Fans flooded out of Spartan Stadium during halftime for the third consecutive week of head football coach Pat Fitzgerald’s tenure in East Lansing. He’s done nothing but praise the fan base for packing the stands early and showing up loud on game day, yet finds the student section gutted when he returns from the locker room.
Michigan State acknowledged this trend and hoped to change things before Saturday’s Homecoming game against Illinois. Half-off concession items for students after halftime offered one incentive to stay, but MSU men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo joining the student section provided a hands-on show of support for Fitzgerald and the football program.
Izzo stayed true to his promise despite the Spartans trailing 20-7 at the break. In the closing minutes of the second quarter, MSU had fallen into a 17-point deficit, and the team hadn’t gained a single first down. Fans were checked out; it seemed like another week where the Spartans let their supporters down.
Instead, MSU remarkably rebounded, and Izzo’s student section appearance resulted in a comeback. The Spartans forced overtime before ultimately failing the two-point conversion, which cost them the game, 38-37.
At Thursday’s media day, Izzo made his support for Fitzgerald even more explicit, urging fans to continue backing the football program as it works to rebuild.
“He’s a fit here. Fitz is a fit, and I mean that,” Izzo said. “I agonized through some of his losses with him. I totally think we’re headed in the right direction, and that’s why I went into the student section.”
It’s not easy to support a program that has consistently lost more games than it has won over the past five seasons, but Izzo’s team faced similar struggles in 1995, his first season leading the program. The Spartans finished former head coach Jud Heathcote’s career in 1994 with a runner-up finish in the Big Ten and a 22-6 record.
A year later, Izzo took over and finished 16-16 with one of the worst offenses in the entire country, ranking 290th out of 305 in points scored per game. Still, the fans kept showing up.
“What comes first, the chicken or the egg?” Izzo asked. “Most people say, ‘Well, if you win, we’ll be there.’ Well, I didn’t win early. They were there. They helped me win, and I think that’s what I’d like to see here.”
Izzo pointed to the advantage a home crowd can provide in one of the most understood and controversial aspects of sports: gambling. Point spreads change based on the environment and fan impact, which quantifies how much of an advantage teams have playing at home in front of their fans.
