He may be boring. But ‘steady’ Jonathan Smith is exactly what Michigan State football needs

INDIANAPOLIS — Go back exactly eight months, and there was Michigan State football mangled and crumpled, a green-and-white heap of a mess. The 42-0 loss to Penn State on a frigid November night at Ford Field was the last disaster punctuating a trainwreck of a season, when the Spartans endured the tabloidish midseason firing of their coach, a historic defeat to their in-state rival and several other ignominious Saturdays as they careened toward a 4-8 record that left their proud fans out in the cold.

How had it come to this? Only two years before, MSU won 11 games, beating rival Michigan in an epic East Lansing showdown and prevailing in a New Year’s Six bowl. That magical year, in 2021, revived the good vibes of the Mark Dantonio era, when the Spartans were perennial contenders, punching above their weight class and delivering one knockout blow after another.

“The Michigan State I was used to growing up, they won championships,” junior safety Dillon Tatum said Wednesday. “The (second) College Football Playoff, we were there.”

But by the time the Spartans’ season expired last fall, they were so far from that elite realm, so out of contention in their own conference, that it was hard to envision when — or even if — they could get back there. Then, just like that, a glimmer of hope revealed itself 24 hours later, when Jonathan Smith signed on to be the Spartans’ next head coach. Landing Smith was quite a coup, considering that MSU yanked him away from Oregon State, his alma mater that he resurrected over the previous six years.

Michigan State Spartans head coach Jonathan Smith speaks to the media during Big Ten football media days at Lucas Oil Stadium on Wednesday, July 24, 2024 in Indianapolis.

EVEN KEEL: Jonathan Smith expects Michigan State football to be in hunt for a bowl game

From the moment he set…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/may-boring-steady-jonathan-smith-101034063.html

Author : Detroit Free Press

Publish date : 2024-07-25 10:10:34

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