Michigan State head coach Pat Fitzgerald is getting new information regarding his roster on a daily basis. Since he’s gotten to East Lansing, he’s had to do a lot of work in a short time.
After sewing up (most of) his first class during the early signing period, Fitzgerald learned of some players leaving and others coming back. He said during his intro press conference that he planned to meet with all of his players individually in the following days. It seems as if some of those meetings have yielded immediate decisions.
Michigan State did lose Nick Marsh almost immediately after the season as well as Makhi Frazier, but it brings back a number of key players for the 2026 campaign such as Brady Pretzlaff and Alessio Milivojevic.
On Monday evening, another player announced that he’s coming back to play for the new coach.
Ben Roberts posted on his X account that he’s “here for the last go round”.
Ben Roberts gets one final shot to prove himself
Roberts hasn’t been the most productive defensive lineman since he got to Michigan State, but it feels like he hasn’t really been given a shot. He had eight total tackles, two tackles for loss, and a sack in 2024, and then played in seven games in 2025 and had 11 tackles. Roberts missed the final four games after suffering an injury against Michigan.
He’ll return to East Lansing for his final season of college football, and this is a chance for the former Oregon Duck to prove himself.
Getting Joe Rossi back probably helped with this decision. The defensive players seemed to love Rossi and Fitzgerald saw that and decided to bring him back. That’s already paying off.
Michigan State will need all the help it can get in the trenches heading into the 2026 season because that’s been an area of weakness. Roberts showed flashes for the Spartans but he just couldn’t stay healthy in 2025. If he’s healthy, he can be a problem on the defensive front.
Fitzgerald now needs to get Jordan Hall, Aydan West, Jalen Thompson, and Alex VanSumeren back, and he has something cooking on that side of the ball.