It’s amazing what a nearly-universally-liked hire can do for the vibes of a program. MIchigan State football has gone from “dead” to “revived” in about 48 hours, and now that Pat Fitzgerald has been on the job for a couple of days, he’s already hitting the ground running.
Fitzgerald said at his intro presser on Tuesday that he’s contacted most of his 2026 recruiting class, and a good chunk of them have announced that they’re sticking with Michigan State. He’s also apparently working on finding his own recruits to add to the 2026 class.
That hard work is paying off already as Fitzgerald landed the first commit of his Spartan tenure.
And it was a flip.
According to Corey Robinson of 247Sports, the brand-new head coach flipped three-star interior offensive lineman Jack Ziarko from Miami (OH) early on signing day Wednesday.
No, this wasn’t some high-profile flip as Ziarko had been committed to Miami (OH) since April, but it shows that he’s doing his own research and identifying talent that he believes can help the program right away. Ziarko is still a top-900 recruit and this flip isn’t anything to scoff at.
What makes this flip even better is the fact that Fitzgerald already sees needs on this roster and he’s working on arguably the most important position group outside of quarterback: the offensive line.
Michigan State fans have been begging for more offensive line help for years, and Fitzgerald comes in, and 72 hours after getting hired, he addresses that major need? This is how you win a fanbase over if you’re a brand-new head coach. You identify what has been a problem for years and what’s affected the team negatively since the last successful season, and you fix it.
Ziarko is just a start.
The three-star lineman is ranked the No. 851 prospect in the nation and he’s from Ohio. Fitzgerald is already attacking a recruiting hotbed that Mark Dantonio made a living off of. Ziardo held a handful of MAC offers, but he fits that mold of the types of players who were developed successfully under Dantonio — Fitzgerald said that he wants to be known as the top player development program.
Nice start to the first Michigan State signing day for Fitzgerald.