EAST LANSING – While Pat Fitzgerald patrolled the football practice field Monday, Aug. 18, Michigan State had found his new boss. A little less than an hour later, after the first-year coach spoke to reporters, it became official.
Make no mistake: Dan Bartholomae's primary mission is to help get Fitzgerald's program back to competing for championships. And vice versa for the coach the Spartans' new athletic director inherits in the football-dominated new landscape of the Big Ten and college sports.
The first step in creating a relationship? From Fitzgerald's standpoint, "honesty, transparency" are essential.
"The ability to sit down and have hard conversations and create a plan," Fitzgerald said Monday before Bartholomae's hiring became official. "What does that mean? That means the next 12 months, the next 36 months, the next five years – what is our plan, where do we see our priorities? It's my job to help that person be better, in whatever that means. However they need me is what I'm gonna do.
"It's just like my ******* istant coaches to me. We have very honest, transparent conversations. And they're there to help me be the best head coach I can be. I'm here to take things off the AD's plate and make him be – or she be – the best AD possible."
#coach
Make no mistake: Dan Bartholomae's primary mission is to help get Fitzgerald's program back to competing for championships. And vice versa for the coach the Spartans' new athletic director inherits in the football-dominated new landscape of the Big Ten and college sports.
The first step in creating a relationship? From Fitzgerald's standpoint, "honesty, transparency" are essential.
"The ability to sit down and have hard conversations and create a plan," Fitzgerald said Monday before Bartholomae's hiring became official. "What does that mean? That means the next 12 months, the next 36 months, the next five years – what is our plan, where do we see our priorities? It's my job to help that person be better, in whatever that means. However they need me is what I'm gonna do.
"It's just like my ******* istant coaches to me. We have very honest, transparent conversations. And they're there to help me be the best head coach I can be. I'm here to take things off the AD's plate and make him be – or she be – the best AD possible."
#coach
2 months ago
