

Fitzgerald addressed the crowd, imploring them to be even louder.

“Let’s blow the roof off,” he shouted.