EAST LANSING – Will Jonathan Smith be the Michigan State football coach next season? Or at this time next week?
He said he doesn’t know.
Amid an eight-game losing streak that is tied for the second-longest in program history, the second-year coach gave insight into his frustrations of a season gone awry and the limbo he and his staff are experiencing as the Spartans prepare for their finale against Maryland at Ford Field.
Asked if “anything has been communicated to you in black and white to you about the future?” Smith’s answer was sinple: “No.”
And does he feel confident he and his staff will get a third year?
“I think in this landscape of college football, what it is, that’s always a solid question,” Smith said Monday, Nov. 24. “When you look across the country and the changes in movement, that’s why I go back to understanding that each time you sign up, college coaching nowadays, it’s week-to-week thing. And we got another week to go do it.
“I’m still really confident in the people that are in the building right now. Obviously, we gotta find ways to get things better, and I’m excited about the opportunity to keep doing it.”
The Spartans (3-8, 0-8 Big Ten) face the Terrapins (4-7, 1-7) on Saturday (7 p.m., FS1) while trying to halt a slide that equals the eight straight losses covering the finale of the 1981 season and the first seven games of 1982. The school record is 10 in a row –the final game of 1916 and an 0-9 season in 1917. Since joining the Big Ten in 1953, MSU has never lost every game in conference play and went winless just once (0-5-1 under Duffy Daugherty in 1958).
Smith, his coaches and his players have one final chance, in Detroit, to prevent dubious history.
“That’s what we sign up to do, is to win ultimately. And so yeah, it would be very gratifying, for all the work that this group has put in,” Smith said. “I think about that with players in the locker room, yes, we want them to come out the right side because they deserve it in in a lot of ways, with the effort they put in. Now we gotta execute for 60 minutes to earn that. But yes, going out on a win would be huge for the guys.”
A win is something the Spartans haven’t experienced in more than two months, since beating FCS-level Youngstown State on Sept. 13 to give Smith the first back-to-back 3-0 starts ever by an MSU coach in his first two seasons. Since the start of Big Ten play this season, MSU has been close just twice (a 23-20 overtime loss at Minnesota on Nov. 1 and Saturday’s 20-17 fourth-quarter fade against Iowa), though the Spartans were competitive deep into the second half against USC, Nebraska and Penn State. They showed fight against ranked Indiana and Michigan.
Football isn’t horseshoes, however, and Smith understands that getting close only counts for so much.
“We did not anticipate having a stretch like this, no question,” he said. “We understood, though, how difficult this league is, right, and it is tough to win. … It’s tough to win, it’s easy to lose. One or two plays really can set a game in the wrong direction.”
Smith is now 8-15 overall and 3-14 in Big Ten play the past two seasons. MSU accepted the NCAA’s punishment for violations committed during Mel Tuckers tenure, vacating his wins from last season’s 5-7 debut, along with nine others in 2022 and 2023, due to infractions that occurred during Mel Tucker’s tenure from 2020-23.
And while embattled coaches around the country have either been fired or received public support from their administration – including Smith’s foe this weekend, Maryland’s Mike Locksley – Smith’s future has yet to be addressed publicly by new athletic director J Batt, who was hired in June and has sat silently while watching every postgame press conference this season. Batt also has not fielded questions about MSU’s NCAA punishment.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Alessio Milivojevic after Saturday’s loss at Iowa called Smith “a great coach, a great leader” and added, “I love playing for him.” He also credited the rest of MSU’s coaching staff for keeping the players in fight mode instead of flight mode.
“They’ve been great,” Milivojevic said. “It’s tough to lose as many games in a row as we have. It’s tough for them to come in and keep that same attitude but they have. They have been great. They have kept us going, kept us fighting. Overall, they have been great for us.”
It is something Smith said he has mutual respect for, with his players and staff.
“I think about the energy asked for players Tuesday through Friday, getting ready, and asking the same thing of coaches,” he said. “You just want to model in the way, and it starts with myself to the staff, of modeling this consistent approach with optimism through the week.
“Eight straight is a tough road, there’s no other way to say it. It is tough. And that doesn’t mean – what’s the alternative? What, you just quit, you run, you start blaming others? It’s like, no. It’s keeping the main thing this week. We’ve been going at it and deeply believing in these guys. And we want it for them, to come out on the right side of the scoreboard. And that’s the approach this week.”
Smith said he is “100%” confident he and his staff can turn things around at MSU, adding that growth and momentum has shown in building “our foundational culture.” The early signing period arrives next week – Dec. 3-5 – so Batt will need to make some pronouncement one way or another soon.
Is two years enough of a timeline to determine whether or not MSU is moving in the right direction? Smith said he realizes the changes to college football with transfer portal, NIL and revenue sharing has had an effect on coaches in which “it’s sped up with the landscape.”
“I know that establishing a deep culture and going about things, that doesn’t happen in the microwave,” he said. “At the same time, it’s not put this thing in a slow cook and take forever mentality, six, seven hours versus 30 seconds of microwave.”
And for the restless fanbase on edge, that got a taste of the top of college football a decade ago and has watched the program erode since – from the slippage in Mark Dantonio’s final two seasons to the hype-turned-debacle of Tucker to a second year in a row without a bowl berth under Smith (and fourth overall)?
“I’ve been at some places where there’s a passionate fanbase, and I think that’s a good, good thing. I think that’s what you want, is to have a passion, a passionate fanbase,” Smith said. “And so what comes with that, when you don’t get on the right side of the scoreboard, it’s gonna be a passion in the direction you don’t want. But it’s not like you can pick and choose here.
“And so there’s still a lot that is really good about Michigan State, the history of the program, the location, the conference it plays in. When Spartan Stadium is packed and going, it’s a great homefield advantage. There is a lot to like about Michigan State.”
Whether he will experience it beyond this week is far from clear.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Another week of limbo for Jonathan Smith, Michigan State football
Reporting by Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
