Michigan State University Athletics
Michigan State Football Opens Preseason Camp
8/6/2026 8:34:00 PM | Football
EAST LANSING, Mich. – The Michigan State football team held its first practice of preseason camp on a cloudy, humid Thursday morning with temperatures in the mid-70s.
The Spartans worked out in helmets, jerseys and shorts for two hours on the outdoor practice fields behind the Duffy Daugherty Football Building.
Following practice, first-year head coach Pat Fitzgerald, linebacker Jordan Hall, safety Nikai Martinez, offensive lineman Ben Murawski and quarterback Alessio Milivojevic met with the media.
"It was great to be back on the field with the guys," said Fitzgerald, who is opening up his 18th collegiate season as a head coach and his first with the Spartans. "(Head strength coach) Joel Welsh and his staff did an absolutely terrific job getting our guys ready to go for today. And that's kind of what the summer's all about. It's not only about preparing the guys for the whole season, but, most importantly, from a health and safety standpoint, of giving them the right amount of volume, high intensity, and things over the summer, and Joel and his staff did a terrific job. But as always, in similar work, the credit goes to the players, and their commitment to improvement, their commitment to getting in great shape, was very evident today, as things started off.
"With that being said, though, we were very rusty. Long, long way to go. That's kind of what I talked to the guys about. As we went through team reps, it looked like practice number one at training camp. Just, where do I go? What do I do? Even though we went over it for the last X amount of hours and last night, logistically, it looked like our first time being out there collectively at a practice, but the guys, I thought, really attacked and embraced it."
The Spartans reported on Wednesday and held team meetings throughout the day before beginning practice on Thursday.
Michigan State has 111 players on its preseason camp roster, including 49 returning players and 62 newcomers. Among the newcomers, the Spartans have 32 transfers and 30 freshmen.
"Now it's going to be all about how we kind of lean into the grind, raise our expectations individually, and then hold each other to a standard that we want to be at a championship level, every rep of every day of everything we do," said Fitzgerald. "So, you work your tail off to prepare, but nothing quite prepares you for football than football. So, to get to the next step now, tonight, with meetings and coaching the guys, some of them for the first time, and then the guys who have been here now with us since January, now comes the mental aspect, the recovery aspect, and seeing how mature this team is going to be as we kind of go through the crucible of training camp."
The Spartans will return to the practice field on Friday morning.
Michigan State opens the 2026 season on Friday, Sept. 4 at 8 p.m. against Toledo in Spartan Stadium.
Quotes from Michigan State head coach Pat Fitzgerald (Thursday, Aug. 6)
On what's different about coaching in the 2026 era of college football…
Well, number one, I love football. I don't like it – I love everything about it. I loved it when I woke up this morning and drove in and it was really humid. I was a little mad that the sun wasn't out initially. Then I go back to when I first started playing football in the second grade, my mom signed me up. I was a daydreamer. I was a guy who was looking around in class, couldn't stay focused. And so, my mom put me in football, and I was the second grader playing with guys all the way up to sixth and seventh grade. That was not a good experience. But I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot about the game, and I fell in love with it; and then to have the privilege of being in this role, and the power of influence you have as a head football coach of not only the young men you get the privilege to coach and teach, but then also, in a leadership role of the front porch of the university, and what comes along with all that responsibility is humbling. I enjoy the heck out of it, and I'm honored and thankful to be in the role. And then, just to watch guys grow, from the minute we identify them, whenever that may be, until they walk across the stage. (Fifth-year graduate cornerback) Tre Bell and I kind of had a little moment – he was walking around the indoor facility before we started today. And I go, 'You doing all right? You just getting your steps in?' He goes, "I'm just kind of taking it all in." And I think that's what football does to you. Just, it impacts your soul and to see a young man who's as conscientious as Tre, believe in us, come here to be a part of what we're trying to build, and then to see the way he walked around. I mean, that's what it's all about. We all love football. That's why the guys are here. That's why the staff is here. And that's why I do what I do.
