​EAST LANSING – Everything felt vital. Just a few hours earlier, it looked as listless as it has all season for Michigan State football.A fourth-quarter touchdown pass from Alessio Milivojevic to Fredrick Moore with 7:47 to play breathed new life into the Spartans after an abysmal first half. A perfectly executed onside kick by Liam Boyd followed, recovered along the Illinois sideline by a diving Samson Gash. Suddenly, the remaining fans in Spartan Stadium were rocking and sensed something major might happen.But the crescendo of cheers whiplashed into anger and anguish when umpire Keith Vaverchak threw a penalty flag that negated the entire play. Birds began flying in the stands as Pat Fitzgerald exploded on the MSU sidelines, spit and swear words flying everywhere.Then his bird took flight, as well.“I lost my cool at times,” Fitzgerald said after the Spartans’ eventual 38-37 overtime loss Saturday, Oct. 10. “I’ve got to be more disciplined for our team to be more disciplined. That starts and ends with me.”Pat Fitzgerald gives the bird to the Illinois sideline #Footballguypic.twitter.com/uEqNH9ZFaO— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) October 10, 2026Yet with one little hand gesture, coupled with a whole lot of towel-swirling and arm-waving defiance, Fitzgerald might have had his “Little Brother” moment with his fanbase after immediately becoming a meme-worthy visual.It whipped the remaining MSU fans who stayed as part of a homecoming crowd that already was on the lighter side (65,837) into a frenzy that sounded far louder than it did at kickoff. And certainly more energized than when the Spartans found themselves in a 23-7 hole midway through the third quarter. A little TV broadcast lipreading showed what those on the sidelines were hearing from their head coach: “[Screw] these guys! Let’s go!”It certainly resonated with his players around him, much like how Mark Dantonio’s comments about Mike Hart after a loss to Michigan in 2007, his first season as coach, shaped the identity of his program for the next 13 years.“I’ve known coach Fitz for a very long time. The fire that you see from him is the reason why I’m back with him, 100%,” said defensive end Kenny Soares Jr., who was part of one of Fitzgerald’s final recruiting classes at Northwestern in 2022. “Like, I wouldn’t want my head coach to be any other way because he’s in the game as much as we’re in the game. We may be on the field, but he’s the one calling the shots, and we’ve got to be in there together. Point blank, period.“So him having that fire under him, it’s the true sign of a real leader and a real head coach.”MSU (2-4, 0-3 Big Ten) lost its fourth straight game in the first two months of Fitzgerald’s second coaching job. It was the Spartans’ fifth straight conference loss at Spartan Stadium and their second straight homecoming defeatAfter falling behind 17-0 in the second quarter to the Illini (3-3, 1-2), MSU scratched and clawed and