EAST LANSING – Pat Fitzgerald gave his players a plan as they left for the spring semester.
It was essentially halftime of Michigan State football’s coaching change and a program reset.
"It'll be in earnest when those guys get back,” Fitzgerald said after the April 18 spring game. “They're walking out of here with a workout plan for the next three weeks, four weeks, and we will be checking in to make sure we're going where we need to go and how we need to do it. Because when we come back, we're gonna hit the ground running.
“We're not gonna ease into it when the guys get back in June.”
Fitzgerald was hired in December to replace Jonathan Smith, who went 9-15 in two seasons following the disastrous Mel Tucker tenure that landed MSU on NCAA probation for three years and stripped away five of Smith’s victories. The Spartans haven’t been to a bowl game since 2021, their only appearance since Mark Dantonio’s abrupt departure following the 2019 season.
To say that Fitzgerald has to incrementally rebuild the foundation is an understatement. But that was what the offseason and spring practices were meant to do.
“We always want everybody to be on the same page. It starts with spring ball,” said senior linebacker Jordan Hall, who is on his third different coaching staff in four seasons. “But we have things broken down on the schedule of what we’re working on. So the next step is summer workouts and continuing to grow and learn through that going into fall camp.
“So it’s always a process. But I think after spring ball, I think we’re at a good spot right now. But we’re always looking to continue to grow.”
Fitzgerald called the coming months “the third quarter” of preparing for his Sept. 4 debut against Toledo at Spartan Stadium. And it is a critical time period, he believes, because “that road of improvement is always under construction and we will be grinding all the way through.”
“I want every guy walking out of here feeling like they can be a starter. Where they're at maybe right now – what's more important is where their confidence is,” said the former Northwestern coach and All-American linebacker. “We've got to get this group, just as a team, we've got to harden our edge, we've got to get tougher, we've got to get mentally tougher, but we've got to get more confidence and a little bit more swagger. That's going to happen through preparation.”
Here’s a look at Fitzgerald’s projected offensive and defensive starters with less than 16 weeks until the season opener and a little more than two months until preseason camp begins:
Offense
QB: Alessio Milivojevic
RB: Cam Edwards or Kenneth Williams
WR: Chrishon McCray, Braylon Collier, Bryson Williams or Charles Taplin
TE: Brennan Parachek or Jayden Savoury
Offensive line: LT Ben Murawski, LG Nick Sharpe or Luka Vincic, C Trent Fraley, RG Conner Moore, RT Rakeem Johnson.
Analysis: Across the board, finding depth will be critical for Fitzgerald and his staff, particularly so new coordinator Nick Sheridan can optimize an offense that has struggled for closing in on a decade to run the ball consistently.
That started with adding transfers Murawski, Sharpe and Fraley to an offensive line room that included last year’s portal additions in Vincic and Moore. It also included bringing in Edwards, Williams and Jaziun Patterson to compete with returnees Brandon Tullis and Jace Clarizio. That will be a position to watch when August camp begins, and one or two need to emerge before the opener to create a pecking order.
Milivojevic won’t have to worry about a similar competition after finishing the 2025 season as the starting quarterback. Experienced transfer Cam Fancher will back him up, but keep an eye on true freshman Kayd Coffman as the season progresses – particularly if the offense continues to sputter. McCray returns as Milivojevic’s top passing target, but the loss of Nick Marsh creates a chasmic dropoff in talent and experience in testing opposing secondaries.
Three receivers to keep an eye on are transfers KK Smith and Jameel Gardner Jr. and incoming freshman Samson Gash, neither of whom were with the team during the spring and both of whom can bring some much-needed playmaking ability to an offense in desperate need of difference makers. Collier, Taplin and Williams all could emerge as breakout candidates during fall camp.
Defense
DE: Keahnist Thompson, Kenny Soares Jr.
DT: Ben Roberts, Eli Coenen
LB: Jordan Hall, Brady Pretzlaff
NB: Michael Richard
CB: Charles Brantley, Tre Bell
S: Nikai Martinez, Devin Vaught
Analysis: The retention of Joe Rossi will give the Spartans continuity and cohesion in structure and scheme, but the turnover in personnel will be a challenge for both the returning defensive coordinator and defensive-minded Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald’s experience will be beneficial to Hall and Pretzlaff, who missed the spring game after a season-ending injury in 2025 but got rave reviews from his senior captain Hall. MSU also brought in transfers Caleb Wheatland and Dion Crawford to add depth, and freshman legacy Adam Shaw turned heads in the spring.
The Spartans again should be stout in the middle of the defensive line, with Roberts a massive veteran leader and Coenen arriving from Illinois. The depth also is there with Derrick Simmons and Mikeshun Beeler.
The same can’t be said on the edges of the trenches, where portal additions Soares, Keahnist Thompson and Carlos Hazelton have to improve the scant pass-rush production of outbound transfers Jalen Thompson and David Santiago and the graduated Quindarius Dunnigan. Keep an eye on Anelu Lafaele, who looked promising last fall before a season-ending injury, and fellow retainee Kekai Burnett.
In the back end, Martinez will be counted on to anchor and quarterback the defense, with transfers Vaught and Richard and impressive redshirt freshman Deuce Edwards in the mix at safety and nickel. Brantley’s return after a one-year hiatus at Miami (Florida) will help at cornerback, and fellow inbound transfers Bell and Tyran Chappell also arriving with hopes of solidifying coverage that has fallen off since Dantonio’s heyday of the “No-Fly Zone” secondary.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football: Eyeing the Spartans' post-spring depth chart
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