There’s a stark difference between how current Michigan State football players are talking about Jonathan Smith and how former players are treating him.
As you can imagine, current players are coming to his defense. After the inexplicable loss to Iowa on Saturday, Michigan State’s eighth straight, guys like Jordan Hall and Alessio Milivojevic came to their coach’s defense. Hall went as far as saying that he was “appalled” that Smith was getting the hate that he got, and he had his coach’s back.
Former players, however, are not holding back.
Guys like Lawrence Thomas, Trae Waynes, Chris Frey, Matt Seybert, and Demetrius Cox have ripped into the second-year head coach, calling what he’s done to the program ‘unacceptable’.
One former player with a popular last name in East Lansing has spoken out recently, and he’s not happy with what’s going on. Byron Bullough — the youngest of three Bullough brothers who played for Mark Dantonio — took to X on Saturday night following the Iowa loss and ripped into Smith.
He quote tweeted a Smith statement from his presser, basically saying that he’s sick of hearing his coach give credit to the other team while his program is currently a dumpster fire.
I don’t want to hear about giving credit to the other team again. I don’t care about the other team.
— Byron Bullough (@byronbullough) November 23, 2025
We are 0-8, on the cusp of losing every single game in the Big Ten conference for the first time ever. As a competitor, that should drive you MAD https://t.co/42NVpYoUMC
Bullough is clearly fed up with the coaching style of Smith and the negative effect he’s had on the program for the past two seasons. He touched on the fact that the Spartans are about to make program history in the worst possible way, losing every single Big Ten game in a season.
He speaks for all of Spartan Nation.
Fans are fed up with Smith’s calm demeanor when he should be fired up about the state of the program and losing an eighth straight game. It feels like every post-game press conference for the past two years has been the exact same. Smith points out that the losses are “tough” and says that they need to do better, but nothing ever changes.
J Batt is teetering on losing a good chunk of the fanbase if he decides to retain the head coach. It would cost him a pretty penny to move on from Smith, but that might be the best move. If you ask the players who poured blood, sweat, and tears into the program, they’d tell you to make the move.