Michigan State Football: Top 10 quarterbacks in school history
5. Jeff Smoker (2000-03)
If you were anything like me, Jeff Smoker was the quarterback who you watched growing up in the green and white. When I used to attend football games as a kid, Smoker was throwing touchdown passes to Charles Rogers on a regular basis, and making it look easy.
However, these years of passing prowess came with little-to-no on-field success. Smoker had a huge arm, but it was overshadowed by the team’s failure on the field under Bobby Williams. It was obvious that the loss of Nick Saban was going to hurt the program for a while and Williams was just in over his head as the man in charge.
In Smoker’s four years at Michigan State, the Spartans finished an even 24-24 with a win in the Silicon Valley Classic in 2001 over Fresno State and a loss in the 2003 Alamo Bowl to Nebraska. He saw three head coaches during that time (Williams, Morris Watts and John L. Smith) but that didn’t slow down his production.
The Pennsylvania-native’s best season actually came during his senior year when he passed for 3,395 yards and 21 touchdowns. That is the best single-season passing yardage mark in MSU history and the touchdowns are good for sixth-best — he actually reached that mark twice.
Although he finished with just one career bowl win and two winning seasons, Smoker had a solid career with Michigan State. He is first all-time in pass attempts (1,150), second in completions (685), third in passing yards (8,932), third in touchdowns (61) and eighth in completion percentage (59.6%).
Next: 4. Drew Stanton (2003-06)