Whenever a new head coach is hired at Michigan State, it’s always nice to hear what the former have to say about it. Unfortunately, Michigan State has hired three new head coaches since Mark Dantonio retired back in the winter of 2020.
Former players have had all sorts of responses to hires of Mel Tucker and Jonathan Smith, but the hire of Pat Fitzgerald has been overwhelmingly celebrated by fans and former players.
Several former players have come out in support of the hire, and two of them actually ended up on Fitzgerald’s first coaching staff. Max Bullough was hired as the team’s new linebackers coach as well as a co-defensive coordinator with Joe Rossi, and Courtney Hawkins is back coaching the receivers for the third straight Michigan State coaching staff.
Another former player was in East Lansing on Saturday, and had nothing but good things to say about the veteran head coach who began his career at Northwestern.
"I think he (Pat Fitzgerald) is somebody who's going to turn these guys into men."
— Owen Oszust (@Owen_Oszust) January 24, 2026
Former Michigan State football player Connor Heyward reflected on returning to campus, and he's confident Fitzgerald will turn around the Spartan program. @wilxTV pic.twitter.com/v8bgFh9S4H
Heyward spent four years at Michigan State and went from splitting carries at running back as a freshman, to one of the most criticized players on the team, to the transfer portal, back to Michigan State under Tucker, and there he transitioned to more of an H-back role and he excelled.
It’s good to hear that a hard-nosed player like Heyward who actually faced Fitzgerald-coached team during his time at Michigan State is on board with the Spartans’ new coach.
Pat Fitzgerald is bringing the culture back
Culture is one of the most underrated aspects of a new head coaching hire. If you hire a coach, and he doesn’t understand the program’s culture, nor does he know how to build it back up, you could set the program back even further.
Fortunately, J Batt understood the assignment, and hired a head coach who understands Michigan State’s culture, and he knows that the past two coaches veered away from it a bit.
Fitzgerald knows that if you’re going to succeed in East Lansing, you have to get former players involved with the program again, and you need to have a staff that believes in non-stop recruiting and toughness. Dantonio’s staff always preached defense, and just being the toughest team on the field, and they’re going to do that again under Fitzgerald.
The right culture is back in East Lansing.