On his observation of the 'dorm life' into the first week of fall camp…
Well, first of all, just the proximity of where Case Hall is across the street allows our guys an easy transition back and forth. As we start this morning with breakfast at 6:45 a.m., they're able to get over here in the building pretty quick, right? So, they can get treatments. They can get everything they need to do, and don't have to worry about driving. We took their keys; we took their scooter keys. So, we put them in a dorm, which is, I think most of us don't stay in dorms here – we stay in the apartments over at 1855 that are nicer than any apartment I had as a postgraduate – so to kind of go back old school a little bit, you got a roommate. They don't have roommates in their apartments. They've got suitemates, so you've got to get a little uncomfortable. You've got to be comfortable doing that, getting to know somebody. And then just the ability to have camaraderie and a little bit more enhanced brotherhood when we wrap up the day tonight at 8:30, 8:45 p.m. I know if it's anything like it's been in the past, the guys will probably hang out in the players' lounge, play video games, go back, hang out, play cards, do whatever it is that they choose to do. And then, we're back at it, pretty much on a pretty regimented schedule between now and by the time we get to game week. But it's just to bring the guys together, reinforce brotherhood, and get them to know their teammates better.
On the feedback from former players about the importance and bond of fall camp…
There comes a point, I think, in your football life, somewhere between freshman year and wherever it happens for you, where you just get this, like, really kind of biological football clock. It's like 'time for camp.' And like, the summer's over. Whatever it is that you've been doing, hanging out is over and it's time to go. And for everybody that happens a little bit differently, but I think for everyone that really truly loves football, it doesn't matter what your role is – player, support staff, coach, whatever it may be – there's just something about the start of training camp that kind of gets everybody's juices flowing a little bit for football, and I think if you love it, there's no doubt that you fall in love with camp.
On the evaluation benchmarks during fall camp, and when those evaluations occur…
That's a really good question. I used to do the same thing with, like, pregame warm-ups, like, where I'd go out to pregame, and I'd be like, oh, we were great. And then we go out and play terrible. Or, man, we've got no juice, and then we go out and play great. So, it's going to be an ebb and flow. There's going to be good days and bad days. It's kind of like mapping out all the data points, right? You just kind of want to see the team just continuing to get better. And it's impossible for the team to have a perfect day, because that means the offense played well, and the defense played poorly, or vice versa. And then the same thing, obviously, in your preparation, the kick game. But I think it really, the thing that I look for, is execution. Are we executing the call? Are we communicating properly? Are we playing with the effort that we want to demonstrate? Those are kind of the three benchmarks, kind of all glued together with a brotherhood and passion that we're playing with. Then comes the physicality. Then comes the way that you can make explosive plays on both sides in the kick game. So, it's just a progression, and today was day one. We've got a long way to go.
On offensive lineman Ben Murawski…
I mean, first of all, for his size, he is incredibly athletic, really high football IQ. And then, I just think he's just got a really great personality to be around. He's a focused, free spirit. Like, he's easy to talk to. Easy to get along with. I just, I'm so thankful that he's here. We had to rebuild the O-line, as you guys all know, and he was a big—pardon the pun—big piece of what we were trying to build; and just keeping Conner Moore, getting him, Nick Sharpe, and keeping so many other guys. Those were some big, big accomplishments by our personnel staff and our coaching staff in January.
On building and maintaining the belief throughout adversity…
Yeah, again, same thing. I learned younger in my life that you move towards and become like what you think about the most. If you think about, you're going to be a champion, you will be. And there's no reason why – I was a Big Ten champ twice as a player, we bought in, we believed, we played our butts off for each other. And then we had some guys make some big plays in big-time moments, and then momentum got going, confidence, and away we go. Same thing as a coach, as I've been in a leadership role. There's been a couple ups and downs of those championship runs and bowl championship teams, but there was a belief internally, regardless of what was said externally, that we're just going to buy into getting better, and improving, and playing our rear ends off for each other. And then you just got to go out and make it happen on game day, and then momentum starts going in the right direction. So, I think that's an ongoing process. I think it's an individual choice. I think you've got to create the right mental habits. And when you do that kind of individually, then we get it by position, side of the ball, collectively as a team, we can reach our full potential. So, we got a long way to go. I mean, that's ongoing here in the fourth quarter of our program.
