EAST LANSING — Anytime a college football coach is fired and another hired, it’s a rebirth. Out with the old. In with the new. Previous humans discarded. New ones in their place.
And in those first few months, when the new staff hasn’t lost a game yet, all of their answers sound like a plan that can’t fail.
But when you’ve been through it as many times as Michigan State has in the last six years, the patrons are a little more leery, the writers a bit more cautious.
Pat Fitzgerald has brought a lot of good energy to MSU’s football program since being hired late last fall to replace Jonathan Smith. But among Fitzgerald’s best moves in the first months as the Spartans’ head coach — not getting rid of every coach from the previous staff willy nilly, as if the Smith era had been some plague to be eradicated. Most of the best coaches in college football have all been part of a staff that’s been fired at some point. Those scars make you wiser, more interesting, less hyperbolic.
Four of MSU’s assistant coaches remain from the previous staff: defensive coordinator Joe Rossi, safeties coach James Adams, tight ends coach Brian Wozniak and wide receivers coach Courtney Hawkins. Adams joined the staff in 2025. Brian Wozniak came with Smith from Oregon State a year earlier. Rossi was hired by Smith immediately two years ago, as well, though was previously at Minnesota. Hawkins is a double-holdover, an original hire by Mel Tucker in 2020, his value then also seen by Smith and now Fitzgerald.
“It wasn’t like I come with the building or something,” said Hawkins, who starred at MSU in the late 1980s and early 90s, before a nine-year NFL career. “Coach (Fitzgerald) interviewed me. I interviewed with the OC (offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan). He interviewed some other guys. … I don’t talk about myself, but when it comes to wideouts, on and off the field, I’m pretty good at what I do. I think that comes from my experience.
“I tell people, ‘I’m blessed by the good Lord to be able to coach receivers. But every day I wake up, I’m a receiver, man. It’s what I am.’ So I understand how we walk, talk, think, what we should be doing to be great.”
Outside of hiring linebackers coach and co-defensive coordinator Max Bullough and luring away Iowa special teams coach LaVar Woods, Fitzgerald’s most popular moves have been the retention of Hawkins and Rossi.
Hawkins has played a significant role as a teacher and recruiter. He landed Nick Marsh under Tucker and kept Marsh in the fold when Smith was hired. He was critical in getting a commitment from four-star Detroit Catholic Central receiver Samson Gash last June and then getting Gash back on board to sign in February. MSU lost Marsh this offseason to Indiana, just as it lost receiver Keon Coleman after two years to Florida State.
Perhaps at some point, MSU’s program can get back to a place where its star receivers aren’t looking for somewhere they can win late in their college careers. Hawkins, too, had opportunities elsewhere this offseason, but …
“There’s not a place I’d rather be at this point in my life,” Hawkins said this week, halfway through spring practice. “I want to be part of the solution, getting our program back to dominance, our way. We’re not far away at all. We’ve got the right guy (Fitzgerald). Great energy, holding the building accountable, holding the guys accountable, practicing like pros, practicing like every day is a game, the meetings, the intensity.”
No coach in a program that’s won only four or five games in each of the last four seasons should be able to say “We’re not that far away at all” without expounding on that. Because MSU has looked a ways away for a while now.
“I think we’ve got the right personnel, we’ve got the right leadership,” Hawkins explained. “I think we’ve got the right approach to — I think the more you understand the Big Ten, you give yourself a better opportunity to go out and win and compete against Big Ten teams. Fitz has got a tremendous understanding of what it takes in this particular league to win. Like, one of the first things he came in and attacked was our size. We talked about it openly. So we went out in the portal, it wasn’t about going out getting little cool wideouts that can run around. We’re like, ‘Where’s the biggest O-line(man)? Where’s the biggest D-line(man? Let’s get back (to) what Michigan State has looked like over the years.’
“We’re gonna get back to that — when we come out of the tunnel, we won’t lose the look battle. And that really makes a difference. In this league, third and fourth quarter, if you’re small, teams just start leaning on you. You got teams in this league cool with running the ball 20, 30, times in a row, if you can’t stop them, or if you can’t run the ball, and teams can pressure you with four guys and drop seven, they’ll do it all day. So he understands that. And those are things what we initially attacked as a staff.”
We’ll see how quickly MSU can get there. This MSU program is in the seeing-is-believing phase. You can’t have 2022 through 2025 and expect anyone outside of the football building to buy into 2026 without seeing an offensive lineman maul somebody in the fourth quarter for the first time in a while.
What bringing Hawkins and Rossi back said, however, is that there were some things being done well — including a defense that went from being the team’s weakness in September to its strength in November.
“(Fitzgerald) has a vision of how he wants a team to play,” Rossi said. “I was excited and honored that he asked me to come back. I think there was a group of (players) here that wanted to be here. I think there’s a group of guys here that want to get this place back to where they know it should be. And I think it was a little bit of a reinforcement and a vote of confidence for some of those guys that, ‘Hey, some of the things you were doing, you’ve got to be better, without a doubt, but, hey, we’re on the right track. Let’s double down and let’s go.’ ”
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Rossi’s defense seemed to embody his fiery personality on the sidelines, once he moved down to the sidelines from the press box midseason. He’ll be on the sidelines this fall again, this time with Bullough and Fitzgerald, two intense former All-Big Ten middle linebackers.
“It was more fun,” Rossi said of being on the field. “… There’s the energy part of it. There’s the adjustment part of it. But I think there was also a little bit of like, you come off (the field as a player), they’ve got these benches, these roofs over the top, and everyone kind of sits in their spot and they sit by themselves and they’ve got their iPads — there’s no connection. Like, if we’re going to play defense, we’ve got to be connected. … Me being able to roam up and down the benches and connect the group, it creates more accountability, too.”
There are returners on Rossi’s defense that should give MSU some carryover — including senior linebacker Jordan Hall, who, like Hawkins, is a double-holdover, someone who came in as part of a touted 2023 class under Mel Tucker, and decided to stay twice, bonding with Rossi early on because Rossi challenged him rather than flattering him.
“I mean, there are multiple layers to Jordan,” Rossi said. “One, he’s a great player. Two, he and I have a very close relationship. I really appreciate him and how hard he plays, and the thing I really love about him is, in this era, in 2026, like Jordan just wants to play well. He wants to win and he wants to get coached, and he’s not looking for comfort.”
In the portal era, Hall is a rare cat — a guy who stayed four years through three coaching staffs, though just two defensive coordinators. Rossi, like Hawkins, has provided competence, confidence and stability to a roster and program that’s been on shaky footing most of this decade.
“I think (being retained) says something to the guys I coach (and) the people outside the building,” Hawkins said. “If you’re not doing it the right way, if you’re not getting it done, then, next man up. That goes for players, coaches. There’s accountability for us all.”
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Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky @GrahamCouch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Couch: Among Pat Fitzgerald’s better early moves with MSU football — retaining Joe Rossi and Courtney Hawkins
Reporting by Graham Couch, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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