"There's history here with my dad coaching here when I was a kid, and so I was very familiar with just the community, the school, the history, the tradition," Sheridan said at Tuesday's media availability. "This was an easy decision. There's an opportunity for me to come home."

When a former Michigan player is asked about MSU, it's very unlikely the word home is brought up. What makes Sheridan different is he grew up around the program.

His father, Bill Sheridan, is a well-traveled defensive coach, currently serving as a senior defensive assistant for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Over 45 years, he has coached for 16 different teams across all levels, taking on a variety of roles along the way. From 1998 to 2000, he spent three seasons in East Lansing as MSU's linebackers coach — initially joining Nick Saban’s staff before staying on for Bobby Williams' first year as head coach.

When Bill Sheridan arrived in East Lansing, Saban was in the midst of rebuilding MSU after the George Perles era, which ended in 1994 following four consecutive losing seasons and an academic scandal that led to forfeited games in Perles' final year. Over his five seasons at MSU, Saban led the Spartans to four bowl games, including a 9-2 regular-season finish in 1999, his final year. That era set the bar for excellence and discipline that Nick Sheridan now holds MSU to as a coach.

"Bill Burke, Chris Baker, Plaxico Burress, Gari Scott, Amp Campbell, Sorie Kanu, I remember all these guys. These were really my heroes. These guys were giants to me," Nick Sheridan said. "This is an incredibly proud program that has great history, great tradition, and I didn't need to be educated on that, I was very well aware of it. I've seen it firsthand when my dad was here."

Those players didn't just leave a mark on his childhood — they set the standard he's now returning to restore. A program that filled the 2010s with success now finds itself in the midst of four straight losing seasons, no bowl game appearances since 2021 and in need of a coach capable of rebuilding a culture. That's why Fitzgerald was hired back in December to bring MSU back to its winning ways.

After spending 17 years at Northwestern, Fitzgerald became a respected face around the Big Ten, but for Nick Sheridan, the coach he once faced in Michigan Stadium became an idol as he made his own transition from player to coach.

"Growing up in college, and after college, I looked up to Fitzgerald. That was really just someone that I tried to emulate," Nick Sheridan said. "I always thought that he treated people the right way. You could tell that the people that played for him and coached for him. They loved him, admired him, and I thought he had the utmost character and integrity."

As Nick Sheridan progressed through the ranks and garnered experience at multiple Power Four schools, the two never met until he took the job in East Lansing. Though he still holds onto a note he received from Fitzgerald right at the start of his coaching journey.

"When I was a young coach, and I was a graduate assistant, I wrote and wished him luck. And having him keep me in mind if he had any graduate assistant positions open in the future. And he wrote me back," Nick Sheridan said. "I can promise you, I didn't get a ton that wrote back, so I thought that spoke a ton about who he is."

The once young, fresh-out-of-college former quarterback looking for a spot on Fitzgerald's staff finally got his wish — not as a graduate assistant at Northwestern, but as an offensive coordinator at MSU, helping lead the charge of a rebirth just like his father did 28 years prior.

"There’s expectations here for winning and for playing football at an extremely high level," Sheridan said.