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Associated Press
Dec 2, 2025, 08:07 PM ET
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Pat Fitzgerald spoke with eight schools about potentially coaching their football teams, looking for the best place to resume his career, before choosing Michigan State.
The former Northwestern coach and All-American linebacker signed an incentive-laden, five-year, $30 million contract to lead the Spartans back to relevance.
"It was almost a no-brainer for me when the opportunity was presented," the 51-year-old Fitzgerald said Tuesday.
Fitzgerald will make $5 million guaranteed in his first year and will be paid at least $500,000 more in each of the following four seasons. If he helps Michigan State win seven games in any of his first three seasons, an extra year and $500,000 will be added to his contract.
If the Spartans simply win six games or more in the regular season, he will earn a $500,000 bonus; seven wins would give him an additional $1 million and an eight-win season would trigger a $1.5 million bonus.
Fitzgerald would make more than $1 million in bonuses if Michigan State wins a national championship -- for the first time since 1952, according to The Associated Press poll -- and $400,000 for leading the school to its first Big Ten championship since 2016.
It won't be easy to reach any of those incentives.
Michigan State fired Jonathan Smith on Sunday after he was 9-15 and 4-14 in the Big Ten, giving him more than $30 million to buy out the rest of his contract. Two of the team's top players, standout receiver Nick Marsh and running back Makhi Frazier, plan to enter the portal.
The program has struggled since Mark Dantonio retired and ended a record-breaking, 13-year run with consecutive 7-6 seasons and a .500 Big Ten record over two years.
With limited choices in the winter of 2020, inexperienced athletic director Bill Beekman hired Mel Tucker after he went 5-7 in one season at Colorado. Tucker led the Spartans to an 11-2 record in 2021. The school fired him early in the 2023 season after investigating a sexual misconduct complaint against him.
Fitzgerald lost his job at Northwestern in July 2023, after a 17-year run at his alma mater, due to a hazing scandal.
"That knocked me down," he said. "That rocked me to the core."
Fitzgerald sued the school for $130 million for wrongful termination and reached a settlement in August after the school said "there was no direct evidence that Coach Fitzgerald was aware of the hazing," in its investigation.
On what he called a sabbatical, Fitzgerald visited with NFL and college teams to prepare for his next opportunity.
"I've been dreaming about this day for a long time," he said, choking up. "There will be no more motivated coach."
Fitzgerald led the Wildcats to Big Ten West championships in 2018, when he was voted Big Ten coach of the year, and 2020 and had 110-101 record. The Chicago-area native starred on the 1995 Northwestern team that won the Big Ten and played in the Rose Bowl.
"Pat is an excellent fit for Michigan State football as he understands the Big Ten, has great relationships throughout the Midwest and embodies the values on which our program was built," athletic director J Batt said.
Michigan State fans welcomed Fitzgerald with a rousing, standing ovation when he arrived at the Breslin Center, where the seventh-ranked basketball team played Iowa.
Fitzgerald addressed the crowd, imploring them to be even louder.
"Let's blow the roof off," he shouted.
