Pat Fitzgerald has emerged as the target of Michigan State football’s coaching search, sources confirmed to ESPN’s Pete Thamel on Sunday night. The sides are working toward a deal, which is expected to be finalized in the near future.

The anticipated arrival of Fitzgerald comes after Michigan State fired Jonathan Smith on Sunday, two years after he was hired, and one day after the Spartans defeated Maryland to conclude the regular season.

“The 2025 football season has not lived up to our shared standards for Michigan State Football,” athletic director J Batt said in a statement. “While that does not fall solely on Jonathan Smith, it’s become necessary to make a coaching change in order to chart a new direction for the program.”

The 50-year-old Fitzgerald reached a settlement with Northwestern in August, two years after he sued the university amid a team hazing scandal that led to his firing following an investigation. Details of the settlement were not made public.

Former Northwestern football players started filing lawsuits in 2023, alleging sexual abuse and racial discrimination on the team. Similar allegations then spread across several sports.

Fitzgerald denied wrongdoing and sued for $130 million. He alleged the school illegally terminated his employment and damaged his reputation, among other things. His case was set to go to trial this month.

Fitzgerald was an All-America linebacker for the Wildcats and starred on the 1995 team that won the Big Ten and played in the Rose Bowl.

He was 110-101 in 17 seasons as Northwestern’s head coach. He led the Wildcats to Big Ten West championships in 2018 and 2020 and to five bowl victories. Over his final two seasons, though, Northwestern was 4-20.

Michigan State lost eight of its last nine games to finish 4-8 this season. Smith’s overall record at MSU was 9-15 and just 4-14 in the Big Ten. Smith is due more than $30 million, according to terms of his seven-year contract.

Smith, on the sidelines for the Spartans’ 38-28 win over the Terrapins on Saturday night at Ford Field, was 34-35 over six seasons at Oregon State, winning at least eight games in consecutive seasons for the first time in more than a decade at his alma mater. He went 5-7 overall and 3-6 in the Big Ten during his debut season last year. His seat got warm when athletic director Alan Haller, who hired him, left the school last May.

Expectations were low for this season, and the results were worse.

The Spartans followed up wins against Western Michigan, Boston College and Youngstown State with an 0-8 start in Big Ten play. They lost to USC, Nebraska, UCLA, Indiana and Michigan by double digits before blowing a late lead and losing at Minnesota by three points in overtime. Their only conference win came Saturday against Maryland.

Smith benched quarterback Aidan Chiles, who followed him from Oregon State, against the Golden Gophers and gave redshirt freshman Alessio Milivojevic a shot to start, perhaps with an eye toward the future the coach no longer has at Michigan State. Milivojevic tossed a career-high four touchdown passes and completed 27 of 39 passes for 292 yards Saturday night.

The program has struggled since the school’s winningest coach, Mark Dantonio, retired and ended a record-breaking 13-year run with consecutive 7-6 seasons and a .500 Big Ten record over two years.

With limited choices in the winter of 2020, inexperienced athletic director Bill Beekman hired Mel Tucker after he went 5-7 in one season at Colorado and had ties to the school as a graduate assistant under Nick Saban.

Tucker led the Spartans to an 11-2 record in 2021 and the school rewarded him with a $95 million, 10-year contract. The school fired him early in the 2023 season after investigating a sexual misconduct complaint against him.

Michigan State does not have a scandal to recover from during its latest attempt to fix its program, but it faces a big challenge to find someone who can win consistently in the expanded and highly competitive Big Ten.

News of Michigan State’s decision to focus on Fitzgerald was first reported by the Detroit Free Press.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

James Madison coach Bob Chesney has emerged as the target of UCLA’s coaching search, sources told ESPN.

He’s set to sign a five-year deal with UCLA, according to ESPN sources, that will be finalized after James Madison’s Sun Belt championship game.

Chesney’s James Madison team is 11-1 this season and plays Troy this week in the Sun Belt championship. UCLA has agreed with James Madison that Chesney will coach the Dukes if JMU wins the Sun Belt and ends up in the College Football Playoff field as one of five highest-ranked conference champions.

Chesney informed his team of his intention to leave Monday, sources told ESPN. Chesney jumped to the top of the list of candidates in this frenetic college coaching cycle, drawing interest for a number of the top openings, as JMU is ranked No. 19 in both the Associated Press and AFCA Coaches polls.

