Is it time to panic about Michigan State football?

Michigan State football has hit an interesting point in this offseason. With the spring practice schedule behind the team, and the transfer portal open for business, many thought this would be a really exciting time for the program under new head coach Jonathan Smith. Those hopes, however, haven’t come true.

Player after player have entered the transfer portal and Smith has only earned one commitment so far this portal cycle. Many of those players leaving East Lansing were also set to have big roles in this years team and for many years to come.

So is it time to panic yet? Or is this just how college football works in today’s day and age?

Is it time to smash the panic button?

In my opinion, I don’t think Michigan State is even close to needing to hit the panic button yet. One big reason is because this roster turnover is happening to almost every program in the country.

Sure Michigan State is one of the programs with the most transfers leaving the team, but that also was expected. Whenever a team has a new head coach, they’re bound to see a lot of roster turnover. But when the old head coach left in as bad of a way as Mel Tucker did, that’s going to create even more turnover. So in all honesty, some of the portal entrants for MSU have been surprising, but the overall number really isn’t that shocking to me.

But the biggest reason why it’s not time to panic yet is because of how hard Smith and his staff are using the portal themselves. If they weren’t aggressively contacting players in the portal, then I would 100 percent be panicking right now. But Smith has already earned one commitment so far and he got a whopping 10 transfers back in the winter, so he clearly knows what he’s doing.

So while it may seem like it’s time to panic, I personally don't think Michigan State’s at that point yet. I also don’t think there ever will be a time to panic in year one under Smith. Nobody can deny how bad of a hand Smith was dealt when he took this job, so he deserves time to work his way out of it. As long as the on field product this season is a step up from last year, I’ll be happy with the trajectory of the program.