Jonathan Smith’s future in East Lansing is murky.
The second-year Michigan State football coach built a promising start last year before the season spiraled out of control and he lost most of the games in the second half of the year to miss a bowl game.
Smith had a similar start to the 2025 season, but this time he actually took care of Boston College — something he was unable to do during the 2024 campaign. It felt like everything was looking up, but all it took was a loss to USC, a meltdown at Nebraska, and a loss to UCLA at home for Smith to really lose his grip on the season.
The UCLA loss was the turning point. That’s when everyone flipped on him and all the good grace he built up from the start of the season and having a top-30 recruiting class was gone.
Fans wanted Smith out immediately.
Losing to a 1-4 team at home on homecoming was the epitome of rock-bottom — or so we thought. Since then, Michigan State has done nothing but lose games in heartbreaking fashion. The Michigan, Minnesota, and Iowa losses have all been avoidable, but it just doesn’t seem to matter at this point.
The writing on the wall after the UCLA loss pointed to Smith being let go, but no change has been made all season while other major programs decided to move on from their coaches and worry about the buyouts later. Looking for a head coach at the same time as LSU and Florida won’t be an easy task for J Batt, but he has to pull the trigger if he wants to hang on to the fanbase’s support.
On Monday, Smith told the media that he hasn’t been told one way or another if he’s going to be retained next season, and that feels like a good sign — for Spartan fans.
While I like Smith and I think he is a good person and a good coach in the right situation, he just never really fit with Michigan State. His personality didn’t mesh with the fanbase which expects a ton.
The fact that he’s still unsure of what’s going to happen despite being in regular contact with Batt feels like a sign that he may be on the way out. We won’t know anything until next week, but I feel like if he was going to be retained, Batt would’ve already made a press release.