On the big principles of his practice philosophies…
I'm a firm believer in working with our sports science group to make sure we're putting together the best plan we possibly can to onboard our guys the right way, which means the summer. So, Coach Welsh and I are in lockstep and kind of how we went through that preparation; and then now, as we're kind of building up our practices, it's going to be kind of moving up and up and up and up and up to get ready to be at the point where we need to be for game week. Back when I was playing, you didn't obviously have all the technology opportunities. And again, that's a data point. It's not the only one, but it is a data point and kind of a frame of reference. As we put together kind of our practice periods, how many we're doing, what we're doing, it just increases by day. Really, number one, handle our guys mentally and physically the right way. So, they're hardening, they're ready to go to play a Big Ten football game, but do it smart, do it safe from the structure of practice. As far as – and you guys have been out to practice – I think your hair's got to be on fire as a coach. There's no coffee time. There's no hanging out. There's no talking about what you did yesterday. You can do that in the office when we're done during lunch. When we hit the grass or the turf, whatever it may be, we hit it running, and that starts and ends with us as a staff, and that's the expectation. So, it's either we're coaching it, we're running it, and then we're doing it live. It doesn't mean we're live to the ground, like I talked about maybe in spring practice. It means we're going full speed. But I like short, quick, to the point. Goes back to that second grade. I don't have enough time to be looking around at butterflies out there. I mean, like, it's, when we're going to go, we're going to go hard and fast.
On this team's ability to bounce back…
I don't know if I can answer that quite yet. I would say what I like about them in spring practice is they got thrown a curveball with how early we had to go. They responded well. We had maybe one practice that we could point back to and go, you know what, that wasn't to the standard. The guys recognized it. And they did something about it, and we didn't have that happen again. That'll come at some point in camp. I'd love to say it won't. But my experience and wisdom tells me it will, and that'll be on our leadership. Our job as a coaching staff to identify it, and then it's our job to teach them and show them how to fix it, and then it's their job to go out and go fix it; and so far, with every time we've had it, maybe we had a couple of summer workouts that were a little bit not to the standard, but they responded. And it's a big part of what we talk to our guys about, and what we value, about the value of respond, in response, not react. We don't want to be a reactionary individual side of the ball or team. We want to respond, and we talk to them about how we do that, how we want to do that, how we collectively want to embrace it. So, it's coming. I don't know when it is, but we'll be ready for it.
On the excitement of getting back out with the team and the season being four weeks away…
I can't wait till we can stop talking about that. Honestly, because it's not about me, and it's not that I'm trying to demean your question. It's about the guys and what we're doing for them, and I appreciate the interest, and my feelings are: I love football, and I look forward to being here every day, to be honest with you. So, from that standpoint, I can't tell you I've put a lot of thought into it. I'm thinking about, right now, about all the notes that I have, about what we've got to fix as a staff first, and then what we need to get corrected with the guys later on, to make sure we're better tomorrow than we were today. And then make sure we're all on the same page. I just feel so fortunate to have the executive team that I have in our football staff, and then our coordinators, along with our assistant coaches, but especially our coordinator group—and I include Joel Welsh with that, with LeVar Woods, Nick Sheridan, and Joe Rossi. The way that we look at preparing the team, it's our first time going through it, so we're bringing kind of a lot of the macro that I believe in, along with what they've experienced through championship runs, and kind of meshing all that stuff together a little bit; and to be organized, to have the structure the right way, to have what we want to do, and how we want to do it as a staff, we have to be operating at a championship level before the guys can. And that group has done a really, really good job, and I'm thankful for them.
On the accomplishments he saw in the first fall practice…
I mean, for example, we did what we call run-through today. We hadn't done that in spring ball, so that was the first time that was exposed to the guys. We taught them how to take a proper water break today. It may sound silly, but we weren't very good at it, so we'll be better at it tomorrow – just the attention to detail in everything that we do. So, after practice, I walk by a garbage can, and maybe it was just pure dumb luck on my end, but I picked up two Gatorade bottles and some (wrappers). And I took a piece of their butts afterwards, because the standard is, we're going to leave everywhere we go, we're going to leave it better than we found it. And so, as that moves forward, that will be held accountable. It's like the same thing in the team room. You guys should always walk in here and it should be pristine. It should look the way it should look. If our most important recruit, our most important donor, the president of the United States, I don't care who's walking in here. We should take great pride in being a Spartan in how we do things – not some of the time, but all the time. And guys were locked in, and the minute I got done, some guys tried to pick up – it's too late for that now. So next time, we'll go on a little fun run and understand that we're not going to act that way. So, yeah, I mean, it's camp. That's what the beautiful thing is.
