New Michigan State football coach Pat Fitzgerald fits right in recruiting local talent

It didn't take Pat Fitzgerald long to start working his local connections again.

Fitzgerald returned to college coaching in December when he was hired at Michigan State. It was too late to add any recruits for the NCAA early signing period, but he did snag a local prospect for the late signing period in February.

While making the rounds of Chicago-area high schools, Fitzgerald picked up a commitment from Lincoln-Way East long snapper Trey Serauskis earlier this month.

Serauskis is the second local player in the Spartans' 2026 class, joining early signee Zach Washington, a receiver and kick returner from St. Francis who was recruited by the previous coaching staff.

If Fitzgerald's history is any indication, expect Michigan State to be much more active on the local recruiting scene going forward.

Before his run as Northwestern coach ended in the midst of a hazing scandal in 2023, Fitzgerald — who starred at Sandburg and Northwestern before spending most of his coaching career at his alma mater — mined the Chicago area with great success.

He spent the last three seasons as a volunteer assistant at Loyola while waiting to return to the college game. Fitzgerald filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Northwestern for $130 million and reached a settlement with the university last August.

Northwestern released a statement at the time saying: “The evidence uncovered during extensive discovery did not establish that any player reported hazing to Coach Fitzgerald or that Coach Fitzgerald condoned or directed any hazing."

Now he's back in the Big Ten and catching up with local coaches, including Montini's Mike Bukovsky.

"It's great to see him again," Bukovsky said. "He is a stand-up guy. ... I've been coaching at the high-school level for 41 years. There are certain people you meet, your energy gets juiced up. ... He's a guy I would have no trouble recommending [to prospective recruits]."

Bukovsky noted that Montini sent five players to Northwestern during Fitzgerald's tenure. Only one had a scholarship going in, but the other four all walked on and earned scholarships.

One of the latter was Joe Spivak, a defensive lineman who turned down several scholarship offers (including one from the Big Ten) to go to Northwestern. He became a captain and now is a pro wrestler, part of WWE's Hank and Tank tag team.

It's the kind of success story that has endeared Fitzgerald to local prep coaches, and one that he'll be trying to replicate in East Lansing. He inherits a starting quarterback from St. Francis in redshirt sophomore Alessio Milivojevic, but not many more players with Chicago-area connections.

Now that's likely to change, starting with Seruaskis' commitment.

Serauskis had a previous connection with LeVar Woods, who joined Fitzgerald's staff as assistant head coach and special teams coordinator after 18 years at Iowa.

Talking with Fitzgerald sealed the deal for Serauskis.

"I was able to meet him for the first time [last week]," Serauskis said. "I felt that genuine connection."

That kind of connection could make the Spartans a player on the local recruiting scene from now on.