As soon as Michigan State shocked Michigan, Pat Fitzgerald shifted his attention to Washington. OK, he may have celebrated for a few hours but reality hit him on the way home from Ann Arbor: there’s more to be accomplished this year.
Michigan State may be just 3-6, but he knew that if he wanted to coach an extra game this season, he’d need all hands on deck to get the team — and program — juiced up.
Fitzgerald has taken to the East Lansing bars to help inject some juice into the program, keeping his word from before the Michigan game when he said he’d go to bars and help recruit people to come out and support for the Washington game. This is an important game on the schedule and he needs the backing of 70,000-plus fans in attendance to help the Spartans pull off another upset.
Well, Fitzgerald kept his word and went out to the bars this week to hand out free tickets and get students excited about attending Saturday’s game against the Huskies.
Last night was AWESOME! See you Saturday. Let’s get Spartan Stadium rocking again! Go Green! pic.twitter.com/4SCvuGsoax
— Pat Fitzgerald (@coachfitz51) November 12, 2026
This type of boots-on-the-ground work is what’s going to get more students and fans to buy all the way in. Michigan State has a head coach who’s serious about turning things around and he’s willing to sacrifice one of his nights during a busy week to bar-hop and recruit students to Spartan Stadium for Saturday’s 4:15 p.m. ET kickoff.
Not many coaches are going to these lengths to prove to their fanbase that they care.
Fitzgerald has been on the job for less than a year and he’s already going to extreme lengths to prove that this program means the world to him and he’s going to do whatever it takes to turn it around. He’s off to a great start with a win over Michigan and now some bar-hopping to conjure up more excitement.
The message is simple: a win over Michigan doesn’t mean that the rest of the season is pointless. He’s urging students to come show support because the team feels it.
This is what culture looks like.
Pat Fitzgerald is going to turn this thing around
Since he took the job, Fitzgerald was big on the fanbase and getting everyone on the same page so the program can start taking steps in the right direction. He knew how important it was to get the fans, alumni base, and students all on board — it’s easier to win when everyone believes in the vision.
After six straight losses, people were losing hope, but the signs of improvement were obvious.
Michigan State came storming back against Illinois to take the Illini to overtime where they had a chance to win the game on a 2-point conversion but Bret Bielema’s team had other plans. The Spartans then had Northwestern on the ropes but somehow choked away a ranked win in the final minutes to drop a sixth straight game.
The bye week came at a great time, apparently. He got two weeks to prepare for Michigan and it proved that the perceived improvement wasn’t a fluke.
Beating Michigan was the first of what’s going to be many instances of Fitzgerald living up to his end of the bargain — he just needs everyone on board with him.
Days after installing a perfect game plan and subsequently hoisting the Paul Bunyan Trophy in the biggest win of his Spartan coaching tenure, Fitzgerald was out in the streets of East Lansing with the students, selling the program to everyone he came in contact with. Even when he’s having a little fun, he’s still working.
Michigan State hired the right guy.
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