On what an 'improper' water break looks like…
Unorganized, disheveled, making it unrealistic for our dietitian team to make sure the guys get what they need, how they need. I want to practice like our hair is on fire. But to be able to do that, you've got to be able to make sure you got the right fuel. You've got to make sure you rehydrate; you're continually hydrating. And then I want to be able to get back going. We're going to take a break. Taking it for a reason. It's prescribed in the part of our practice. Working with sports science and the staff, the way we want to do it. So, let's look the right way. I mean, you're taking over a program – like, how we look in practice. We shouldn't have our tails hanging out of our shirts. We shouldn't have tails streaming down to the ground. It's not what we do. I don't really care if they do that other places. That's not what we're going to do. This is how we're going to do it. And then once we get to a point where we don't have to have those conversations anymore, then we'll reinforce it, even harder. So, we're just, we're building a standard of expectation, because that's got to be the bedrock we build this thing on. It's not going to be built on sand. And so, it's a path less traveled then to do something special. We've got to get ourselves up to a championship standard, and that's everybody that touches the Spartan football program. And that's thinking about my emotions, that's what I'm emotional about. That's what I can't wait for tonight to talk about in this room with the guys, to get fixed what we need to get fixed. And I thought they were pretty good today for the first day, but it will never, ever be good enough.
On young players that have physically developed from spring ball to now…
Yeah, it's a great question. Looking at the linebacker room in particular, I'm just going to highlight just a couple of young guys and/or newcomers, like Adam Shaw and Cam Stodghill – those two guys were up probably 15-ish, if not more, pounds, and I hope they're not mad at me if I'm wrong. It might be a little more. I mean, they came in very skinny-jeaned, and now they look like Big Ten linebackers. The running back room, again, Marv (Marvis Parrish) looks great. The whole group just looks different than they did when they first started off. Our young O-line and D-line look completely different, and the newcomers look completely different. Joel and his staff did a really good job. I mean, we looked much better. We looked the part.
On if there's anything new that he's learning about being a first-year head coach for the first time in 20 years…
Yeah, I think that's a very fair outlook, but I look at it a little differently. I think every team is new. Especially now in the era when you have so many new players each year. And then you've got to go back to ground zero or back to A before we can even get to Q-R-S-T-U-V. And so, I kind of always approach it that way, where maybe we as a staff – those that have been here for a while – we kind of know, and I say, go Rip, we go right, or Liz, we go left, whatever that may be. Same thing in all three phases, right? Same thing with the strength program. We're pretty much through most of that. I mean, really, once we get through the Notre Dame game, we'll kind of be... well, no, I guess it'll be the Wisconsin game will kind of be the last check-the-box of the regular season of how we handle pregame warm-up, how we handle halftime. Like all these things and how we want to do it. Now we're preparing for all those. We have plans for all those. So, there's just a little bit more from the nuance of the new here for everybody, but it's new for everyone. Whereas as we move forward, our young guys will be able to be a year older, a year wiser, and they'll help the next group, if that makes sense. And that's, I think, a trap of when you're at a place for a long time, that you assume everybody knows what to do and how to do it. And so, we always approach it the other way around. It's a new team every year. And you'll hear me say this at the end of the year: it'll be a death and a birth, really at the same time. It'll be the death of this year's team and the birth of a new team. And you've got to take that approach like you would with a newborn child. It's a brand-new start.
On the use of technology with the cameras on the quarterbacks helmets…
Yeah, I mean, I think you've probably seen it be a little bit more common throughout pro football and college football. Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of a technology guy. I kind of like that stuff. And as long as we're using it, right? Like, if John McNulty and Nick Sheridan came to me, and then when Jake—Mike "Jake" Bajakian—went to the Browns, John was like, 'Yeah, absolutely, I want to use that technology with the guys.' So, we did the virtual reality back there, a couple of the quarterbacks loved it, a couple of quarterbacks made them feel like they were on the worst roller coaster ride they've ever been on. So, we just stopped doing it because it was really expensive. It just depends on whether or not the guys are going to use it. But yeah, we'll overturn every stone to help these guys get prepared, especially the quarterback. Thanks, guys. Go Green!
