EAST LANSING – After being formally introduced as Michigan State’s new coach and meeting with donors, Pat Fitzgerald made a brief stop at Spartan Stadium.

As part of a video filmed by the program’s social team, he stepped through the tunnel while holding hands with his wife, Stacy, but it was far from a first impression.

Fitzgerald played and coached for Northwestern at the century-old stadium and recalled a mistake made his first time as head coach in East Lansing.

“We made some poor decision to warm up in front of the student section,” Fitzgerald said during Tuesday’s introductory press conference. “I don’t know why we decided to do that, that was a first and last time that we were going to ever do that.”

In Fitzgerald’s debut season as head coach in 2006, Michigan State rallied from

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