Fitz to Michigan State

CatManTrue · Jan 14, 2026

Purple Pile Driver said:
You are going to pontificate about this for years, we next years rebuild your flash point for whether Fitz has changed his evil ways. Can’t wait.

I never called Fitz evil, but he still lacks accountability and should have been fired years ago.

I also think he lacks the football acumen that most fans thinks he has. He was a great player and linebacker coach, but his offenses stunk because of his philosophy (or lack thereof). If he hadn’t been a star player he would have been fired years ago.

Northwestern, as you have learned by now, lacks leadership. Maybe the next President will have some, but the dozens of members on the Board of Trustees will still tie their hands.

Reading the Reddit MSU football boards has been rather cathartic compared to dealing with most fans on here. Their takes on Fitz aren’t that positive (they picked up on his record against Michigan and without Hankwitz quickly

) … most seem resigned to continue to fall behind in the B1G.

Like most college programs, they’re pissed they didn’t hire Cignetti first.

Fanaticat98 · Jan 14, 2026

I honestly don’t think there is pressure to win big in year 1, that’s not why they would have hired Fitz. Their last couple coaches were short term, Tucker left in scandal and Smith was just kind of a dud. So they are going to give Fitz multiple years and not expect a playoff run in year 1.

Fitz may have seen the QB (Alessio?) as showing good growth and multi year potential and so they could spread more $ among more transfers and multi year guys instead of burning $4-5 million of the budget on a one and done QB.

AdamOnFirst · Jan 14, 2026

Fanaticat98 said:
I honestly don’t think there is pressure to win big in year 1, that’s not why they would have hired Fitz. Their last couple coaches were short term, Tucker left in scandal and Smith was just kind of a dud. So they are going to give Fitz multiple years and not expect a playoff run in year 1.

Fitz may have seen the QB (Alessio?) as showing good growth and multi year potential and so they could spread more $ among more transfers and multi year guys instead of burning $4-5 million of the budget on a one and done QB.

I agree that they’ll be fine just showing competitiveness and progress in year one, but that doesn’t mean they can win 3-4 games again either. Smith left things pretty bad so that shouldn’t be too hard. They’re not going to be okay with years of building though, he can’t go 6-6 in year 3 and stay off the hot seat.

Curdog7 · Jan 14, 2026

CatManTrue said:
I read on Reddit that supposedly $20-30M of the cash was available immediately if needed for NIL.

MSU donors handed its football program a blank check and fresh start.

And, yet, Fitz let a more talented QB (Chiles) leave and replaced him with someone much worse than Stone was (the UCF QB).

…and he hired Bajakian as his “Van Buddy”, as MSU fans call Jake.

I PREDICT… that Northwestern will have a better 2026 than MSU on the football field.

I would imagine Fitz is trying to be strategic about using all the new found NIL money. Next year’s team is not expected to be very good after losing so many players. Why spend $5mm on a QB when there isn’t much talent around him? Save that money for some oline and dline guys and start building a roster for 2027. Then look for that marquee QB. At least, that’s what I would do.

CatManTrue · Jan 14, 2026

Curdog7 said:
I would imagine Fitz is trying to be strategic about using all the new found NIL money. Next year’s team is not expected to be very good after losing so many players. Why spend $5mm on a QB when there isn’t much talent around him? Save that money for some oline and dline guys and start building a roster for 2027. Then look for that marquee QB. At least, that’s what I would do.

Cignetti came in and started winning immediately.

Braun did too.

Fitz needs to win quickly. Their schedule next year is more manageable than ours so he should try to win every game he can.

AdamOnFirst · Jan 14, 2026

Curdog7 said:
I would imagine Fitz is trying to be strategic about using all the new found NIL money. Next year’s team is not expected to be very good after losing so many players. Why spend $5mm on a QB when there isn’t much talent around him? Save that money for some oline and dline guys and start building a roster for 2027. Then look for that marquee QB. At least, that’s what I would do.

You don’t need to slowly build up if you actually have $30M in NIL money, you can bring in a good starter at every position and improve greatly. Doesn’t mean you have to bring in a $5M QB either, but really you can afford all of the above.

Curdog7 · Jan 15, 2026

CatManTrue said:
Cignetti came in and started winning immediately.

Braun did too.

Fitz needs to win quickly. Their schedule next year is more manageable than ours so he should try to win every game he can.

Yes, Cignetti won right away. Now do every other recent hire. You will find lots more losing and firings. MSU is completely tune g over the roster. Invest in good, young lineman, let them get some experience next year, and try and make a run in 2027 with an elite QB.

Curdog7 · Jan 15, 2026

AdamOnFirst said:
You don’t need to slowly build up if you actually have $30M in NIL money, you can bring in a good starter at every position and improve greatly. Doesn’t mean you have to bring in a $5M QB either, but really you can afford all of the above.

Yes, I agree with the premise, but you won’t win big without a very good QB. If I’m an MSU fan, I want to see steady progress in 2026, a winning season in 2027, and then top 20 in 2018.

