MSU HC Pat Fitzgerald Big Ten Linebacker Strategy

Open that up game week and hey, based on what we saw in the summer, with our personnel, are they what we thought they were when we studied them? And if not, then you just adjust them. Yeah, you're hitting the lead but you just move on to the next part. Yeah, it's huge. Yeah, it's huge. I mean, just when you looked at, you know, probably our portal class, it was production, right? I mean, that was a no brainer. How we did it. So those guys are really special. They're really good teammates to play a lot of ball. There's obviously, you know, a large group of that, like that, like that in other positions, too. Yeah, I think from a big picture standpoint, first and foremost is conference. That's pretty evident when you look back over the history of the conference. You know, there's always been kind of an emphasis on, you know, I think a recruitment to playing really good. And then you look at the position, I'm back there, you've got to be able to do it all. You got to be able to wear the green dot and make the call. You got to be able to go out and play in spacing and skill guys, you got to be able to fit against two backs, two tight ends, you know, whatever the personnel may be and play the run, play the pass. And, you know, thank goodness, the game wasn't, it is today back in the 90s, because I wouldn't have been able to do it. I mean, I was like, arm length to arm length. These guys are so athletic. They're bigger, they're stronger, they're more athletic and field hasn't changed size. And, you know, I mean, so just to see how the windows are smaller, and how much faster they are, it's just so impressive.