The Spartans worked out in helmets, jerseys and shorts for two hours on the outdoor practice fields behind the Duffy Daugherty Football Building.
Following practice, first-year head coach Pat Fitzgerald, linebacker Jordan Hall, safety Nikai Martinez, offensive lineman Ben Murawski and quarterback Alessio Milivojevic met with the media.
"It was great to be back on the field with the guys," said Fitzgerald, who is opening up his 18th collegiate season as a head coach and his first with the Spartans. "(Head strength coach) Joel Welsh and his staff did an absolutely terrific job getting our guys ready to go for today. And that's kind of what the summer's all about. It's not only about preparing the guys for the whole season, but, most importantly, from a health and safety standpoint, of giving them the right amount of volume, high intensity, and things over the summer, and Joel and his staff did a terrific job. But as always, in similar work, the credit goes to the players, and their commitment to improvement, their commitment to getting in great shape, was very evident today, as things started off.
"With that being said, though, we were very rusty. Long, long way to go. That's kind of what I talked to the guys about. As we went through team reps, it looked like practice number one at training camp. Just, where do I go? What do I do? Even though we went over it for the last X amount of hours and last night, logistically, it looked like our first time being out there collectively at a practice, but the guys, I thought, really attacked and embraced it."
The Spartans reported on Wednesday and held team meetings throughout the day before beginning practice on Thursday.
Michigan State has 111 players on its preseason camp roster, including 49 returning players and 62 newcomers. Among the newcomers, the Spartans have 32 transfers and 30 freshmen.
"Now it's going to be all about how we kind of lean into the grind, raise our expectations individually, and then hold each other to a standard that we want to be at a championship level, every rep of every day of everything we do," said Fitzgerald. "So, you work your tail off to prepare, but nothing quite prepares you for football than football. So, to get to the next step now, tonight, with meetings and coaching the guys, some of them for the first time, and then the guys who have been here now with us since January, now comes the mental aspect, the recovery aspect, and seeing how mature this team is going to be as we kind of go through the crucible of training camp."
The Spartans will return to the practice field on Friday morning.
Michigan State opens the 2026 season on Friday, Sept. 4 at 8 p.m. against Toledo in Spartan Stadium.
Quotes from Michigan State head coach Pat Fitzgerald (Thursday, Aug. 6)
On what's different about coaching in the 2026 era of college football…
Well, number one, I love football. I don't like it – I love everything about it. I loved it when I woke up this morning and drove in and it was really humid. I was a little mad that the sun wasn't out initially. Then I go back to when I first started playing football in the second grade, my mom signed me up. I was a daydreamer. I was a guy who was looking around in class, couldn't stay focused. And so, my mom put me in football, and I was the second grader playing with guys all the way up to sixth and seventh grade. That was not a good experience. But I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot about the game, and I fell in love with it; and then to have the privilege of being in this role, and the power of influence you have as a head football coach of not only the young men you get the privilege to coach and teach, but then also, in a leadership role of the front porch of the university, and what comes along with all that responsibility is humbling. I enjoy the heck out of it, and I'm honored and thankful to be in the role. And then, just to watch guys grow, from the minute we identify them, whenever that may be, until they walk across the stage. (Fifth-year graduate cornerback) Tre Bell and I kind of had a little moment – he was walking around the indoor facility before we started today. And I go, 'You doing all right? You just getting your steps in?' He goes, "I'm just kind of taking it all in." And I think that's what football does to you. Just, it impacts your soul and to see a young man who's as conscientious as Tre, believe in us, come here to be a part of what we're trying to build, and then to see the way he walked around. I mean, that's what it's all about. We all love football. That's why the guys are here. That's why the staff is here. And that's why I do what I do.
