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For Pat Fitzgerald and his Michigan State football team, the past is irrelevant. The first-year coach is focused solely on the future, and that future begins with Saturday's Big Ten opener against Nebraska at Spartan Stadium (5 p.m., Big Ten Network).
Winning games is the foundation, but winning championships is the ultimate goal. What happened in MSU's first three games—victories over Toledo and Eastern Michigan, and a loss at No. 3 Notre Dame—does not factor into Fitzgerald's grand vision. The journey to rebuild the powerhouse that Mark Dantonio constructed starts now.
"You always have to expect that you're going to win, and you have to believe. I think those are intertwined," Fitzgerald said Monday. "If you don't, you have no chance. So that has to be your mindset."
Michigan State (2-1) enters as a 5-point home underdog against Nebraska (3-0). It has been over a decade since Dantonio orchestrated MSU's renaissance, transforming a program that went from 1990 to 2010 without a Big Ten title. The Spartans earned a share of the conference crown in 2010, Dantonio's fourth season, and added two more in 2013 and 2015. That six-year stretch from 2010 to 2015 included 12 bowl appearances in 13 seasons, dramatic Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl victories, and a 39-9 conference record, highlighted by an 8-0 finish in 2013—MSU's first perfect Big Ten season since 1966.
Since Dantonio retired after the 2019 season, the Spartans have struggled mightily, posting an 18-35 record in Big Ten play over six seasons with just one winning conference mark (2021). Dantonio's winning culture took time to build; his teams were 13-11 against Big Ten foes in his first three seasons after arriving from Cincinnati.
However, the patience MSU fans showed during that ascent may not be as abundant for Fitzgerald, given the success Dantonio proved possible and the new talent acquisition avenues in the transfer portal/NIL era. Fitzgerald's predecessor, Jonathan Smith, was hired in late 2023, around the same time Indiana hired Curt Cignetti. The Hoosiers made the College Football Playoff in Cignetti's first season and won Big Ten and CFP titles in his second. Smith was fired before Cignetti's second CFP berth was announced and replaced by Fitzgerald in December.
"I think trust is earned. I think it takes time, I think it takes execution," Fitzgerald said. "That's why we value practice and the way we go about everything at a high, high level—to create championship standards. So if that's the way you're expected to sleep or show up or have your meeting room—the list goes on and on—on the details that we're stressing to be able to make that become who we are. In our habits, in our mindsets."
In 17 seasons at Northwestern, Fitzgerald led the Wildcats to 10 bowl games. His 65-76 Big Ten record and two West Division titles may not match Dantonio's 69-39 mark and three conference titles, but Fitzgerald's 110-101 overall record made him Northwestern's all-time winningest coach. His .521 win percentage surpassed that of Pappy Waldorf (.520) and Ara Parseghian (.507). Neither Randy Walker (.446) nor Gary Barnett (.438) achieved what Fitzgerald did at his alma mater before being fired weeks before the 2023 season.
Only one other coach in MSU history arrived with previous Big Ten coaching experience: Charlie Bachman. Ironically, Bachman had a one-year stint at Northwestern in 1919, going 2-5 before leaving for Kansas State. Fourteen years later, Michigan State hired him away from Florida, and he led the then-independent Spartans to their first postseason appearance, the 1937 Orange Bowl. Bachman's 70-34-10 record helped pave the way for the Big Ten to take the Spartans seriously and eventually add them as a conference member seven years after he retired following the 1946 season.
Munn won a Big Ten title in 1953, MSU's first season in the league, then retired. Despite a 72-50-3 league record, Daugherty won the conference crown only twice, in 1965 and 1966. MSU did not win another until 1978 under Darrell Rogers, then won it twice under George Perles (1987, 1990). Even Saban, who won seven national titles after leaving MSU, could not conquer the Big Ten in his five seasons with the Spartans.
All of this underscores the herculean accomplishment of Dantonio's school-record three Big Ten titles (despite a lopsided loss to Saban and Alabama in the 2015 CFP semifinals). It also highlights the historic challenge ahead for Fitzgerald. Then again, it has been done, and not that long ago.
"We're raising the standard of expectation. And we should be held accountable for that. And that's all of us," Fitzgerald said. "And that's where we're headed, with a singleness of focus."
Key Analysis
Fitzgerald's task is monumental: reviving a program that has languished since Dantonio's departure. The comparison to Indiana's rapid rise under Cignetti adds pressure, but Fitzgerald's track record at Northwestern suggests he can build a sustainable winner. The Big Ten opener against Nebraska is the first step in a long journey, but it's a crucial one for setting the tone.
Next up: Michigan State (2-1, 0-0 Big Ten) vs. Nebraska (3-0, 0-0) at 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, at Spartan Stadium, East Lansing. TV/radio: Big Ten Network, WJR-AM (760). Line: Cornhuskers by 5.
Originally reported by yahoo.