About six months ago, Pat Fitzgerald was hired at Michigan State to replace Jonathan Smith and star receiver Nick Marsh promptly hit the transfer portal, not really giving the new coach much of a chance to win him over.
Marsh’s departure was just the latest from an elite receiver thanks to coaching changes and Courtney Hawkins has to just be exhausted at this point.
After the 2021 season, Michigan State lost Ricky White, following the 2022 campaign, the Spartans lost both Germie Bernard and Keon Coleman, and now Marsh has joined the reigning national champs after watching his head coach get fired. He wasted no time hitting the portal after the Smith news and Indiana worked to land the former four-star.
The marriage of Marsh and Indiana seems to be a perfect one, but head coach Curt Cignetti has already had to check him a little bit when he wore gold cleats to a spring practice, citing that it’s not the way the Hoosiers do things. Cignetti also took a slight shot at Smith’s handling of Marsh, but it was deserved.
All seemed to be resolved after that gold cleat incident, but Marsh vaguely posted an Instagram story with the caption “just ridiculous” with a picture that meant nothing.
What’s going on? #iufb pic.twitter.com/qo84TebnPz
— hoosierstweets (@hoosierstweets) May 28, 2026
The vague post sent the entire Hoosier fanbase into a frenzy as no one knew what he could have possibly been talking about. Michigan State fans are used to this type of stuff from their players so we’d like to welcome Indiana fans to the club.
Also, this post likely means nothing and all it did was stir up the fanbase’s anxiety.
Marsh has a chance to be one of the best receivers in college football this season as long as he can stay out of Cignetti’s doghouse.
Nick Marsh: A Courtney Hawkins product
While Hawkins can’t take responsibility for the gold cleat incident or whatever this “just ridiculous” Instagram story is, he can take credit for molding Marsh into one of the best wideouts in the Big Ten.
Yet again, Hawkins develops a player and another program swoops in and takes him. First it was Bernard, then Coleman, and now Marsh. As a coach, that has to be so frustrating, but these guys all seem to sing his praises after leaving and basically cite the fact that the program was a mess otherwise and that’s the only reason they left.
Marsh had a chance to become a Spartan legend if he stuck around, but you can’t blame a kid for not wanting to commit to a third head coach in three years.
He committed to Mel Tucker in the 2023 class, played two years for Smith, and then Fitzgerald was hired and he was out. I don’t blame him for leaving but obviously we all wish he had stayed.
Let’s just hope guys like Braylon Collier and Samson Gash stick around.
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