On his observation of the 'dorm life' into the first week of fall camp…
Well, first of all, just the proximity of where Case Hall is across the street allows our guys an easy transition back and forth. As we start this morning with breakfast at 6:45 a.m., they're able to get over here in the building pretty quick, right? So, they can get treatments. They can get everything they need to do, and don't have to worry about driving. We took their keys; we took their scooter keys. So, we put them in a dorm, which is, I think most of us don't stay in dorms here – we stay in the apartments over at 1855 that are nicer than any apartment I had as a postgraduate – so to kind of go back old school a little bit, you got a roommate. They don't have roommates in their apartments. They've got suitemates, so you've got to get a little uncomfortable. You've got to be comfortable doing that, getting to know somebody. And then just the ability to have camaraderie and a little bit more enhanced brotherhood when we wrap up the day tonight at 8:30, 8:45 p.m. I know if it's anything like it's been in the past, the guys will probably hang out in the players' lounge, play video games, go back, hang out, play cards, do whatever it is that they choose to do. And then, we're back at it, pretty much on a pretty regimented schedule between now and by the time we get to game week. But it's just to bring the guys together, reinforce brotherhood, and get them to know their teammates better.
On the feedback from former players about the importance and bond of fall camp…
There comes a point, I think, in your football life, somewhere between freshman year and wherever it happens for you, where you just get this, like, really kind of biological football clock. It's like 'time for camp.' And like, the summer's over. Whatever it is that you've been doing, hanging out is over and it's time to go. And for everybody that happens a little bit differently, but I think for everyone that really truly loves football, it doesn't matter what your role is – player, support staff, coach, whatever it may be – there's just something about the start of training camp that kind of gets everybody's juices flowing a little bit for football, and I think if you love it, there's no doubt that you fall in love with camp.
On the evaluation benchmarks during fall camp, and when those evaluations occur…
That's a really good question. I used to do the same thing with, like, pregame warm-ups, like, where I'd go out to pregame, and I'd be like, oh, we were great. And then we go out and play terrible. Or, man, we've got no juice, and then we go out and play great. So, it's going to be an ebb and flow. There's going to be good days and bad days. It's kind of like mapping out all the data points, right? You just kind of want to see the team just continuing to get better. And it's impossible for the team to have a perfect day, because that means the offense played well, and the defense played poorly, or vice versa. And then the same thing, obviously, in your preparation, the kick game. But I think it really, the thing that I look for, is execution. Are we executing the call? Are we communicating properly? Are we playing with the effort that we want to demonstrate? Those are kind of the three benchmarks, kind of all glued together with a brotherhood and passion that we're playing with. Then comes the physicality. Then comes the way that you can make explosive plays on both sides in the kick game. So, it's just a progression, and today was day one. We've got a long way to go.
On offensive lineman Ben Murawski…
I mean, first of all, for his size, he is incredibly athletic, really high football IQ. And then, I just think he's just got a really great personality to be around. He's a focused, free spirit. Like, he's easy to talk to. Easy to get along with. I just, I'm so thankful that he's here. We had to rebuild the O-line, as you guys all know, and he was a big—pardon the pun—big piece of what we were trying to build; and just keeping Conner Moore, getting him, Nick Sharpe, and keeping so many other guys. Those were some big, big accomplishments by our personnel staff and our coaching staff in January.
On building and maintaining the belief throughout adversity…
Yeah, again, same thing. I learned younger in my life that you move towards and become like what you think about the most. If you think about, you're going to be a champion, you will be. And there's no reason why – I was a Big Ten champ twice as a player, we bought in, we believed, we played our butts off for each other. And then we had some guys make some big plays in big-time moments, and then momentum got going, confidence, and away we go. Same thing as a coach, as I've been in a leadership role. There's been a couple ups and downs of those championship runs and bowl championship teams, but there was a belief internally, regardless of what was said externally, that we're just going to buy into getting better, and improving, and playing our rear ends off for each other. And then you just got to go out and make it happen on game day, and then momentum starts going in the right direction. So, I think that's an ongoing process. I think it's an individual choice. I think you've got to create the right mental habits. And when you do that kind of individually, then we get it by position, side of the ball, collectively as a team, we can reach our full potential. So, we got a long way to go. I mean, that's ongoing here in the fourth quarter of our program.
