When it rains, it pours, and East Lansing has seemingly had a dark cloud hanging over it for two months now. The Michigan State football program is in a bad place, and that’s no secret to anyone who has followed the Spartans this year — or since 2021, for that matter.
Jonathan Smith opened the season as a coach who wasn’t quite on the hot seat yet, but who needed to win six-plus games to really keep the fanbase interested and on his side. He has since become one of the most disliked people in East Lansing ever since that home loss to UCLA on homecoming.
Unfortunately, the Spartans have lost eight straight games after a 3-0 start, and they might not even win four games, depending on what happens on Friday at Ford Field against Maryland. The best-case scenario for the 2025 team is 4-8, which is unacceptable for such a storied program.
Mark Dantonio has to be sick to his stomach watching this team.
The season has gone from bad to worse, losing top recruits on top of games. The Spartans can’t seem to sniff a win on or off the field, as guys like Tyren Wortham and Braylon Hodge already decommitted earlier this fall. Samson Gash could be the next one to leave the 2026 class.
Well, before Gash can make a decision, three-star offensive line commit Quinn Buckey beat him to the punch, decommitting from Michigan State on Wednesday afternoon.
— Quinn Buckey (@Quinnbuckey) November 26, 2025
Buckey had been committed to Michigan State since June 13, but the California native has seen what’s been going on in East Lansing, and you can’t blame him for wanting to reopen his recruitment.
With all the uncertainty surrounding the program, recruits are going to look for better situations where they don’t have to worry about the coach who recruited them getting fired. There’s a decent chance Smith and Jim Michalczik are gone after the season, but the lack of clarity from J Batt and the athletic department has muddied the waters a bit.
The longer we are all in the dark about the head coaching situation, the more likely recruits are to abandon ship. No one wants to hang around when the coach doesn’t even know if he’ll be here.