It’s only been a week, but some Michigan State fans are impatient about Pat Fitzgerald’s coaching staff. The Max Bullough news on Wednesday gave him more time to focus on his offensive coaching staff, and he’s already making some moves.
Although no one has been hired on the offensive staff yet, Fitzgerald made an important decision regarding his staff for the 2026 season.
According to Football Scoop, Fitzgerald will not be retaining Jonathan Smith’s running backs coach Keith Bhonapha and he’s parting ways with Michigan State.
While Bhonapha didn’t do a bad job, he wasn’t regarded as one of the top coaches on Smith’s staff like Courtney Hawkins or Joe Rossi were. He helped develop Makhi Frazier and Brandon Tullis as well as aiding Smith in landing Elijah Tau-Tolliver from Sacramento State, but his backs were always held back by a poor offensive line.
I can probably make an educated guess that Jim Michalczik also won’t be retained by Fitzgerald.
Keith Bhonapha was not the problem
With every coaching change, there are assistants who don’t get retained despite doing a solid job while with the previous staff. That applies to Bhonapha here. He didn’t do a bad job nor was he the best coach on the staff, but nothing he did was remarkable enough to earn a new contract with Fitzgerald.
That wasn’t all his fault, though.
We saw flashes of what the running backs could be under his watch over the past two seasons with guys like Nate Carter, Kay’ron Lynch-Adams, and Frazier, but the offensive line was never good enough. Need proof? Carter went from a sub-500-yard rusher in 2024 to making an NFL roster. With the right line in place, he could be a dangerous weapon — the Falcons realized that.
There was still a lot to be desired in the running backs room, but at least he helped land Jace Clarizio, and hopefully the young running backs decides to stay under the new staff and whoever Fitzgerald appoints as the next offensive coordinator and running backs coaches.
Running backs will never have success in East Lansing until the offensive line is fixed, though.