The 51-year-old, who hasn't coached since his 1-11 season with Northwestern in 2022, is the winningest coach in program history with a 110-101 overall record. He won the BIG 10 Coach of the Year award in 2018 following a 9-5 record, including a 31-20 win over No. 20 Utah in the Holiday Bowl.
Michigan State fired now former head coach Jonathan Smith after the Spartans finished 4-8 (1-8 conference) this season, making it back-to-back losing seasons (5-7 in 2024). The program will be paying Smith $32.5 million as part of his contract buyout.
The Spartans have fallen off as a program and are looking toward the veteran Fitzgerald for help. The team hasn't produced a winning season in four straight years, failing to make a single bowl game between 2022-2025.
To put that into perspective, Michigan State had only missed two bowl games in the previous 15 years beforehand, ranking in the AP Top 20 in eight of those seasons.
They'll look to hopefully get back on track in 2025.