Michigan State head coach Pat Fitzgerald is a passionate guy. Any time the camera flashes to him on the sidelines during a game, he’s usually yelling at someone, whether it be a coach, player, or an official. He shows more passion for three hours every Saturday than Jonathan Smith showed in two full years in East Lansing.
That was no exception against Illinois.
The Spartans battled back from down 16 in the second half to force overtime in one of the best games of the season, only to lose in the first overtime on a failed 2-point conversion attempt for the win. It was the right idea, but the wrong execution.
Speaking of right idea, wrong execution, Fitzgerald also went viral on Saturday afternoon for appearing to give the referees a middle finger after they botched a huge call.
Michigan State had just scored to cut the Illinois lead to seven and Michigan State tried a surprise onside kick and recovered it. Freshman wideout Samson Gash dove to catch the ball on the sideline but the refs decided to whistle him for offsides. It was originally reviewed and the call was even botched by the on-field lead official who said that Gash was out of bounds and not offsides and then he had to change that ruling for a re-kick.
The whole thing was a mess and greatly mishandled. Fitzgerald was fired up and did what every single Michigan State fan watching the game wanted to do: flip off the officials.
It was a milisecond of a moment, but it was caught on TV and immediately went viral. Many Spartan fans loved the passion while others thought it made Michigan State look bad. Fitzgerald touched on that moment on Monday, stating that it’s a passion problem and he apologized to his teammates for the distraction but he doesn’t apologize for the message behind it.
Pat Fitzgerald: “I have to be more disciplined and have more composure. I’m the leader of the team. I have high expectations of myself. I made a mistake. I told the team I apologize for any distractions I may have created. But I’m not going to apologize for fighting for my guys.… pic.twitter.com/8m3Gzbvy9w
— Jim Comparoni (@JimComparoni) October 12, 2026
”I’m not going to apologize for fighting for my guys. I’m not going to apologize for fighting for our program and our school.“
When was the last time it felt like Michigan State had a coach who would fight for not just his players but also the school? The players loved his passion and you could tell as the sideline lit up when he was firing up the crowd after the refs’ blunder. He doesn’t apologize for not letting a horrendously officiated game go unnoticed and the Big Ten officials deserved every bit of that middle finger.
Fitzgerald admitted he made a mistake but he’s not willing to back down when he feels like his program and his players are getting cheated. People may not have liked it, but the message was correct.
Pat Fitzgerald, ladies and gentlemen
Going from Tucker to Smith and now to Fitzgerald has been a whirlwind of different personalities. Fitzgerald is nothing like the previous two coaches and that’s probably the best thing for the program because he’s injecting new life into a program that was on life support.
Michigan State has been the laughingstock of the Big Ten for the past five years and from the tunnel incident through the Smith era, it didn’t feel like the coaches had the program’s back.
It doesn’t feel that way anymore.
Fitzgerald has been all Michigan State since he got to East Lansing and he’s shown that in more ways than I can count. This is just the latest message to his players and the fans that he has Michigan State’s back and he’s going to defend this school even if it means risking a hefty fine.
This is the energy that Michigan State football has been missing for a decade.
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