Get to know Nick Sheridan, who will be Pat Fitzgerald's offensive coordinator for Michigan State football when the Spartans take the field in 2026.
A little more than 12 hours after Alabama beat Oklahoma and advanced in the College Football Playoff, word came that Nick Sheridan would be moving on from the Crimson Tide when their postseason run comes to an end.
That gives a glimpse into the potential future of Michigan State football's offense coming from an unexpected source: A former Michigan quarterback, albeit one who comes with a bit of a Spartan pedigree.
New MSU coach Pat Fitzgerald’s hiring of Sheridan has not been officially announced by the program, particularly because the No. 9 seed Crimson Tide will face No. 1 seed Indiana in the CFP quarterfinals at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on Jan. 1 (4 p.m., ESPN). Here is what the Spartans are getting with Sheridan.
The path
The 37-year-old Saline native is the son of veteran coach and Detroit native Bill Sheridan, a former Grand Valley State star who served as a graduate assistant at Eastern Michigan (1984-85) and U-M (under Bo Schembechler in 1985-86) before a long career in college and the NFL that included a three-season stop with the Spartans under Nick Saban and Bobby Williams from 1998-2000. Bill Sheridan also coached linebackers with the Detroit Lions (2014-17) and is currently a senior defensive assistant for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
However, offense has been Nick Sheridan’s calling since he walked on in Ann Arbor in 2006. He got into two games in 2007 before making four starts in eight appearances in 2008 while completing 63-of-137 passes for 613 yards and two touchdowns, then played two games as a senior in 2009 before embarking on a coaching career that started at his high school alma mater.
Sheridan returned to the college game in 2011, first as a graduate assistant and then as the quarterbacks coach and pass game coordinator at Western Kentucky. In 2013, he took the same position at South Florida before moving on to Tennessee as a graduate assistant from 2014-16 under former Central Michigan coach Butch Jones.
In 2017, Sheridan returned to the Big Ten as part of Tom Allen’s staff at Indiana, where he spent the next five seasons. After two seasons coaching the Hoosiers’ quarterbacks, including future first-round NFL draft pick Michael Penix Jr., Sheridan coached their tight ends in 2019 when Allen brought in Kalen DeBoer as his offensive coordinator. After DeBoer left to become Fresno State’s head coach in 2020, Sheridan was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2020 and 2021.
The progression
In two seasons as Indiana’s play-caller, Sheridan directed an offense with ups and downs that mirrored Penix’s unsteady health.
In 2020, the Hoosiers finished 94th overall in total offense (359.5 yards) and 59th in scoring (28.9 points). Much of what Sheridan did was predicated on the pass, with IU finishing 43rd in the Football Bowl Subdivision through the air (250.9 yards) but just 114th out of 127 teams that season in rushing (108.6). The Hoosiers finished 6-2 during the pandemic-shortened season; their lone Big Ten loss came to Ohio State, before a loss to Mississippi in the Outback Bowl.
Then in 2021, with Penix coming off a second ACL tear and then suffering a season-ending shoulder injury five games in, Indiana’s offense cratered. Indiana finished 124th in total offense (290.0 yards) and 123rd in scoring (17.3 points), and Sheridan was fired. along with Allen, after going 2-10 overall and winless in the Big Ten. That included a 20-15 loss to MSU.
When DeBoer was hired at Washington, he brought Sheridan with him as his tight ends coach in 2022 and 2023. Then when Alabama came calling, Sheridan again followed as DeBoer’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2024. With Jalen Milroe at quarterback, the Crimson Tide went 9-4 but missed the CFP. Sheridan’s offense ranked 22nd nationally in scoring (33.8 points) and 42nd in total offense (410.2 yards), but Alabama averaged just 269.3 yards while scoring 33 total points in losses to Tennessee, Oklahoma and U-M (a 19-13 loss in the ReliaQuest Bowl).
DeBoer shuffled his staff during the offseason to bring in his longtime confidante Ryan Grubb, who spent 2024 leading the Seattle Seahawks’ offense. However, DeBoer praised Sheridan in July, calling the relationship between Sheridan and Grubb “amazing” from their time together at Washington.