On the big principles of his practice philosophies…
I'm a firm believer in working with our sports science group to make sure we're putting together the best plan we possibly can to onboard our guys the right way, which means the summer. So, Coach Welsh and I are in lockstep and kind of how we went through that preparation; and then now, as we're kind of building up our practices, it's going to be kind of moving up and up and up and up and up to get ready to be at the point where we need to be for game week. Back when I was playing, you didn't obviously have all the technology opportunities. And again, that's a data point. It's not the only one, but it is a data point and kind of a frame of reference. As we put together kind of our practice periods, how many we're doing, what we're doing, it just increases by day. Really, number one, handle our guys mentally and physically the right way. So, they're hardening, they're ready to go to play a Big Ten football game, but do it smart, do it safe from the structure of practice. As far as – and you guys have been out to practice – I think your hair's got to be on fire as a coach. There's no coffee time. There's no hanging out. There's no talking about what you did yesterday. You can do that in the office when we're done during lunch. When we hit the grass or the turf, whatever it may be, we hit it running, and that starts and ends with us as a staff, and that's the expectation. So, it's either we're coaching it, we're running it, and then we're doing it live. It doesn't mean we're live to the ground, like I talked about maybe in spring practice. It means we're going full speed. But I like short, quick, to the point. Goes back to that second grade. I don't have enough time to be looking around at butterflies out there. I mean, like, it's, when we're going to go, we're going to go hard and fast.
On this team's ability to bounce back…
I don't know if I can answer that quite yet. I would say what I like about them in spring practice is they got thrown a curveball with how early we had to go. They responded well. We had maybe one practice that we could point back to and go, you know what, that wasn't to the standard. The guys recognized it. And they did something about it, and we didn't have that happen again. That'll come at some point in camp. I'd love to say it won't. But my experience and wisdom tells me it will, and that'll be on our leadership. Our job as a coaching staff to identify it, and then it's our job to teach them and show them how to fix it, and then it's their job to go out and go fix it; and so far, with every time we've had it, maybe we had a couple of summer workouts that were a little bit not to the standard, but they responded. And it's a big part of what we talk to our guys about, and what we value, about the value of respond, in response, not react. We don't want to be a reactionary individual side of the ball or team. We want to respond, and we talk to them about how we do that, how we want to do that, how we collectively want to embrace it. So, it's coming. I don't know when it is, but we'll be ready for it.
On the excitement of getting back out with the team and the season being four weeks away…
I can't wait till we can stop talking about that. Honestly, because it's not about me, and it's not that I'm trying to demean your question. It's about the guys and what we're doing for them, and I appreciate the interest, and my feelings are: I love football, and I look forward to being here every day, to be honest with you. So, from that standpoint, I can't tell you I've put a lot of thought into it. I'm thinking about, right now, about all the notes that I have, about what we've got to fix as a staff first, and then what we need to get corrected with the guys later on, to make sure we're better tomorrow than we were today. And then make sure we're all on the same page. I just feel so fortunate to have the executive team that I have in our football staff, and then our coordinators, along with our assistant coaches, but especially our coordinator group—and I include Joel Welsh with that, with LeVar Woods, Nick Sheridan, and Joe Rossi. The way that we look at preparing the team, it's our first time going through it, so we're bringing kind of a lot of the macro that I believe in, along with what they've experienced through championship runs, and kind of meshing all that stuff together a little bit; and to be organized, to have the structure the right way, to have what we want to do, and how we want to do it as a staff, we have to be operating at a championship level before the guys can. And that group has done a really, really good job, and I'm thankful for them.
On the accomplishments he saw in the first fall practice…
I mean, for example, we did what we call run-through today. We hadn't done that in spring ball, so that was the first time that was exposed to the guys. We taught them how to take a proper water break today. It may sound silly, but we weren't very good at it, so we'll be better at it tomorrow – just the attention to detail in everything that we do. So, after practice, I walk by a garbage can, and maybe it was just pure dumb luck on my end, but I picked up two Gatorade bottles and some (wrappers). And I took a piece of their butts afterwards, because the standard is, we're going to leave everywhere we go, we're going to leave it better than we found it. And so, as that moves forward, that will be held accountable. It's like the same thing in the team room. You guys should always walk in here and it should be pristine. It should look the way it should look. If our most important recruit, our most important donor, the president of the United States, I don't care who's walking in here. We should take great pride in being a Spartan in how we do things – not some of the time, but all the time. And guys were locked in, and the minute I got done, some guys tried to pick up – it's too late for that now. So next time, we'll go on a little fun run and understand that we're not going to act that way. So, yeah, I mean, it's camp. That's what the beautiful thing is.
