First-year MSU football head coach Pat Fitzgerald spoke about the team's changing culture at Big Ten Media Days last week, including a new jersey tradition that puts family, service to others and work ethic at the forefront.
The tradition follows Fitzgerald from his coaching years at Northwestern: crowning the number one jersey. The jersey will be given to the player who best embodies “Spartan values,” putting others before self. The team’s unity council nominated eight players before deciding on the first Spartan to honor this week: transfer edge Kenny Soares Jr.
Fitzgerald told media members in Chicago he was “anti-number one.”
“I like the guy that cares about his teammates more than himself," Fitzgerald said. "I like the guy that cares about the program more than himself. (It's a) giving of yourself for the greater good."
Now, a Spartan who is yet to take a snap in East Lansing will hold the number one in a new era for MSU football.
A redshirt senior from Trumbull, Connecticut, Soares transfers in from NC State, where he played linebacker. Soares played in each of the Wolfpack’s 13 games last year and started in eight, racking up 80 tackles on the way to an 8-5 season with a bowl win.
Soares played his first three seasons of football at Northwestern — his first season under Fitzgerald, before the head coach was let go after an investigation revealed widespread, long-running hazing within the football program.
Soares’ top game last year came against previously undefeated No. 8 Georgia Tech in an unranked 48-36 upset where he totaled 14 stops. Soares now will lead the defense and MSU in what will be a telling first year for not only Fitzgerald, but nine new coaches and 32 incoming transfers.
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