Michigan State's Athletic Director J Batt, center, talks with former football coach Mark Dantonio before the football game against Western Michigan on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025, in East Lansing. Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Analyzing MSU's J Batt's Quiet Movement in Hiring Fitzgerald

Originally posted on Michigan State Spartans on SI
By Jacob Cotsonika | Last updated Dec 1, 2025 12:00 PM ET

All was quiet from the Michigan State athletic department for several weeks. Speculation swirled on whether Jonathan Smith would get fired or return for a third season.

Athletic director J Batt stayed quiet. No firing was made during the middle of the season, nor was there a letter of support for Smith, as some other schools that retained hot-seat coaches did.

On Sunday, the dam broke, or at least was allowed to break. Not only did MSU fire Smith, but its plan to hire former longtime Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald to replace him came out a few hours later.

For this episode of the Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast, let's break down Batt's quiet movement to get all of this done, what it may mean, and also dive a bit more into the hiring of Fitzgerald itself.

Watch the MSU Spartans Insider Podcast here:

More on Batt, Fitzgerald

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When the hiring is made this quickly, that's probably a sign that it has been in the works for a bit, which may be pointing out the obvious. Batt clearly fired Smith already knowing that he was going to target Fitzgerald, and that was the final public display to let him know that it's time to get a deal done.

Either way, Batt's first major hiring decision at Michigan State was clean and quick. The process of figuring out Fitzgerald is the next guy could have taken weeks, but that doesn't matter, since Smith was still the head coach, and nobody else knew. People hardly had a chance to suggest names for the job before it became, "Welp, it's Pat Fitzgerald!"

For aligning fans and donors, that might be the smart move, especially for a more unorthodox hire. Were Smith to be fired after the UCLA game --- the game where the seat really got hot --- that would've given people plenty of time to grow emotionally connected to their personal preferred candidate. When someone is hoping and then maybe expecting Georgia Tech's Brent Key for a few weeks, Fitzgerald, who hasn't coached in college since 2022, might seem a little underwhelming.

Everyone is still certainly going to have their own opinions on the hire, but moving this quickly is a way to allow everyone to accept reality fast. Batt is making a firm, quick statement with this hire, and emphatically letting everybody know that the football program is heading in a different direction.