Once Chesney’s hiring is finalized, UCLA gets a coach with a consistent track record of winning, as athletic director Martin Jarmond and the UCLA search committee quickly coalesced around his candidacy early in the process.

Chesney, a Pennsylvania native, brings a background as an assistant coach on both defense and special teams. He has also developed a reputation as a turnaround artist, as he has resuscitated struggling programs at Division III Salve Regina, Division II Assumption University and turned FCS Holy Cross into a high-level winner. Along with being 20-5 at JMU, he’s 131-51 overall as a college head coach over 16 seasons. At Holy Cross, he led the school to four of the six FCS playoff appearances in school history, reaching four in a row from 2019 to 2022. He also led the Crusaders to five Patriot League titles.

UCLA’s courtship has been a long one, as it fired coach DeShaun Foster in mid-September after an 0-3 start. He finished his two-season tenure at 5-10.

The UCLA search committed included notable graduates such as longtime NBA executive Bob Myers and Commanders GM Adam Peters.

Jarmond and UCLA top football administrator Erin Adkins flew out and saw Chesney in Virginia nearly three weeks ago, according to sources. UCLA met with four candidates in person and quickly identified Chesney as the best fit. The committee viewed Chesney’s background through small college football and his knack of turning around programs as positives. Since arriving in the Big Ten, UCLA is 8-16 overall, bringing about a wake-up call that more investment is needed.

UCLA pitched to candidates a job with increased financial support, as well as the financial ambition to be competitive in the Big Ten and embrace the academic standards of UCLA. Chesney has worked at strong academic schools, including as an assistant at Johns Hopkins prior to becoming a head coach.

“He had an appreciation for UCLA, the academics and the Big Ten,” said a source familiar with the process. “He also had a detailed plan on how to turn the program around.”

Four-star prospect Bralan Womack, ESPN’s No. 3 safety in the 2026 class, flipped his commitment from Auburn to Mississippi State on Monday, sealing a historic late-cycle pledge for coach Jeff Lebby and the Bulldogs.

Womack, a 6-foot, 200-pound defender from Flowood, Mississippi, is the No. 39 overall prospect in the 2026 ESPN 300. If he signs later this week, Womack will join the in-state Bulldogs as the school’s highest-ranked signee in the ESPN recruiting era, dating to 2006.

Prior to Monday, Womack had spent the fall as the top-ranked commit in Auburn’s 2026 class after picking the Tigers over Florida, Ohio State and Texas A&M in August. However, Auburn’s decision to fire coach Hugh Freeze on Nov. 2 unsettled Womack’s recruitment, opening the door to late fall flip interest from LSU, Mississippi State and Texas A&M.

Womack’s exit from the Tigers’ incoming class comes one day after the program announced the hiring of South Florida coach Alex Golesh on Sunday. Womack, who visited Auburn for the Iron Bowl in Week 14, told ESPN on Nov. 25 that his decision would be tied closely to the outcome of the Tigers’ coaching search and interim coach D.J. Durkin’s role with the program in the future.

Whether or not Durkin will remain on Golesh’s staff remains unclear as of Monday.

Womack, ESPN’s No. 3 recruit in the state of Mississippi, won back-to-back state titles in his sophomore and junior seasons at Mississippi’s Hartfield Academy. He entered his senior campaign this fall as the state’s reigning Gatorade Football Player of the Year.

Womack has visited each of LSU, Mississippi State and Texas A&M since late October. He told ESPN that the Bulldogs turned up the heat on his recruitment early last month, eventually hosting him twice in November, most recently during last weekend’s Egg Bowl defeat to Ole Miss.

Womack said the Bulldogs’ pitched him on becoming the defensive version of star freshman quarterback Kamario Taylor — an in-state signee in the 2025 class who made his first career start in Week 14 — and highlighted the program’s progress across two seasons under Lebby.

“You can see his ability to go out and get players and build confidence in a locker room that didn’t have much when he walked in,” Womack said. That takes a lot. You can see what he’s doing.”‘

Womack now stands as the lone ESPN 300 pledge in Mississippi State’s 2026 signing class with the three-day early signing period set to open Wednesday morning. Prior to his flip, the Bulldogs’ incoming class sat at No. 49 in ESPN’s class rankings for the 2026 cycle.