NU'06er · Jan 15, 2026

Curdog7 said:
Yes, I agree with the premise, but you won’t win big without a very good QB. If I’m an MSU fan, I want to see steady progress in 2026, a winning season in 2027, and then top 20 in 2018.

I'm genuinely curious what level of achievement is necessary to placate MSU fans. As I've mentioned before, they've run four coaches out of town who were winning a median of 5 games a year, so it's clear going 6-6 regularly is the lowest possible floor they could theoretically live with. Dantonio won 9 in his median year, and I think while that fan base hopes to re-live that era, they can probably live with falling short of that. So... do they need 7 wins a year to be happy? 8?

It's a big difference if they're asking Fitz to go 18-18 plus a bowl win or two in a bad bowl over the next 3 years, versus if they expect a 24-12 regular season record.

AdamOnFirst · Jan 15, 2026

NU'06er said:
I'm genuinely curious what level of achievement is necessary to placate MSU fans. As I've mentioned before, they've run four coaches out of town who were winning a median of 5 games a year, so it's clear going 6-6 regularly is the lowest possible floor they could theoretically live with. Dantonio won 9 in his median year, and I think while that fan base hopes to re-live that era, they can probably live with falling short of that. So... do they need 7 wins a year to be happy? 8?

It's a big difference if they're asking Fitz to go 18-18 plus a bowl win or two in a bad bowl over the next 3 years, versus if they expect a 24-12 regular season record.

I don’t think they expect either of those. I’d guess Fitz could wind 4-5 next year as long as they look improved, but they better have made a bowl by the end of year two and had a winning year by the end of year 3.

So I guess that means that 18-18 will probably keep them happy for three years as long as the contours are good, but they’ll need more than that going forward. Their expectations are probably roughly Minnesota’s; expectations of 6-8 annually with frequent 9-10 up bursts.

Fanaticat98 · Jan 15, 2026

CatManTrue said:
Cignetti came in and started winning immediately.

Braun did too.

Fitz needs to win quickly. Their schedule next year is more manageable than ours so he should try to win every game he can.

I’m a Cignetti fan but that 2024 season was an extremely, extremely soft and well set up schedule. It was still a huge accomplishment to win every winnable game but he didn’t have to play ND in September like Fitz will.

Braun 2023 had a decent BT West schedule, no OSU/Mich and of course no Oregon.

MSUs schedule should bring at least regular season 6 win minimum and 8 wins as a reasonable expectation but @Nd and Oregon are very likely losses and @Mich a tough out as well.

Certainly if he’s not bowl eligible this year there will be reason for concern, but it’s also not realistic to expect 10+ wins.

jne381 · Jan 15, 2026

AdamOnFirst said:
I don’t think they expect either of those. I’d guess Fitz could wind 4-5 next year as long as they look improved, but they better have made a bowl by the end of year two and had a winning year by the end of year 3.

So I guess that means that 18-18 will probably keep them happy for three years as long as the contours are good, but they’ll need more than that going forward. Their expectations are probably roughly Minnesota’s; expectations of 6-8 annually with frequent 9-10 up bursts.

MSU fans do not have the same expectations as Minnesota fans. They are forgiving of down years, but they need to see improvement. Fitz will be able to get by with a couple bad years if there is obvious building going on. That was the downfall of Smith. Once the program is established, the expectation will be 9 wins, with good years that exceed that.

ThatadultfromHolland · Jan 16, 2026

Reddit MSU fans have had a drastically different reaction to the hire than most MSU fans I talk to in daily life. Wearing NU apparel has led to a lot of fun conversations since he got hired. There’s a noticeable optimism in the air, much of it centered not just on bringing Fitz in but on the amount of money being funneled into the program. Fitz won a lot of them over at the Iowa game. They all talk about how good it is for the program to get a true Midwest guy. Expectations are low for this upcoming season, but most people expect a turnaround in 2 to 3 years, which feels reasonable in my opinion.

CatManTrue · Jan 17, 2026

ThatadultfromHolland said:
Reddit MSU fans have had a drastically different reaction to the hire than most MSU fans I talk to in daily life. Wearing NU apparel has led to a lot of fun conversations since he got hired. There’s a noticeable optimism in the air, much of it centered not just on bringing Fitz in but on the amount of money being funneled into the program. Fitz won a lot of them over at the Iowa game. They all talk about how good it is for the program to get a true Midwest guy. Expectations are low for this upcoming season, but most people expect a turnaround in 2 to 3 years, which feels reasonable in my opinion.

I’m glad some MSU fans are excited for the hiring. While I agree with most of the negative Reddit criticism, some go way too far in discrediting our best seasons with Fitz.

And I thought a turnaround was possible… until he hired Bajakian instead of Anderson (also at UMess) or, worse for us, McGarigle.

Fitz hasn’t learned ****.

How do your neighbors who cheer for Michigan feel about them replacing Moore with Whittingham?

Quite the upgrade.

CatManTrue · Jan 21, 2026

On3 likes Fitz’s transfers on the whole so far as they’re ranked 21st.

