Michigan State football finds its new QBs coach in John McNulty

MINNEAPOLIS — Pat Fitzgerald moved quickly to find Michigan State football its new quarterbacks coach.

John McNulty will replace Mike Bajakian, who left for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns on Sunday after a month with the Spartans.

McNulty arrives from Rutgers, where he spent 2025 as a senior offensive assistant. Previously he was at Alabama, where he spent 2024 as an analyst under new MSU offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan and also held that role in 2023 on Nick Saban’s staff.

Fitzgerald said McNulty will begin next Tuesday.

"We wanted someone with coordinating experience, similar to Jake (Bajakian) to add to the room," Fitzgerald said Wednesday, Feb. 4, in East Lansing. "Offensively, someone with quarterback (coaching) background experience. That speaks for itself with John McNulty."

A 57-year-old former safety at Penn State, McNulty was offensive coordinator at Boston College in 2022 and held those duties at Rutgers from 2004-06 in a coaching career that began as a graduate assistant at Michigan (1991-94). He also has been a quarterbacks coach in the NFL with Arizona (2012), Tampa Bay (2013) and Tennessee (2014-15) and also has coached wide receivers and tight ends in 15 seasons working at the pro level.

McNulty also has other previous experience at Connecticut, Penn State and Notre Dame along with his other stops over 16 years coaching in college. He returned to coach Greg Schiano’s staff at Rutgers last year as a senior offensive assistant, his third stint with the Scarlet Knights.

Fitzgerald said Bajakian's departure "happened pretty quickly," but it was something Fitzgerald anticipated being a possibility when Todd Monken was hired as new head coach by the Browns, due to Monken's previous relationship working with Bajakian. Fitzgerald said he and Bajakian talked about his return to the NFL as "the right move for him and his family" and one Fitzgerald encouraged him to take.

"I'm really happy for Jake [Bajakian's nickname], and I'm thankful he was on planes, trains and automobiles all over the country seeing quarterbacks, flights canceled, flights delayed," Fitzgerald said. "I mean, he grinded."

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Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football finds its new QBs coach in John McNulty