Since Mark Dantonio retired, Michigan State has been lacking discipline. Mel Tucker nor Jonathan Smith really preached discipline, and it showed on the field with mostly sloppy and wreckless play which led to silly penalties and four straight seasons without a bowl.
Pat Fitzgerald isn’t going to condone a program without any real discipline or accountability, and his team found that out the hard way.
According to David Harns of Spartans Illustrated, the standard has already been set by Fitzgerald who was appalled by the way his team left some trash on the field following this week’s practice.
"Because the standard is we’re going to leave everything – everywhere we go, we’re going to leave it better than we found it. We should take great pride in being a Spartan and how we do things, not some of the time, but all the time."Pat Fitzgerald via David Harns
This is what setting a standard looks like. This is something that was missing during the Jonathan Smith era and it’s refreshing to see that Fitzgerald isn’t content with being average nor does he want his players to taking being a Spartan for granted. He’s preaching discipline and his guys found out the hard way that even leaving a couple of Gatorade bottles on the field is unacceptable.
Fitzgerald brought discipline, accountability, and a new standard to East Lansing. It really feels like we’re back in the Mark Dantonio era where not being a team player means you stand out like a sore thumb.
To Fitzgerald, even leaving some trash behind falls short of what he expects. He may be a football coach, but he’s also trying to build a culture and if he has some guys who don’t take his rules seriously, they’re not going to fit the blueprint.
Having a coach with this mindset is a nice change after the Smith era.
The Pat Fitzgerald and Jonathan Smith eras are night-and-day
The term “night and day” is often overused and it’s usually an extreme hyperbole, but in the case of the Smith era compared to the first eight months of Fitzgerald, it’s more than fair to say.
The Smith era was forgettable as it featured a head coach with very little personality (at least on display) and a team that didn’t exactly play motivated football nor did it look very disciplined. Smith was very vanilla and didn’t show any emotion and the team was kind of the same way.
Fitzgerald, on the other hand, actually has a personality, he seems to connect with his players, and he commands respect. That’s not something that could have been said a year ago about Smith.
Michigan State players may feel a little culture shock early on under Fitzgerald, but they’re learning what his expectations are and they’ll assimilate. They probably thought that leaving a few Gatorade bottles by the trash can was no big deal, but they quickly learned that wasn’t the case when Fitzgerald was chewing them out.
The standard has been set and Fitzgerald isn’t ready to accept anything less than perfection.
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