Tom Izzo breaks silence: his blunt verdict on MSU hiring the scandal-ridden Pat Fitzgerald

Tom Izzo breaks silence: his blunt verdict on MSU hiring the scandal-ridden Pat Fitzgerald originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Michigan State Spartans men's basketball coach Tom Izzo is all-in on Pat Fitzgerald becoming the school's new football coach.

Their friendship predates Fitzgerald's arrival in East Lansing, as he spent two-decades-plus turning the Northwestern Wildcats into a respectable Big Ten contender before a rocky scandal left him out of coaching for the last three seasons.

This was until Monday, as the school named Fitzgerald their 27th football coach. Izzo spoke to the media Tuesday night about Fitzgerald's hiring, which immediately followed a 71-52 home win against the Iowa Hawkeyes.

"I told Pat Fitzgerald to shut the coach up, he was messing up my huddles getting the crowd fired up," Izzo said jokingly. "He is on a mission. When you go through hell a little bit, it makes all the glory better."

Izzo had previously told reporters that he was extremely open about who the Spartans would choose, as his ultimate responsibility as a close liaison of the program is to ensure that it's set up for the highest level of a success possible.

"One thing I am is a team guy. I don’t care who they get or who they hire," Izzo said. "I’m going to be supportive of that person. I am hoping that we get someone who fits us and our program, because the players and the fans here deserve that.”

It seems apparent that given that Fitzgerald has only been on the job for less than a week, he's already exhibited what Izzo sought.

"[It's]' the choices and the decisions and the alignment and the resources that are going to be provided to our student athletes, to our assistant coaches, our program, to get this program back to a championship level," Fitzgerald told reporters.

Returning to his Big Ten roots was key, too, he said.

"My excitement level just went up and up and up. And then to be a Big Ten player, you know, to be a player that's been in Spartan Stadium with a neck roll on, right? You know, to beat Michigan multiple times with a neck roll on, you know, this goes a long way back for me personally."

With a lot of work ahead, the Fitzgerald era has officially begun in East Lansing. Now, the results must speak for themselves.