EAST LANSING, Mich. (WXYZ) — Michigan State is set to hire Pat Fitzgerald as the school's next football coach, according to reports from Yahoo Sports, the Detroit Free Press, and the Lansing State Journal.
This comes just hours after reports of MSU firing Jonathan Smith. Smith was only able to lead the Spartans to nine wins in two full seasons.
Fitzgerald last coached at Northwesterm, his alma mater, in 2022. He was the head coach there for 17 years, boasting a career record of 110-101 dating back to 2006. He won the Big Ten West with Northwestern twice (2018 and 2020), earning Big Ten Coach of the Year honors in 2018 and the national Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award in 2020.
Fitzgerald was fired by Northwestern in July 2023, due to a hazing scandal first reported by the school's student newspaper, The Daily Northwestern. Fitzgerald filed a wrongful termination lawsuit in October of that year, seeking $130 million. Fitzgerald and Northwestern settled out of court in August of this year for an undisclosed, as Fitzgerald denied that he knew about the hazing.
Contract details, including length and salary, have yet to be reported. MSU has not made an announcement on the hire as of 4:15 p.m. on Sunday.
