This is the kind of hire that does not scream for attention on the first glance, but it should. Pat Fitzgerald has gone and pulled LeVar Woods out of Iowa after 14 years, and if Michigan State football is serious about climbing the Big Ten ladder, special teams cannot remain an afterthought.
The timing matters too. Michigan State has spent too long getting burned by Iowa return plays, and this move feels like a direct response to that reality. Charlie Jones did it in 2020. Cooper DeJean did it in 2023. Kaden Wetjen did it last year. That is not bad luck. That is a pattern, and Fitzgerald has clearly decided he has seen enough of it.
Last month at Big Ten media day in Chicago, Fitzgerald said special teams could make a huge jump for the team to be successful. On Monday, Aug. 10, he made the point harder to ignore by bringing in one of the league's most respected special teams coaches. That is not window dressing. That is an admission that games in the Big Ten are often decided in hidden places, and Michigan State has not been winning enough of those moments.
Why Woods matters
Woods spent nearly his entire coaching career at Iowa, where he added the coordinator title in 2017 and helped produce one of the league's most consistent return units. Iowa led the Big Ten in kick returns for the first time noted in the article in 2013, then did it five times since then. That is a serious record, not a talking point.
Fitzgerald was equally direct about why he wanted him. When he took over in December, he said the priority was signing the recruiting class and then assembling the staff. He also said that after watching tape and the State-Iowa game, special teams looked like one of the biggest areas where Michigan State could make a huge jump. In other words, he did not stumble into this move. He targeted a very specific problem and then went after the man who has been solving it for years.
That is why the Woods hire feels bigger than a simple staff note. It is about whether Michigan State can stop giving away field position, stop getting punished on returns, and start turning close games into wins instead of regrets. In the Big Ten, that kind of edge is not optional.
A coach's coach, and maybe more
Woods said after practice on Monday that he was grateful for the opportunity with coach Fitz, and Fitzgerald was just as enthusiastic, calling him outstanding and saying the special teams he has produced at Iowa speak for themselves. He even went further, saying Woods is going to be a head coach and that part of the conversation was about helping him take that next step in East Lansing.
That tells you a lot about the relationship between the two men. Both Fitzgerald and Woods were outstanding Big Ten linebackers in their playing days, so there is already shared history and shared language there. But this is not just a nostalgia hire. Fitzgerald is betting that Woods can raise the floor of Michigan State football, and Woods is betting that this is a place where his next step can begin.
The Michigan Football Schedule will still be decided on the field, not on paper. But if Michigan State is going to matter in that schedule, it will need to stop losing the margins. Bringing in LeVar Woods is a strong sign Fitzgerald understands that. That alone makes this one of the more important staff moves of the offseason.
