Pat Fitzgerald 'crystal clear' on what Michigan rivalry means at MSU
· Yahoo Sports
EAST LANSING – It might be another first for Pat Fitzgerald, but it’s the moment he’s been preparing for since becoming Michigan State football’s coach exactly 11 months ago.
“From the minute I took the job,” Fitzgerald said Monday, Nov. 2, “I think I was pretty clear that I understood what this rivalry meant.”
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It didn’t need to be clarified or quantified who he was talking about. It’s Michigan week.
The Spartans (2-6, 0-5 Big Ten) travel to Ann Arbor on Saturday to face the Wolverines (5-3, 2-3) for the 119th meeting of the annual in-state grudge match. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. and will be streaming on Peacock.
Injury-ravaged MSU, coming off a bye week, has lost six straight games in Fitzgerald’s debut season. The Spartans have dropped four straight to the Wolverines, who also have a first-year coach in Kyle Whittingham.
The two coaches might be new to the rivalry but are familiar with each other. Fitzgerald, who coached his alma mater Northwestern for 17 seasons, said he got to know former Utah coach Whittingham as both were at Under Armour schools. They also faced each other in the 2018 Holiday Bowl, when Fitzgerald’s Wildcats downed the Utes, 31-20, in San Diego.
After Fitzgerald was fired just before the 2023 season, Northwestern would go on to defeat Whittingham and Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl, 14-7. MSU hired Fitzgerald on Dec. 2, 2025 to replace Jonathan Smith; U-M hired Whittingham on Dec. 26 to replace Sherrone Moore.
Smith and MSU lost to Moore and U-M in their debut seasons in 2024, 24-17. Prior to that, it had been since 1995 that both teams have first-year coaches. That year, Nick Saban’s Spartans beat Lloyd Carr’s Wolverines, 28-25, in East Lansing.
After the Wolverines survived, 28-21, on Saturday at Rutgers, Whittingham called the Spartans “the second-most important rivalry we have” and on Monday added that, “This game is the Super Bowl, particularly for them in my opinion.” He also said on his postgame radio show that he was “very interested” to be part of it, though neither he nor any of his full-time assistant coaches have played in it.
Fitzgerald, meantime, has leaned on two former Spartans on his staff – Max Bullough (linebackers/co-defensive coordinator) and Courtney Hawkins (wide receivers) – to indoctrinate himself into the importance of the rivalry. He also has brought in former coach Mark Dantonio – MSU’s all-time winningest coach whose 8-5 record (.615) against the Wolverines also is the best in school history – to speak to his players about the game, along with former strength coach Ken Mannie.
“I had a pretty firm understanding (of the rivalry) coming in,” Fitzgerald said Monday. “But then once I landed here in December, it was pretty crystal clear. You know exactly what this game means. And since Day 1, it’s been top of mind here in our program. There’s been things, aspects of it, that we’ve talked about and areas that we’ve gone through with our team.”
Fitzgerald did not divulge any injury updates, pointing to the mandatory Wednesday availability report as the first opportunity he plans to reveal anything. The Spartans played without starting quarterback Alessio Milivojevic and running back Jaziun Patterson in a 28-10 loss at No. 5 UCLA on Oct. 24 before the bye, along with losing running back Marvis Parrish, defensive tackle Ben Roberts and safety Devin Vaught in their sixth straight loss on top of all the other pre-existing injuries.
“We’ll see you Saturday,” Fitzgerald said Monday when asked about injuries. “I gotta put stuff on paper on Wednesday. And Thursday and Friday and Saturday.”
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However, limping into the week off, Fitzgerald and his players said the bye arrived at an opportune moment to try and get healthy again before heading to the Big House, with MSU seeking its first win in the rivalry since Mel Tucker became the first coach in program history to defeat U-M in his first two attempts.
“I feel like the main (thing) is get healthy, take full advantage of the bye week mentally and physically,” safety Nikai Martinez said after the loss to the Bruins. “It just gives us a time to reset and just go over the previous games, clean up little details and corrections and be able to get healthy and move forward.”
Fitzgerald said he gave veterans who have had high snap counts already this season time to rest early last week, then began preparing to face the Wolverines with full practices Thursday and Friday. Coaches went on the road recruiting, then took off Saturday for Halloween to be with their families, before the Spartans reconvened Sunday.
Fitzgerald’s long wait to face U-M since taking the job and having to stew for two weeks between games ends Saturday night. And as Dantonio used to talk about “letting the lion out of the cage,” Fitzgerald said understands the pacing of this week is to get peak ferocity when the Spartans run onto the Michigan Stadium turf and not before.
“The preparation plan stays consistent,” he said. “And then, you know, you just keep putting fuel in the rocket. If you launch the rocket too soon, then you’re not gonna get what you want out of Saturday night.”
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Pat Fitzgerald 'crystal clear' on what Michigan rivalry means at MSU