Zach Washington laid out an interesting plan earlier this week after Pat Fitzgerald was hired by Michigan State. The three-star receiver commit said that he was still committed to Michigan State, but he would be reopening his recruitment until early signing day.
The plan was rather confusing considering that would leave just 48 hours for schools to recruit him, and it would probably take a lot to pry him away from Michigan State.
Plus, it sounded like Fitzgerald was already in contact with the three-star recruit who committed to Jonathan Smith over the summer. He did hold offers from West Virginia, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas State, Louisville, Miami, Nebraska, Ole Miss, and Missouri, but it sounded like he was going to take some time to really think about his decision.
On Wednesday, the three-star wide receiver decided to shut down his recruitment and stick with the Spartans. The school announced that he signed on X on Wednesday afternoon.
A big-time playmaker is coming to EL‼️
— Michigan State Football (@MSU_Football) December 3, 2025
Welcome home, @zach5washington! pic.twitter.com/TN0alfWvR4
The decision to sign with Michigan State came less than 24 hours after Washington picked off a pass to seal the 5A state title for St. Francis. He’s had a busy past three days, watching the coach who recruited him get fired, seeing him replaced about an hour later, having a phone conversation with his new coach, winning a state title, and then signing with Michigan State.
Washington is a talented receiver from Wheaton, Ill., who had an impressive senior season with St. Francis that resulted in a state championship, and now he’s going to focus on being a Spartan.
Fitzgerald has to be thrilled that he was able to keep most of the 2026 class together after being hired on Sunday and introduced on Tuesday. He did lose commitments from Jordan Vann, Fameitau Siale, and Christopher Knauls Jr., but he’s flipped a couple of other prospects from Miami (OH) and Georgia Southern.
It feels like he’s identifying which guys he wants to bring on board, and it’ll be interesting to see just how effective he is in the transfer portal when that opens up.
So far, so good for the new head coach.