Ironically, for someone whose name is almost synonymous with the sport of basketball, Tom Izzo is known to be a massive football fan and a huge supporter of Michigan State football. He's also known to be extremely honest and not bashful when it comes to sharing his opinions. So, it probably means a little more when, in his press conference on Thursday, Tom Izzo took a moment to share his belief in the MSU football program and new head coach Pat Fitzgerald.

It's been a rough season for the Spartans on the football field. MSU hasn't won a Big Ten game yet. After a turbulent start to the decade, Pat Fitzgerald has been given a tough task of rebuilding a program that has seen scandals, coaching failures, and has struggled to compete financially in the new world of NIL.

But Tom Izzo, who has more insight into the internal machinations that go into creating a winning program at MSU than any of us, thinks things will be different very soon:

"For all of you, I'll bet you this football program is going somewhere in the very near future," Izzo said to media members in attendance.

MSU has recently hired a rising star in the athletics world in Dan Bartholomae to run their athletics department, and it seems the University is aligned, finally, to bring a winner to the football field. Time will tell if these changes will lead to a successful team, but Tom Izzo seems to think it will.