MSU trustee and former football player Brian Mosallam begs to differ. He feels Fickell and others weren't fit for the job.
"By 9 p.m. (Monday) night, I personally had more information, finally, than the media did. Let me be as diplomatic as possible here. For Spartans everywhere, at the end of the day we can’t force somebody to come here. Spartan Nation should want somebody that wants to be here. We don’t want a waffling flake who views this is as a destination job," Mosallam told Jamie and Stoney on 97.1 The Ticket.
Asked if he was calling Fickell a 'waffling flake,' Mosallam said, "I’m just saying, in general, there’s a lot of misinformation out there and I think it’s important that some of that stuff clears up. At the end of the day, we can’t make somebody come here. We want somebody that wants to be here, that understands Michigan State, that will do everything they can to get here. It's very, very important for a job like this."
"The process is for the committee to come to the board to make a recommendation and the board to give a thumb up or a thumbs down. That’s where a lot of the misinformation was," he said. "Everyone else can draw their own conclusions, but we need to move forward collectively."
Mosallam also dismissed the idea that athletic director Bill Beekman, who was only recently appointed to his position full-time, is in over his head.
"We’re not out there controlling the narrative, we’re not out there telling the story and trying to inform people, so social media is ablaze and everybody is just drawing up conclusions on how this thing transpired," he said. "Optically, I think it's a concern with how this process has unfolded, but there are a lot of rumors and misinformation out there that we just can’t address every minute.
"I think everybody needs to take a collective breath, let the process play out and let the committee come back to the board with a recommendation."