On what an 'improper' water break looks like…
Unorganized, disheveled, making it unrealistic for our dietitian team to make sure the guys get what they need, how they need. I want to practice like our hair is on fire. But to be able to do that, you've got to be able to make sure you got the right fuel. You've got to make sure you rehydrate; you're continually hydrating. And then I want to be able to get back going. We're going to take a break. Taking it for a reason. It's prescribed in the part of our practice. Working with sports science and the staff, the way we want to do it. So, let's look the right way. I mean, you're taking over a program – like, how we look in practice. We shouldn't have our tails hanging out of our shirts. We shouldn't have tails streaming down to the ground. It's not what we do. I don't really care if they do that other places. That's not what we're going to do. This is how we're going to do it. And then once we get to a point where we don't have to have those conversations anymore, then we'll reinforce it, even harder. So, we're just, we're building a standard of expectation, because that's got to be the bedrock we build this thing on. It's not going to be built on sand. And so, it's a path less traveled then to do something special. We've got to get ourselves up to a championship standard, and that's everybody that touches the Spartan football program. And that's thinking about my emotions, that's what I'm emotional about. That's what I can't wait for tonight to talk about in this room with the guys, to get fixed what we need to get fixed. And I thought they were pretty good today for the first day, but it will never, ever be good enough.
On young players that have physically developed from spring ball to now…
Yeah, it's a great question. Looking at the linebacker room in particular, I'm just going to highlight just a couple of young guys and/or newcomers, like Adam Shaw and Cam Stodghill – those two guys were up probably 15-ish, if not more, pounds, and I hope they're not mad at me if I'm wrong. It might be a little more. I mean, they came in very skinny-jeaned, and now they look like Big Ten linebackers. The running back room, again, Marv (Marvis Parrish) looks great. The whole group just looks different than they did when they first started off. Our young O-line and D-line look completely different, and the newcomers look completely different. Joel and his staff did a really good job. I mean, we looked much better. We looked the part.
On if there's anything new that he's learning about being a first-year head coach for the first time in 20 years…
Yeah, I think that's a very fair outlook, but I look at it a little differently. I think every team is new. Especially now in the era when you have so many new players each year. And then you've got to go back to ground zero or back to A before we can even get to Q-R-S-T-U-V. And so, I kind of always approach it that way, where maybe we as a staff – those that have been here for a while – we kind of know, and I say, go Rip, we go right, or Liz, we go left, whatever that may be. Same thing in all three phases, right? Same thing with the strength program. We're pretty much through most of that. I mean, really, once we get through the Notre Dame game, we'll kind of be... well, no, I guess it'll be the Wisconsin game will kind of be the last check-the-box of the regular season of how we handle pregame warm-up, how we handle halftime. Like all these things and how we want to do it. Now we're preparing for all those. We have plans for all those. So, there's just a little bit more from the nuance of the new here for everybody, but it's new for everyone. Whereas as we move forward, our young guys will be able to be a year older, a year wiser, and they'll help the next group, if that makes sense. And that's, I think, a trap of when you're at a place for a long time, that you assume everybody knows what to do and how to do it. And so, we always approach it the other way around. It's a new team every year. And you'll hear me say this at the end of the year: it'll be a death and a birth, really at the same time. It'll be the death of this year's team and the birth of a new team. And you've got to take that approach like you would with a newborn child. It's a brand-new start.
On the use of technology with the cameras on the quarterbacks helmets…
Yeah, I mean, I think you've probably seen it be a little bit more common throughout pro football and college football. Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of a technology guy. I kind of like that stuff. And as long as we're using it, right? Like, if John McNulty and Nick Sheridan came to me, and then when Jake—Mike "Jake" Bajakian—went to the Browns, John was like, 'Yeah, absolutely, I want to use that technology with the guys.' So, we did the virtual reality back there, a couple of the quarterbacks loved it, a couple of quarterbacks made them feel like they were on the worst roller coaster ride they've ever been on. So, we just stopped doing it because it was really expensive. It just depends on whether or not the guys are going to use it. But yeah, we'll overturn every stone to help these guys get prepared, especially the quarterback. Thanks, guys. Go Green!
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