Michigan State’s Jonathan Smith era is just starting, and probably soon ending – The Athletic
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Kenneth Walker III and Cody White had the weekend off with their Seattle Seahawks idle, so they returned to Michigan State and went right to the guy everyone wants to see when they return to Michigan State.
After hugs with Tom Izzo outside his office Friday afternoon, then some football talk and some joking around about the NCAA letting NBA G League players return to college hoops — “We’ll take your ass back right now,” Izzo said to Walker, a Spartans star running back in 2021 — it got motivational for a moment. Izzo told Walker and White: “You guys are our future.”
He didn’t mean just them, of course. The Naismith Hall of Fame coach has a program that is the envy of others when it comes to former players staying involved. Epic reunion weekends each fall and the millions Draymond Green, Magic Johnson and others have contributed help tell that story. Izzo’s going to help any other Michigan State coach pursue the same.
Especially the football coach.
“You guys are our future” could be all of Michigan State talking to the football program. Same with any Power 4 school, no matter how many other positive attributes that school may have. Right now, the football looks bleak at Michigan State, and is destined to change course soon, even though Jonathan Smith technically has four games left in his second season.
Saturday’s uninspired 31-20 loss to rival Michigan at Spartan Stadium drops Smith to 8-12, which isn’t fireable on its own, even in today’s accelerated environment for judging coaching tenures. He took over a mess. He didn’t have as much money for his first roster as he expected. He got this job by winning 25 games in his last three seasons at Oregon State, of all places. His buyout is north of $30 million.
Yet amid a coaching carousel that’s hurtling toward standing room only, do not forget about Michigan State (3-5) and its five losses in a row and counting.
It’s easy to find people who like Smith personally at Michigan State, but it’s hard to find anyone who thinks he can get this done. And if a coach isn’t supported by the people who matter in today’s environment — while Curt Cignetti can go to a place that never had good football and create instant national title contention — then the cost of a pointless lame-duck year far exceeds the benefit of the corresponding buyout trim.
Smith does have a defender in Izzo. He has supported Smith publicly multiple times in recent weeks, as the boos have intensified at Spartan Stadium and the outcome has started to look inevitable. Izzo told The Athletic: “We have to have some stability.”
But it should be noted that Izzo defended Bobby Williams before Williams’ tenure as Michigan State football coach ended in the 2002 season. Same with John L. Smith in 2006. Izzo supported Mel Tucker until that was not a thing that could be done anymore, thanks to sexual harassment allegations that got Tucker fired for cause in 2023.
Izzo is the most important person in Michigan State athletics. He’s going to back his fellow coaches. He can’t save them when things get to a certain point with the fan base and the people who fund this enterprise.
Things are about there with Smith, and it’s not just because of an inconsistent, sloppy product that bottomed out two weeks ago in a 38-13 home loss to UCLA. It’s not just because of a recruiting class that is losing prominent commits and drifting toward the bottom of the Big Ten. Smith’s complete lack of fire on the sidelines — lack of verbal communication, even, in moments where it might help — has lost the room. That’s an easy thing for a fan to correlate with the product and the recruiting.
Counterpoint, to be fair: Smith’s defense and offensive line don’t have the kind of talent that can compete with the upper reaches of the Big Ten, and that must have something to do with resources. If first-year athletic director J Batt is going to make a move like this right away and incur the costs that come with dispatching this staff and finding another, he better be sure this one had a chance.
Batt declined an interview through an MSU spokesman. He was brought in to maximize the financial potential at hand — think Danny White at Tennessee — and might soon be on the clock with a critical hire. Optimism is high in the MSU athletic department about President Kevin Guskiewicz and the support and stability he’ll bring, after nearly a decade of shuffling and turmoil.
The alumni base has big hitters who dig sports — Phoenix Suns owner and former Izzo player Mat Ishbia, Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores among them, plus Magic and his empire. Plus Justin Ishbia, who is buying the Chicago White Sox.
“Who else has that?” Izzo said. “I do think we’re in good position right now, because it starts at the top, and (Guskiewicz) has been phenomenal.”
But the head football coach has to be dynamic, a difference maker. This one isn’t.
He admittedly needed a year to catch up on the bitterness of the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry and has not measured up to two so-so Michigan teams. The Spartans, with their 12 penalties for 105 yards, including consecutive false starts in garbage time as Michigan fans whooped it up, do not look like a well-coached team. Junior quarterback Aidan Chiles has not progressed as hoped in two seasons — Smith’s staff can’t find answers for him.
And that doesn’t even get into some of Smith’s questionable decisions Saturday, which outweighed a couple of officiating mistakes that hurt his team. He was right after the game when he said going for two after scoring to make it 24-13 was an “analytics” decision, but that doesn’t make it a smart one. Three straight runs, still down 11, with less than five minutes to play, the last one a stuffed Chiles sneak on fourth down … there are no analytics to support that.
“Not good enough,” Smith said more than once after the game. He didn’t say much else and doesn’t say much in general, but those three words actually sum this whole thing up pretty well.
