It’s been three weeks since Jonathan Smith was let go from Michigan State, but we’re still hearing about members of his coaching staff.
Two of them have officially been retained by Pat Fitzgerald. Joe Rossi was hired to be the co-defensive coordinator with Max Bullough and James Adams will be back to coach the safeties again. There’s also rumors swirling about the potential retainment of receivers coach Courtney Hawkins, and I think that would be a great move by the new head coach.
Like Mel Tucker’s staff, though, we’re hearing about other schools hiring Smith assistants left and right following the coaching change.
We saw guys like Harlon Barnett, Chris Kapilovic, Scottie Hazelton, and even Jay Johnson find jobs at new programs shortly after the Tucker era ended, and the same is happening to Michigan State assistants from the Smith era. Excluding the two defensive assistants that have been retained, two more Smith era coaches have found new homes this week.
The first was Blue Adams who is reportedly being hired to the same position at Florida State. That’s a bit of a surprise given the fact that Michigan State’s secondary went from 54th against the pass in 2024 to 78th in 2025. Interesting hire by Mike Norvell who’s directly on the hot seat.
The next coach to be hired has been Keith Bhonapha who is also headed to the ACC.
Source: Cal is set to hire Keith Bhonapha as running backs coach. Bhonapha grew up near Cal in Oakland and has coached RBs at Michigan State, Oregon State, Boise State and Washington. pic.twitter.com/DhscG6phO6
— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) December 18, 2025
It was reported a couple of days ago that he would not be retained by Fitzgerald.
Michigan State, Pat Fitzgerald begin the search for a RB coach
The fact that Fitzgerald decided not to retain Bhonapha isn’t a knock against him, but rather he must have another coach in mind that he believes would do a better job. Bhonapha wasn’t bad in his short time in East Lansing, but his backs didn’t get to showcase a ton of their skills because the offensive line was so inconsistent.
Sedrick Irvin has already thrown his hat into the ring, but I’m not sure that Fitzgerald wants a staff full of former players, although “Swervin” would be an interesting hire.
I’m not even going to begin to speculate his next hire because I’ve been pretty surprised every step of the way. As long as he’s not just hiring old Northwestern buddies, I’m OK with it.