Pat Fitzgerald already has blueprint for Michigan State football success in Mark Dantonio
Michigan State’s identity starting to crystallize for Pat Fitzgerald
Michigan State football coach Pat Fitzgerald talks to the media on Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, ahead of their Week 1 game against Toledo.
EAST LANSING – Joe Rossi could not hide his excitement as a big smile spread across his face.
After years of working under offensive-minded head coaches, from PJ Fleck to Jonathan Smith, Michigan State football’s defensive coordinator feels like he has found a kindred soul in Pat Fitzgerald.
A tough-nosed former All-American linebacker. A massive and engaging personality who preaches toughness and tenacity.
An experienced Big Ten coach with a proven pedigree.
“I think it’s because he has the awareness of how to coach a football team,” Rossi said Wednesday, Sept. 2 – two days before Fitzgerald’s debut against Toledo on Friday (8 p.m., FS1). “That’s the thing he has – he’s a football coach. He’s a HEAD football coach. He does a great job of managing offense, defense and special teams … and probably better than any head coach that I’ve been associated with being up to speed on what the game plan is on all three phases.”
For the third time in six years, the Spartans are making a coaching transition. This time, the hope is that 51-year-old Fitzgerald can return MSU to the glory that Mark Dantonio reestablished over an extended period for the first time since the 1960s.
The blueprint is there, Fitzgerald has admitted, and it was provided by Dantonio in his 13-year tenure that made him the winningest coach in program history. It starts at the point of attack on both lines, leading to an aggressive defense that can fly around the field and a hard-nosed offense that moves opponents to dominate on the ground first.
In other words, what has made the Big Ten the Big Ten for generations.
“Well, I have not earned being side by side with Mark Dantonio, all right? So let’s temper that a little bit,” FIzgerald, on his first weekly radio show Tuesday night, told former MSU running back Jehuu Caulcrick. “But coach D, he’s been awesome. He’s been around the program a bunch, [former strength coach] Ken Mannie has been around the program a bunch. I’m gonna have to get Ken a new key card, I think he’s trying to use his old one and it’s not working getting in the door.
“But that’s what we want to do. We want to really, truly stand upon the shoulders of those that have been here before us and the great ‘Spartan Dawgs.’ … We just gotta get back to playing football Spartan style.”
Caulcrick was a major part in establishing that ethos under Dantonio in his first year. A carryover from John L. Smith’s tenure, which flamed out in 2006, Caulcrick emerged with Javon Ringer in 2007 under a 51-year-old Dantonio as a battering ram thunder-and-lightning run duo, finishing his final year with a then-MSU record 21 rushing touchdowns. Those Spartans, with Brian Hoyer at quarterback after sitting behind Drew Stanton, reached a bowl game for the first time since 2003 and finished 7-6.
One of those losses was a 48-41 overtime shootout against Northwestern and Fitzgerald, who was only 32 and in his second season leading his alma mater. Dantonio beat Fitzgerald in each of the next four seasons.
But as the two got to know each other and serve on national boards, they grew to respect each other’s similar styles.
“He’s a great coach because he’s about toughness,” Dantonio recently told WILX-TV in Lansing. “He’s played the game at a high level in the Big Ten. He’s a Hall of Fame player. He’s got extremely high leadership talent. … He’s gonna lead from the front, but he’s also gonna lead from behind as well and push people forward. I think he’s gonna do an outstanding job.”
Much like Dantonio, Fitzgerald inherits a team coming off a 4-8 season (which led to the dismissal of another Smith, Jonathan, after two seasons). Fitzgerald stayed the course within the program at quarterback, giving Alessio Milivojevic the nod after the third-year sophomore started the final four games in 2025. And he arrives at a low point in MSU football, with the tenures of Mel Tucker and Jonathan Smith producing just one bowl game since Dantonio retired after the 2019 season. The four-season bowl-less run is the Spartans’ longest postseason drought since they went 18 seasons between the Rose Bowl at the end of the 1965 season and the Cherry Bowl in 1984.
Unlike Dantonio, however, Fitzgerald arrives with a track record of building in the Big Ten, having gone 110-101 in 17 seasons at Northwestern, with a 65-76 Big Ten record and two West Division titles from 2006-22. He also has the path to getting MSU back to success that Dantonio left to guide him.
“From being around the program, from being a guy that played here at Michigan State, seeing people come and go, there are only two people that I view that have viewed this job as a destination job and not a stepping stone somewhere,” Caulcrick told Fitzgerald. “And it’s Mark Dantonio and you.”
That buzz has been building on campus and around the program, with current players and alumni, since Fitzgerald arrived in December. His Midwest roots and blue-collar ethos mirror Dantonio and basketball coach Tom Izzo. His gregarious persona and quick wit evoke memories of Duffy Daugherty. His All-American background as a former Big Ten star matches Biggie Munn.
But as he said, now is the time “where the rubber hits the road.” To sustain that energy and eventually claim a seat at that table of legendary MSU coaches, Fitzgerald knows he must succeed at their level.
“I’ve said it many times. Now, we’ve gotta do our part,” he said. “We gotta continue to build this thing the right way and now win football games.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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