We’re down in the 50s…

2025 College Football Team Transfer Portal Rankings

The 2025 college football transfer portal team rankings.

www.on3.com

Catmandoo78 · Jan 21, 2026

CatManTrue said:
On3 likes Fitz’s transfers on the whole so far as they’re ranked 21st.

We’re down in the 50s…

2025 College Football Team Transfer Portal Rankings

The 2025 college football transfer portal team rankings.

www.on3.com

Careful, you’re veering off the marked trail

Fanaticat98 · Jan 21, 2026

CatManTrue said:
On3 likes Fitz’s transfers on the whole so far as they’re ranked 21st.

We’re down in the 50s…

2025 College Football Team Transfer Portal Rankings

The 2025 college football transfer portal team rankings.

www.on3.com

That is a very different ranking. On3’s ranking says it is not a comparison of the transfer classes of different schools the same way the compare signing classes out of HS. It’s “compared relative against its roster and not a comparison against other schools.”

The widely cited ranking on “TOS” has our transfer class ranked 43 and MSU at 55. Pick whichever method reinforces your opinion

Enduro · Jan 21, 2026

Fanaticat98 said:
That is a very different ranking. On3’s ranking says it is not a comparison of the transfer classes of different schools the same way the compare signing classes out of HS. It’s “compared relative against its roster and not a comparison against other schools.”

The widely cited ranking on “TOS” has our transfer class ranked 43 and MSU at 55. Pick whichever method reinforces your opinion

That was last year's (2025) ranking - not this year's ranking (2026). This year On3 has NU at 42 and MSU at 60.

CatManTrue · Jan 23, 2026

Eye-opening article here, wow.

Fitz’s contract calls for $12M in annual assistant salary pool.

Fitz claims he wanted to hire Rossi after Hankwitz in 2021 hired “but he was too expensive”

To be fair he’s now paying Rossi $1.7M (all three coordinators at MSU make over $1M

even the special teams coordin)

So we finally know why we got stuck with JON, @EvanstonCat . That is all he could get for $900K

/s

Pat Fitzgerald details hiring process of first Michigan State staff

The Spartans return four on-field assistants, including defensive coordinator Joe Rossi.

www.mlive.com

CatManTrue · Feb 4, 2026

I’m at a work meeting in Texas and one of my colleagues is a major MSU booster who used to be a varsity Spartan. He was at the brutal MSU 2021 game and allegedly met Fitz there and loves him.

Unlike the majority of Redditors… he is a major fan, supporter, and could not be more bullish for the Fitzgerald era in East Lansing.

I reminded him that most NU fans are cheering for NU over MSU, but most of us are cheering for him to turn that program around and prove his chops.

I’m not a Fitz hater - the hazing was happening when he wasn’t yet the head coach in the early 2000s, and he stopped it for a bit in the late 2000s.

But now I agree with @ThatadultfromHolland that most MSU fans - or the median - are quite bullish on Fitz, and for good reason.

TBF: I asked him to name their starting quarterback and he couldn’t. He also wasn’t prepared to discuss Chiles under Chip Kelly… FBOW

Purple Pile Driver · Feb 5, 2026

CatManTrue said:
I’m at a work meeting in Texas and one of my colleagues is a major MSU booster who used to be a varsity Spartan. He was at the brutal MSU 2021 game and allegedly met Fitz there and loves him.

Unlike the majority of Redditors… he is a major fan, supporter, and could not be more bullish for the Fitzgerald era in East Lansing.

I reminded him that most NU fans are cheering for NU over MSU, but most of us are cheering for him to turn that program around and prove his chops.

I’m not a Fitz hater - the hazing was happening when he wasn’t yet the head coach in the early 2000s, and he stopped it for a bit in the late 2000s.

But now I agree with @ThatadultfromHolland that most MSU fans - or the median - are quite bullish on Fitz, and for good reason.

TBF: I asked him to name their starting quarterback and he couldn’t. He also wasn’t prepared to discuss Chiles under Chip Kelly… FBOW

Hope he’s better prepared for your meeting?

CatManTrue · Feb 5, 2026

Purple Pile Driver said:
Hope he’s better prepared for your meeting?

He’s prepared to hate Michigan, and was rather fired up on that topic.

MSU fans hate Michigan more than OSU now.

I didn’t burst his bubble by mentioning Fitz’s record versus scUM… or the three consecutive games we blew against them from 2012-20, and certainly not the M00N game

LathamLad · Feb 5, 2026

To CatManTrue: don't know if your meeting is in the Houston area where I live, but I hope your Texas meeting has been a pleasant and productive one.

CatManTrue · Feb 6, 2026

LathamLad said:
To CatManTrue: don't know if your meeting is in the Houston area where I live, but I hope your Texas meeting has been a pleasant and productive one.

Thank you - it was in Dallas which was surprisingly cold until today.

I haven’t been to Houston but used to work there infrequently ~15 years ago and it is a much more interesting area.

Fitz to Michigan State

All-American

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