Michigan State lost its closest game of the season and it didn’t come without controversy.
Michigan State executed an onside kick in the fourth quarter down by seven after a huge score and all the momentum was on the Spartans’ side. The onside kick was darn near perfect and Samson Gash dove to catch it right on the sideline but the officials got together and called the freshman receiver offsides.
It was not even arguably a horrible call, it was 100 percent the incorrect call.
Don’t believe me? Just take a look at the “offsides” call on Gash.
This was called offsides by the officials, taking away Michigan State’s recovered onsides kick.
— Justin Thind (@JustinThind) October 10, 2026
This was the fourth suspicious call (or no-call) going against MSU in this game. Just a stunning day for the refs in this MSU - Illinois game. pic.twitter.com/Mm2OXcYY5B
When it originally happened, there was some merit to the call because Gash was far ahead of the rest of the kickoff unit but he just got the perfect jump. As you can tell from the picture above from Justin Thind, Gash was clearly behind the line of scrimmage on the kickoff. There’s no world in which that’s a legitimate offsides but the refs got together and ruled the play illegal on Gash.
After the call, Pat Fitzgerald was beside himself and he let both the refs and the fans know it. He was in the refs ear, yelling every obscenity in the book, and then he got the crowd fired up.
In the middle of all this, he decided to turn around and flip the middle finger at the refs in a pretty subtle way that may not have been intentional (it probably was) but it was hilarious.
Pat Fitzgerald pic.twitter.com/0ruYLacI8E
— Ball Ridden Podcast (@BallRiddenPod) October 10, 2026
Some people thought the bird-flipping was directed at Bret Bielema and the Illinois sideline, but it was very clearly meant for the refs. It’s going to receive a pretty hefty fine but it was well worth it — at the time.
Unfortunately, the offsides call didn’t mean much because Michigan State still went on to force overtime before losing on a poorly executed 2-point conversion try.
Pat Fitzgerald, ladies and gentlemen.
Pat Fitzgerald has every right to be upset
Michigan State was on the wrong end of several poor calls throughout the game and this offsides penalty was just the cherry on top.
And he had every right to be upset with the call.
It was one of the worst calls that Michigan State has been on the wrong side of all year and Fitzgerald has clearly had enough. This kind if stuff is happening on a weekly basis.
Fitzgerald will apologize and accept the fine, but he did what every MSU fan wanted to do in that moment.
Add us as a preferred source on Google