Jonathan Smith shares Michigan State football’s team mantra

One of the best parts of every Michigan State football offseason throughout the Mark Dantonio era were the annual mantras he would create for his teams. Some of my personal favorites were chase it, heave and my personal favorite reach higher from the 2015 College Football Playoff season.

However, when Mel Tucker took over the new mantra every season tradition came to an abrupt end. And with that came a drastic decrease in the culture of the program.

Fast forward to today and Jonathan Smith seems to be going back to the old days, and the new team mantra he shared in Indianapolis at Big Ten media days is perfect.

"Low ego, high output."

I don’t think anyone could have thought of a better mantra for the team this season. When you look back to the previous couple seasons, a lot of the culture was built around social media clicks and grabbing as much attention as possible. Instead of focusing on the team, it always seemed like too much emphasis was put on individual goals.

Maybe that’s why we saw a decline in the team’s performance on the field the past two years.

But with those times now in the past, the focus and attention is on Smith and his new mantra for the team. Low ego and high output is exactly what you would want with any football team. Guys that will put their heads down and work hard, without a care in the world about who is watching them. That’s what the culture was like when Dantonio was still in charge and I’m thankful that Smith is heading back in that direction.

Time will tell how the team does in the coming season, but I predict the team will do much better if they fully buy in to this mantra. And who knows, maybe Michigan State football will be back contending for Big Ten championships again in no time.