It has been too long since Michigan State felt like Michigan State.

This is a program that has been to the College Football Playoff. This is a program that has won Big Ten titles. This is a program that, not that long ago, was physical, nasty and annoying to play every single week.

That version of Michigan State has been gone for a while.

The Spartans went 4-8 last season and 1-8 in the Big Ten. They have not had a winning season since 2021, and they have only one eight-win (or better) season since 2017.

That is not good enough in East Lansing.

Now Pat Fitzgerald gets the job of trying to bring the program back.

And say what you want about how things ended at Northwestern, but the football résumé is real. Fitzgerald won 110 games with the Wildcats, took them to two Big Ten Championship Games, and made Northwestern more relevant than it had any business being for long stretches of his tenure.

Now he gets a different kind of rebuild.

Michigan State has more history, more resources and a bigger ceiling than Northwestern.

But it also has a much tougher league around it.

HEAD COACH

• Pat Fitzgerald, entering year one at Michigan State
• Fitzgerald went 110-101 at Northwestern.
• Michigan State has not had a winning season since 2021.

Fitzgerald was named Michigan State’s head coach on Dec. 1, 2025, and his official MSU bio lists him as one of the winningest coaches in Big Ten history.

This is one of the more fascinating hires in the Big Ten.

At Northwestern, Fitzgerald had to win with limitations. He was not pulling top-five recruiting classes. He was not stacking NFL talent everywhere. He had to develop players, build culture, win close games and make opponents uncomfortable.

That part should translate.

Michigan State needs an identity again.

Last year’s team did not have one. The offense was inconsistent. The defense was not good enough. The Spartans started 3-0, then the season fell apart with an eight-game losing streak before the finale.

Fitzgerald does not need to turn Michigan State into a Big Ten contender overnight.

But he does need to make the Spartans tougher, cleaner and more organized right away.

That is step one.

QUARTERBACK

This is where the season gets interesting.

Alessio Milivojevic got a late-season head start, and that matters.

He started the final four games last year against Minnesota, Penn State, Iowa and Maryland, finishing the season with a 64% completion rate, 10 touchdowns and three interceptions.

That is not a bad starting point.

The Iowa game was probably the one that should give Michigan State fans the most hope. Milivojevic threw for 255 yards, two touchdowns and one interception against a Kirk Ferentz defense. Iowa is almost never easy on quarterbacks, so showing something in that game matters.

Now he gets a full offseason to compete in a new offense.

Nick Sheridan is the offensive coordinator, which should mean a spread-based approach with more of an effort to get the ball out, find rhythm and avoid putting the quarterback behind the sticks.

That part is important because Michigan State was not good enough on offense last year.

The Spartans averaged 23.1 points per game, which ranked in the 90s nationally. They averaged 336.5 yards per game, outside the top 100. They were also poor on third down and fourth down.

That cannot continue.

Milivojevic does not have to be a star.

But he has to be steady.

Michigan State needs him to take the experience from those final four starts and turn it into cleaner football. The touchdown-to-interception ratio was encouraging. Now the question is whether he can run the offense week after week once defenses have a full offseason to prepare for him.

If he can, Michigan State has a real chance to be better than people expect.

THE REST OF THE OFFENSE

The offense has some pieces.

Not enough proven stars.

But pieces.

The biggest addition is Cam Edwards, who comes over from UConn after a huge season. He rushed for 1,240 yards and 15 touchdowns in 2025, and Michigan State lists him as a redshirt senior running back.

That is a big pickup.

Michigan State needed a reliable back, and Edwards gives the Spartans somebody who has already carried a real workload at the FBS level. If he is the same player he was at UConn, he becomes the easiest way to take pressure off Milivojevic.

The offensive line also has a few important names.

Conner Moore is back. Ben Murawski comes in from UConn. Trent Fraley comes in as another veteran interior option.

That gives the Spartans a chance to have three starting spots settled on paper.

That matters for a team trying to rebuild an offense.

The receiver room is the bigger question.

Chrishon McCray is the leading returning receiver after finishing with 330 yards and three touchdowns last season.

He can be part of the answer.

But can he be the No. 1 guy?

