5 urgent priorities for Jonathan Smith as Michigan State’s new coach

For the third time in 77 days, Michigan State football has a different leader of the program.

Oregon State’s Jonathan Smith was hired by the Spartans on Saturday, concluding a two-month search by athletic director Alan Haller.

Smith, 44, spent six seasons leading the Beavers and left his alma mater to become the 26th coach of Michigan State. He takes over for Harlon Barnett, who posted a 2-8 record as interim head coach after Mel Tucker was suspended and then fired for cause in September amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

The hire came a little more than 12 hours after the Spartans wrapped up a turbulent season with a 42-0 loss to Penn State at Ford Field on Friday night to finish with a 4-8 record and miss a bowl game for the second straight year. Having Smith in place at the end of the regular season was ideal timing for Haller and the program because there are critical dates approaching on the calendar.

Here are five areas for Smith to prioritize getting started:

Meet with the Spartans, re-recruit the roster

The transfer portal window will open again for a 30-day period starting Dec. 4. That gives Smith a little more than a week to meet with the team, quickly evaluate the roster and attempt to keep every player he wants in East Lansing before they’re officially allowed to contact coaches at other schools. However, not every Spartan will have the same opportunity to move on.

Michigan State’s roster is loaded with players who already used their one-time transfer exception so, barring an NCAA waiver, they would have to sit out a season at their next school. If players who transferred to join the Spartans as undergraduates are on track to earn a degree, they could enter the portal and be eligible to transfer at midyear if admitted to an academic program not offered at Michigan State.

During the 30-day window the portal was open after Tucker was fired, the Spartans lost four players from the roster. That doesn’t include redshirt junior starting defensive tackle Simeon Barrow, who removed his name two days after entering the portal and finished the season. Offensive lineman Keyshawn Blackstock is the only Michigan State player who entered the portal who has publicly committed to a new school in Arkansas.

Michigan State just wrapped up a tumultuous season with a brutal schedule in which it played four ranked teams and was outscored by a combined margin of 170-10 in losses to Washington, Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State. The Spartans had major problems in all three phases of the game but there are players Smith won’t want to lose. He’ll need to retain veteran contributors and there’s young talent, especially on defense.

Sophomores Zion Young (defensive end), Dillon Tatum (cornerback) and Jaden Mangham and Malik Spencer (safeties) have all taken over starting roles. True freshmen Jordan Hall (linebacker), Chance Rucker (cornerback) and Jalen Thompson (defensive end) have also started and appear to have bright futures. Then there’s the quarterback situation (more on that later) after Noah Kim was benched midseason for redshirt freshman Katin Houser while true freshman Sam Leavitt provided a spark in four games before sitting out to redshirt.

Assemble a staff

Smith will almost surely bring multiple assistants from Corvallis to East Lansing and he’ll want to have some pieces in place quickly. That doesn’t mean he needs all 10 on-field assistants hired by the end of next week but it will be important to get some roles filled, especially with players on the fence who will want to know their coordinator and position coach.

Tucker never changed coordinators on offense (Jay Johnson), defense (Scottie Hazelton) or special teams (Ross Els) during his tenure and new leadership is needed in all three moving forward. It will be interesting to see who Smith keeps in the fold and Oregon State defensive coordinator Trent Bray is one to watch, although he could wind up being a target to replace his former boss.

Don’t be surprised at all if Smith retains at least one assistant from the on-field staff at Michigan State. Some continuity is important, especially for a new head coach taking over a program in an unfamiliar area. Smith has never coached east of Montana and should place a priority on filling out a staff with ties to the Midwest for recruiting purposes in talent-rich areas like Ohio, which Tucker, a Cleveland native, inexplicably moved on from in a national pursuit, and Georgia will always produce high-level players.

If there’s carryover in the former Michigan State staff to the new one, Barnett would be an obvious potential candidate to remain in East Lansing. His life is rooted in green and white and he kept the team from folding amid nearly impossible circumstances this fall. Barnett is well respected and would help bridge the gap between eras in any role. There’s also a program connection with wide receivers coach Courtney Hawkins, a former standout for the Spartans.

Salvage 2024 recruiting class

Having a new coach in place by late November gives Smith the best runway possible to salvage his first recruiting class at Michigan State, given the circumstances. The early signing period for 2024 prospects is Dec. 20-22 and plenty can change before then.

Tucker’s ouster resulted in six recruits decommitting from Michigan State so far and there are only eight remaining with four-star receiver Nick Marsh the highest-ranked prospect. There’s a chance Smith could bring some players back in the fold and get others to flip from the Beavers to the Spartans. Oregon State’s 2024 class includes only one four-star commit in offensive tackle Rustin Young from Hawaii.

Bringing talent from West Coast

Assistant coaches aren’t the only ones who could be making the move from the West Coast to East Lansing. With the portal opening soon, there’s a good chance some Oregon State players follow Smith to join the Spartans.

It’s a large roster and circumstances vary for every player but one to watch is Oregon State true freshman quarterback Aidan Chiles. The former four-star, top-60 overall recruit has completed 24-of-35 passes for 309 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions and rushed for three scores while backing up DJ Uiagalelei this season.

Regardless of what Chiles decides to do, expect movement in Michigan State’s quarterback room. Kim didn’t play a snap after being replaced midseason while dealing with an injury. Houser, a four-star recruit from California, got seven straight starts to show what he’s got, albeit in a messy situation with an injury-plagued roster. Leavitt, a four-star recruit and the 2022 Gatorade Oregon Football Player of the Year, should have had his playing time managed better than only 45 snaps over four games.

Every position on the roster is in flux but quarterback is always the focus. Smith doesn’t have any proven options ready to deploy but the possibilities are intriguing.

Clean up messy NIL situation

The NCAA finally allowed athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness just a couple months before Haller took over as athletic director in 2021. Michigan State has been proactive promoting opportunities for players but there’s only so much the university can control in a chaotic space.

Collectives fall into that gray area with competing interests at play and Smith has cleanup work to do there. Spartan Dawgs 4 Life (SD4L), a university approved collective run by booster Steve St. Andre, abruptly canceled contracts with most of the football players it signed before a midseason loss at Iowa. That’s a bad look and one that was obviously not received well by players or the staff. Getting influential donors in lockstep is just one of the many complex tasks awaiting Smith in his new job.