Radio host goes scorched-earth on Jonathan Smith, wants him fired at Michigan State

If you’re from the Detroit area or currently live in Metro Detroit, you’ve probably heard of Mike Valenti. The 97.1 radio host has a daily show with Michigan State-centric co-host Rico Beard, and the two have been pretty harsh in regards to Jonathan Smith lately.

It’s all fair criticism, for the most part. Michigan State hasn’t improved in the two years with him at the helm, and it feels like this season is spiraling out of control.

And Smith’s post-game pressers haven’t exactly instilled any confidence that he’s going to turn this thing around. It’s all bad in East Lansing right now.

And Valenti didn’t mince words this week when talking about how poor of a job he believes Smith is doing, going as far as calling him a “weirdo” who doesn’t connect with donors and can’t command a room. While I don’t know if that’s a correct assessment of the head coach, I do believe he may be in over his head at Michigan State.

Valenti ripped into Smith this week, as captured by Justin Spiro.

While Valenti usually goes scorched-earth on just about everyone, it feels like the last time he truly ripped into a head coach like this was back in 2006 when Michigan State surrendered a 37-21 fourth-quarter lead at home to No. 12 Notre Dame, losing 40-37 under John L. Smith. That led to one of Valenti’s most famous rants, and Smith was fired shortly after.

This feels similar, especially after getting demolished at home by a 1-4 team.

A lot of people are going to agree with Valenti, and I do, too, to an extent. I wasn’t ready to move on from Smith after USC and Nebraska losses, although the defeat in Lincoln felt like a John L. loss. But losing at home on homecoming to the worst team in the Big Ten by 25 points after going up 7-0 really early on is fireable.

We’ll see what J Batt decides to do after the Indiana game.