Michigan State hosted Pat Fitzgerald’s former team, the Northwestern Wildcats, on Saturday in a tough loss that showed MSU is growing into Fitzgerald’s identity.
Aidan Chiles versus Pat Fitzgerald. The former Spartans quarterback who was supposed to bring the team back to relevancy with Jonathan Smith and the former Northwestern head coach who is the winningest coach in that program’s history. It was a matchup with plenty of storylines on Saturday as the Wildcats won a tough game over the Spartans 24-21. Unlike the Illinois game, Michigan State led for a majority of the time as the offense, defense and special teams all played excellent games in a losing effort. The Spartans needed to win a game like this with how tough the schedule continues to get, but there are still plenty of positive takeaways from this past matchup.
Due to this week’s performance against the Northwestern Wildcats, the confidence meter is continuing to rise from four to seven, even if the results will not show the rest of the way. Yes, Michigan State’s schedule will be daunting the rest of the way with a trip to UCLA, Michigan and Rutgers left with home outings against Washington and Oregon. However, this team should have won two games in a row and is finally starting to show Pat Fitzgerald’s identity as a head coach. They played rough football by getting to the quarterback, they were always in the backfield whenever Northwestern tried to run the ball and Jaziun Patterson was efficient running the ball for close to five yards per carry. The talent deficiencies just showed in the end when Northwestern blocked MSU’s kick and drove down the field with no timeouts to kick a game winner of their own. Despite back-to-back losses that they should have won, I think this team is heading in the right direction. Fitzgerald had his team ready to play, they arguably outplayed Northwestern and yet when push came to shove, the team that was healthier and more talented won the game. That is something Michigan State will have to build upon next year.
MSU has been decimated by injuries this year. Pat Fitzgerald is in his first year with the program after returning to coaching. He did not bring any transfers with him as if he was coming from another school. He is simply trying to install his culture while working with what MSU has right now to try and win over the donors and recruits for next year. The injuries are another thing when they lost Cam Edwards for the year with an injury, it was always going to be hard to replace him. Jaziun Patterson has stepped in and done a really nice job in filling in. The Spartans played this last game without starting corners Tre Bell and Charles Brantley and without starting linebackers Brady Pretzlaff and Jordan Hall. Their defense still played a great game even without those guys on the field. The last time the Spartans played a running quarterback without Jordan Hall was when Wisconsin ran for 228 yards on them just two weeks ago. This time they shut down Northwestern’s run game and Aidan Chiles’ read option by holding the Wildcats to 3.2 yards per carry. The defense was much improved and had a game plan designed to stop the run and they did just that.
Michigan State could finish the year 2-10 or 3-9 and if they continue to look competitive I think there is a positive way that this season can be spun. A full year of Fitzgerald’s culture will now be built in MSU to start bringing in better transfers and recruits to the team for next season. They could pull off an upset win here and there, Washington and Oregon do not look strong at all, Michigan’s offense is struggling and Rutgers is just bad. They have an opportunity to pull off some upsets if they continue to play like this, they just have to learn to win these types of games. Dan Campbell’s Lions had to learn to win these types of games in his first year and a half before they took off in year two and onward. Some things do not turn around instantly like UCLA. Some things take time like Wisconsin’s turnaround this year, time and money. Pat Fitzgerald will need some time if MSU wants to make it work and I think the team is striding in the right direction for a brighter season down the road.