“The guy is unbelievable when it comes to just his offensive mind, football mind,” DeBoer told reporters. “His organization, the way he teaches, the way he recruits. I mean, he's recruited at a high level. ... He's got deep relationships with our players because that's just the type of guy he is. He's high character.”
With Grubb taking over play-calling and Sheridan as his co-offensive coordinator this season, the Crimson Tide rank 39th in the Football Bowl Subdivision in scoring (31.4 points) and 74th in total offense (380.1 yards). Alabama again has been a pass-heavy group, averaging 270.2 yards to rank 22nd with the 26th most efficient passing attack with quarterback Ty Simpson passing for 3,500 yards with 28 touchdowns to just five interceptions.
“Our quarterback room is getting coached better than any quarterback room in the country,” DeBoer said earlier this season, pointing to Sheridan’s position work the past two seasons.
The philosophy
How Sheridan’s offenses looked will be something returning starter Alessio Milivojevic and MSU’s other quarterbacks – along with incoming signee Kayd Coffman – will want to know and learn. So will wide receiver Nick Marsh, who is exploring the transfer portal, and MSU's running back corps.
Establishing trust will be one of the first steps for Sheridan when he arrives. There are three pillars he cited on the “Next Up” video podcast after being named offensive coordinator last year: “We talk about dominating the football, we talk about being detail-oriented, and we talk about being explosive.”
A lot of that was orchestrating what has made DeBoer among the top young coaches in the game and landed him the job with the Crimson Tide. That involves using a pro-style offense, of which Sheridan said, “We try to feature our playmakers.” To be successful, he added, involves scoring red-zone touchdowns, taking care of the ball and creating big chunk plays.
"We talk about the win ratio – the difference in your turnover margin and your explosive play margin,” Sheridan told podcast host Adam Breneman.
“The easiest way to explain that is, if you're in the game, however many explosive plays the opponent has offensively, we have to match that and exceed that in order to win the game. The same thing as far as turnovers.”
What he inherits
Ironically, the biggest issue for Sheridan will be a problem left behind by one of his current coworkers: Fixing MSU’s porous offensive line.
Chris Kapilovic, who has coached the position at Alabama the past two years after being fired along with most of the rest of Mel Tucker’s staff after the 2023 season, started to lay groundwork to rebuild the program’s depth and toughness in the offensive trenches that waned toward the end of Mark Dantonio’s 13-year tenure. MSU missed out on several high-end offensive line recruiting targets but landed some, though much of the other top-end talent he amassed transferred out of the program after Tucker’s firing and the hiring of Jonathan Smith. That included Geno VanDeMark, who followed Kapilovic to join DeBoer and Sheridan in Tuscaloosa.
The Spartans finished 2024 ranked 116th out of 133 FBS teams at three sacks yielded per game (36 total). The 37 allowed this season by MSU are 12th-most in the country, and their 3.08 allowed per game ranks 123rd nationally. Aidan Chiles, who started for most of the past two seasons before entering the portal earlier this month, was sacked 51 times in 20 starts. Milivojevic was sacked 16 times in nine games, including seven times in his first career start while taking over the starting job for the final four games, and was hit hard on multiple other occasions.
That lack of time and blocking affected every facet of MSU’s offense under outgoing coordinator Brian Lindgren. The Spartans ranked 107th in rushing (122.8 yards) and 97th in total offense (345.5 yards) while scoring just 24.6 points a game (89th). Their 21 points per game in Big Ten play ranked 12th out of 18 teams, a big reason MSU finished 4-8 overall and 1-8 in league play. The Spartans missed a bowl for the fourth straight season and fifth time in the six years since Dantonio retired after the 2019 season.
Trying to keep Marsh in the mix and signing Novi Detroit Catholic Central four-star wide receiver Samson Gash, who remains committed to the Spartans but did not sign during the early period, will be critical as soon as Sheridan arrives. Alabama had been trying to pry Gash away from his commitment, and he opted to wait to sign during the period that begins Feb. 4. The NCAA transfer portal, meanwhile, opens from Jan. 2-16.
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: What Nick Sheridan brings to Michigan State football as new OC
Category: General Sports
