Couch: Pat Fitzgerald will benefit at Michigan State from the regrets of the Jonathan Smith era
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EAST LANSING — One of the reasons I think the Pat Fitzgerald era has a chance to be successful at Michigan State is the understanding that Jonathan Smith got a raw deal at MSU.
You could feel and hear that underlying regret Tuesday, even as Fitzgerald’s passion and energy dominated the scene, even as everyone understood a change needed to happen. MSU athletic director J Batt, president Kevin Guskiewicz, Fitzgerald himself and later Tom Izzo all were sympathetic to Smith. They referenced his class and, in tone or words, expressed sorrow that it didn’t work out.
“The way everybody talked about Jonathan Smith was really, really, really special to me,” Izzo said hours after Fitzgerald was introduced as MSU’s head football coach, replacing Smith, who was fired Sunday. “… I think we did what we had to do, but it was hard. It’s hard to see a coach go down, especially one that has character and class.”
Smith wasn’t a great fit at MSU. By the end, just about everyone knew it. Smith included, I believe.
But for all his failings, he probably would have won enough to still be MSU’s football coach if he’d had the alignment and support from the start that Fitzgerald has today.
I think Batt, Guskiewicz and Izzo know that. That’s their side of the lesson of the short-lived Smith era.
Another lesson: Fit matters. Fitzgerald on Tuesday sounded born to coach at MSU, in stark contrast with Smith. Fitzgerald is already fluent in Spartan — from the rivalry that burns inside fans, to the style of football that people appreciate, to the coaches they love, Izzo and Mark Dantonio (both of whom he’s known for decades), to the fire and clarity with which he speaks. Fitzgerald commands a room, be it his press conference on Tuesday afternoon or the entire Breslin Center on Tuesday night.
“You just made the difference between the last two timeouts, right?” he yelled to the crowd during the first half of MSU basketball’s win over Iowa. “Not even close enough. Let’s blow the roof off this thing here! This is a Big Ten slugfest!”
Time will tell if Fitzgerald can get it done on the field at MSU. But he’s already able to do a couple things Smith couldn’t — rally fans with his words and sell his vision for the program.
“I understand what the fan base wants,” he said hours earlier, after being introduced at the football building. “They want a tough, physical team that represents this university the right way, with great integrity and wins football games and makes everybody proud. And obviously we know who our rival is, and our guys will know who our rival is every single day, but our focus will be on us. We’ve got to get better, we’ve got to improve, we’ve got to get stronger.”
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Fitzgerald speaks the language because he’s lived the experience. Not from the MSU side of it, but in the Big Ten, through years of going up against Dantonio’s MSU program. Fitzgerald turned 51 Tuesday, but he’s been at this a while, coaching against John L Smith and MSU in his first season as Northwestern’s head coach in 2006. He also played in Spartan Stadium — “in a neck roll,” he said — against George Perles- and Nick Saban-coached teams in the mid-1990s.
I’m sure Fitzgerald has done his research since he began considering the MSU job. But he didn’t have to be a method actor to sound like a native. East Lansing is in his footprint.
I didn’t used to think that mattered as much some folks thought it did. But understanding the culture of a place, and embodying that culture makes fans and alums think you understand them. That connection between coach and community is more essential than ever, now that it’s harder for fans to feel it with athletes, who are less likely to spend their full college careers in one place.
Fitzgerald’s journey the last couple years also makes him intriguing. He wears the scars of being fired and disgraced by his alma mater in 2023 amid hazing allegations inside Northwestern’s football program. Northwestern’s investigation into the matter, which wrapped this past summer, found no evidence that Fitzgerald knew about the hazing. That led to a settlement and opened the door for his return to coaching. He said Tuesday that he feels “100% vindicated”, but has also acknowledged that what goes on in his program is ultimately his responsibility.
“I love and adore my players, and I love and adore their families, and to get that ripped away from me, that knocked me down, that rocked me to the core,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s like, I cut my hand the other day, and now it’s healing and eventually there will probably be a little bit of a scar. That process of grieving for us as a family — I wouldn’t have been able to do it without (my wife) Stacy, (and sons) Jack, Ryan and Brendan, my entire family.
“What it taught me is perseverance. And I told the guys (MSU’s players) this morning, ‘You’re going to hear me say this a lot. Life’s 10% what happens to you, 90% what you do about it.’ … As we move forward with our guys, we’re going to face adversity. That’s a given, and I think I’ll be able to give a perspective that nobody else in the country, from a head coaching perspective, can give student-athletes.”
Among the people who reached out to him during those dark days: Izzo.
“He’s just on a mission,” Izzo said. ‘Sometimes, when you go through hell a little bit, it makes all the glory better, and I think we’re going to do everything we can do.”
By “we”, Izzo meant fans, the administration, the donors, the entire ecosystem around the football program.
That’s the promise that’s been made to Fitzgerald, who studied the inner workings of other college football and NFL programs during his two-year “sabbatical,” which left him with a clearer understanding and vision for how to compete, recruit and operate a program in an ever-changing college football landscape.
“We are fully committed to providing the resources and infrastructure required to compete at the highest level,” Batt said Tuesday. “To reach that level of success requires alignment at every level.”
Smith would have won more if he’d had that from Day 1 at MSU. He was hired by former AD Alan Haller, without donor input, and before Guskiewicz began as MSU’s president. But Smith was probably never going to entirely fit Batt’s vision for MSU’s ideal football coach or have the personality traits to capture fans’ hearts.
“Perhaps most importantly, (I wanted) someone who shares our standard of excellence and aggressively pursues that excellence each and every day,” Batt said. “I was looking for someone who would partner, as we continue to elevate not just Michigan State football, but our entire athletic department, someone who would share our fundraising vision.”
MSU Athletics is trying to raise $1 billion — a campaign announced Tuesday — to renovate and elevate facilities, from Spartan Stadium and Breslin Center, to Jenison Field House, and to make sure the department’s flagship sport, football, is a cutting edge operation financially.
Fitzgerald better fits the mold of someone who can excite donors and invigorate fans. His presence, his outward passion, his comfort in conversation with you, me, a doorknob — it’s all very different than Smith.
That contrast will be welcomed by fans. But the biggest contrast people want is on the scoreboard and in the standings. That could still take a minute. Fitzgerald will be better able to explain why if it does.
He’ll be given the time. Nobody in MSU’s administration feels good about how little Smith had.
SPARTAN SPEAK PODCAST:Jonathan Smith out, Pat Fitzgerald in as MSU’s football coach
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky @GrahamCouch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU football under Pat Fitzgerald will benefit from Smith-era regrets
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