{"id":783304,"date":"2026-03-01T00:05:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T00:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/783304\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T00:05:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T00:05:20","slug":"pat-fitzgerald-uncovers-massive-michigan-state-football-rebuild-task-he-had-to-adjust-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/783304\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat Fitzgerald uncovers massive Michigan State football rebuild task he had to adjust to"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pat Fitzgerald uncovers massive Michigan State football rebuild task he had to adjust to<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

New Michigan State Spartans coach Pat Fitzgerald didn’t hold back when discussing some of the key adjustments needed to bring the football program back to national relevance.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Whether it’s a two-year turnaround similar to Indiana Hoosiers<\/a> coach Curt Cignetti’s eventual undefeated national championship season <\/a>that was capped off last month, or a five-year plan, the foundation of a stable recruiting base is a key priority before looking too far ahead, as Fitzgerald put it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to get back to that fundamental edge, that mental and emotional edge, and then just that era of physicality,\u201d\u00a0Fitzgerald told reporters..<\/a>\u00a0\u201cYou have to practice hard to play hard, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to start going on. Everybody\u2019s going to do it their way, but we\u2019re going to do it the Spartan way. Our guys are embracing it, and that\u2019s all I could ask right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald said doing so requires a level of trust and an edge that may take a bit of a collective effort, but it needs to start from within on the recruiting trail.<\/p>\n

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MORE:Why Ohio State’ Ryan Day doesn’t deserve to be top-ranked coach before 2026 season<\/a><\/p>\n

So far, everything is status quo.<\/p>\n

“Frankly, I think it\u2019s just maybe a little bit more, just building relationships with the coaches in the state,” Fitzgerald said. “I would obviously come to the state of Michigan when I was at my previous institution, it might be for a day, you know, I think I spent four or five days here, you know, through that two-week period, give or take, maybe not a full day, but wrapping up some things.”<\/p>\n

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MORE:\u00a0CBS Sports brutally ranks $54 million Big Ten coach as seat gets warmer after 4-8 season<\/a><\/p>\n

Fitzgerald has to undergo an extensive rebuild as he succeeds\u00a0Jonathan Smith who was dismissed at the end of this past season.<\/p>\n

The Spartans open their season against the Toledo Rockets Sept. 5.<\/p>\n

More Big Ten news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pat Fitzgerald uncovers massive Michigan State football rebuild task he had to adjust to originally appeared on The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2026],"tags":[16784,7,4725,2549,43843,29968,81095],"class_list":{"0":"post-783304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-curt-cignetti","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-indiana-hoosiers","11":"tag-michigan-state-spartans","12":"tag-national-championship-season","13":"tag-national-relevance","14":"tag-pat-fitzgerald"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116151001047815215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}