Michigan State needs somebody in the passing game to become dependable. Not just “he had a good week.” Not just “he made a play.” The Spartans need a receiver Milivojevic trusts on third-and-7. They need somebody who can win against Big Ten corners. They need somebody who can make defenses pay if they load up to stop Edwards.

That may be McCray.

It may be somebody else.

But if the receiver room does not produce, this offense has a low ceiling.

DEFENSE

This side of the ball needs a reset.

Michigan State gave up 30.5 points per game last season. The Spartans allowed 382 yards per game. Those numbers are not good enough in the Big Ten.

The good news is Fitzgerald knows what a competitive Big Ten defense should look like.

The bad news is the roster has a lot to replace.

Senior Jordan Hall is the biggest returning name. He had 88 tackles last season, but the next seven leading tacklers from that team are gone.

That is a lot to put on one player.

Up front, Ben Roberts and Isaac Smith are back.

Those two give Michigan State some size and experience near the line of scrimmage.

The secondary got help through the portal.

Tre Bell and Charles Brantley, a Miami transfer, are key names to know at corner.

The Spartans needed new pieces.

They got some.

Now the question is whether it all fits quickly.

This defense does not have to become elite in year one. But it cannot keep giving up 30-plus a game and expect Michigan State to get back to a bowl.

Hall gives them a leader. Roberts and Smith give them front-seven experience. Bell and Brantley give them veteran help outside.

That is enough to be better.

Maybe not great.

But better.

SCHEDULE

The schedule gives Michigan State a chance early.

The Spartans open with Toledo and Eastern Michigan at home, then go to Notre Dame on Sept. 19. After that, Nebraska comes to East Lansing on Sept. 26. Michigan State then goes to Wisconsin before hosting Illinois and Northwestern.

That first half of the schedule is important.

Michigan State needs to beat Toledo and Eastern Michigan.

No excuses there.

The Notre Dame game is obviously a major challenge. But after that, the Nebraska-Illinois-Northwestern stretch is where the season starts to take shape.

Those are the games Michigan State has to at least be competitive in if it wants to get back to a bowl.

The back half gets tougher.

The Spartans go to UCLA on Oct. 24, then after a bye go to Michigan on Nov. 7. They host Washington on Nov. 14 and Oregon on Nov. 20, then finish at Rutgers on Nov. 28.

That is not easy.

Washington and Oregon back-to-back is brutal, even with both games at home. Oregon should be one of the best teams in the country. Washington should be strong too. The Michigan road game is always emotional, and the UCLA trip adds travel.

The schedule path is clear.

Michigan State has to stack wins early.

Toledo and Eastern Michigan are must-wins. Nebraska, Illinois and Northwestern are the swing games. If the Spartans can get to the back half with a few wins already in hand, a bowl becomes possible.

If they stumble early, the November schedule could bury them.

OUTLOOK

I think Michigan State will be better.

That does not mean the Spartans are ready to be good.

There is a difference.

Fitzgerald should raise the floor. He should make Michigan State tougher. He should make the defense more organized. He should get this program back to playing a more physical brand of football.

But this roster still has questions.

Alessio Milivojevic has to prove the late-season flashes were real. Cam Edwards has to give the offense a dependable run game. Chrishon McCray or somebody else has to emerge at receiver. The offensive line has to come together. The defense has to replace a lot of tackles and become tougher without taking half the season to figure things out.

The best-case scenario is that Milivojevic becomes a solid Big Ten quarterback, Edwards carries the offense, the line is better, Hall leads a defensive jump, and the early home-heavy schedule lets Michigan State build confidence.

If that happens, the Spartans can get to a bowl.

The worst-case scenario is that the quarterback play is still uneven, the receivers do not separate, the defense is too inexperienced, and the schedule gets ugly once Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Michigan, Washington and Oregon show up.

This feels like a rebuilding year with a chance to be respectable.

Fitzgerald has won in this league before.

He knows how to build a tough team.

Now the question is how quickly that shows up in East Lansing.

If Michigan State gets back to a bowl in year one, that would be a real step forward.

And for a program that has spent too many years waiting to feel relevant again, a step forward would matter.

Full disclosure: I use AI tools to format my research into an article encompassing all of the information.