Pat Fitzgerald brings Northwestern jersey tradition to Michigan State
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East Lansing — Nobody on Michigan State’s football roster published Wednesday is wearing the No. 1 jersey. That’s for a particular reason.
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Carrying over a tradition from his days at Northwestern’s football coach, Pat Fitzgerald will have his Michigan State team vote on who gets to wear the No. 1 jersey. The selection will be based on who embodies team principles.
“We’re gonna have that tradition started up this year,” Fitzgerald said Wednesday at Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. “... That person has an opportunity to wear No. 1 if they want. And if they have an affinity with their jersey, they’ll put a No. 1 sticker on their helmet, but they’ll be identified as the Spartan because he’s the one that embodies our values — the work ethic, the commitment, the giving of himself for the greater good of his teammates better than anybody else.”
For Fitzgerald’s old Northwestern teams, wearing the No. 1 was a special right for certain players who, though they may not have been the most talented or touted, gave their all. It’s meant to be the antithesis of what No. 1 usually means — the kind of cocky bravado that can rip a locker room apart.
“I always felt like everybody I always played against a guy that was — this is a general statement — who wore No. 1 was usually the guy that thought he was No. 1, and I’m kind of like the anti-No. 1, OK,” Fitzgerald said. “I like the guy that cares about his teammates more than himself. I like the guy that cares about the program more than himself. Giving of yourself for the greater good, to me that’s family, right? Being a great sibling, for me being a great husband and a father, and I think that’s what jersey No. 1 represents — who the Spartan is.”
Last season, safety Nikai Martinez and wide receiver Omari Kelly each wore No. 1. Only Martinez is back this season, but he switched to his old No. 21 jersey instead. That also had a meaning for the senior, who missed eight games with an injury last season, to go back to his roots as a football player.
“I was in seventh grade, that was probably like the first time I actually wore it,” Martinez said. “And it was like the pivotal point of my football career. Knowing, yeah, this is what you’re gonna do. … I had it all the way through high school. I had it at UCF, and when I got here, somebody already had it. I was still trying to get it back. I was trying to get it back, but I embraced (No.) 1. But I think just coming from the injury and stuff, just turning a new page and going back to it.”
Michigan State opens the season Sept. 4 against Toledo, a game it is favored to win. Vegas oddsmakers project Michigan State to win 3½ games and USA Today’s preseason poll ranked Michigan State 17th out of 18 teams — only Purdue, winless in conference play the past two years, ranked lower.
Fitzgerald isn’t shying away from proving those numbers wrong, but he’s also focused on cultural changes to get Michigan State out of its current mire of four losing seasons and frequent roster churn. He’s looking for more players who’d earn No. 1 jerseys, not guys who demand them. That started with the construction of this current roster.
“I learned a long time ago it’s not the ones you don’t get; it’s the ones you take that don’t fit that really kill your culture and your team,” Fitzgerald said. “So we’re very careful on that. We want to be very diligent, and I’d rather be, you know, what’s the old saying? Measure twice and cut once. I’d rather measure about 100 times and cut once, just make sure we got the right guys in the locker room.”
Fitzgerald returns to college football this season after a three-year hiatus in the high school ranks while suing Northwestern for wrongful termination. He was fired before the 2023 season for a hazing scandal after 17 years leading the Wildcats.
Wide receiver Rodney Bullard Jr. still trying to get NCAA eligibility sorted out
After starting an appeals process to get a fourth season of NCAA eligibility this past spring, wide receiver Rodney Bullard Jr. is still waiting for a resolution from the NCAA. And so, his name appears with an asterisk next to it on the 2026 Michigan State roster, and a big question mark in the wide receivers room remains open with a week until fall training camp starts next Wednesday.
Bullard, 22, redshirted in 2022 then played games in three seasons of college football. Two with Division II Valdosta State in 2023 and 2024, and one with Michigan State a year ago. But the complexities of his story — he was a part-time student at Valdosta State in 2021 and walked on the next spring after playing some impromptu catch sessions with members of the team — led the NCAA to consider his freshman year as a student to be a year as a player. That’s where the question surrounding his eligibility lies.
When asked by The Detroit News in April, the NCAA’s assistant director of external communications Jericho Barr-Redmond said, “A student-athlete’s five-year period of eligibility begins when the student enrolls full-time at a collegiate institution. Within that period, a student-athlete may compete in four seasons of competition. If a student was not on a squad list and did not compete during a season, then he/she more than likely did not use one of their four seasons of competition.”
If that’s the case, then Bullard’s 2021 school year shouldn’t count against his eligibility. Getting that answer from the NCAA is the hold-up.
Bullard caught five passes for 119 yards as a backup slot receiver last season. Seventy-one of those yards came on a touchdown pass at Minnesota in quarterback Alessio Milivojevic’s first career start. He’s quick and twitchy, and those are traits that stand out in a wide receiver room crowded with guys who can do the job, but aren’t necessarily Big Ten-level contributors outside of top returner Chrishon McCray.
“I really like our receiver group as a corps — the receiving corps,” Fitzgerald said. “And I think that that’ll be how we’re going to attack it to start the year. You’re going to see a lot of guys play, especially with having two games at home where we’re not restricted from a travel roster. That allows us a great opportunity to look between now and going on the road Week 3 to really evaluate not only that position but every position.
“That group has worked incredibly hard. Coach (Courtney Hawkins) has done a great job developing those guys. Their weights are up. Their strength is up. I've been very impressed with the growth. Now we gotta roll the ball out and go see how much we’ve improved playing football.”
Three former walk-ons no longer on Michigan State roster
Quarterback-turned-wide receiver Atticus Carridine, cornerback Dorian Davis and edge rusher Luke DeJager were on Michigan State’s spring roster but are no longer listed on the fall roster.
Carridine and DeJager only dressed in home games last season and never appeared in games. Davis made the travel roster for games at Southern Cal and Nebraska before the midpoint of the season, but he only dressed in one more game — at home versus Michigan — the rest of the season. Davis played seven snaps in a Week 3 win over Youngstown State last season.
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This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Pat Fitzgerald brings Northwestern jersey tradition to Michigan State