Michigan State hires Jacob Schmidt as chief of staff
Pat Fitzgerald hires a familiar face as his chief of staff. More details here.
Michigan State head coach Pat Fitzgerald is bringing in a trusted person to be his chief of staff, as Michigan State has hired Jacob Schmidt for the role. The news was first reported by Spartan Tailgate. Schmidt has since updated his X bio to reflect his title at MSU.
Most recently, Schmidt served as executive director of TrueNU, which is Northwestern's NIL collective. He had this role from 2022 until August of 2025. While with TrueNU, Schmidt helped raise around $25 million that supported all 21 of NU's varsity sports, according to WildCard Report.
Prior to his work with TrueNU, Schmidt worked as director of football operations under Fitzgerald. He earned that role in April of 2021. In this post, Schmidt was responsible for the organization of the day-to-day operations of the NU football program.
Before being promoted to director of football operations, Schmidt was Northwestern's director of player development for nine seasons, beginning in 2012. In that role, he was responsible for coordinating many aspects of NU players' off-the-field experience at Northwestern. This included coordinating NU's Big Brother program, which matched Wildcat players with NU football alums in the professional world.
The Rhinelander, Wisconsin native also played football for Northwestern under Fitzgerald. He walked on to the team as a running back in 2007. By his final year in 2011, Schmidt earned the starting running back role, and finished the campaign as the team's second-leading rusher with 471 yards and six touchdowns.
Schmidt was part of the winningest senior class in Northwestern football history, which won 36 games in five years and led the Wildcats to a school-record four-straight bowl game appearances. He was selected as a Capital One second-team Academic All-American in 2011. Schmidt earned an undergraduate degree in human development and psychological services from NU, and received a master's in higher education administration and policy from Northwestern in 2014.