MSU, aware of Smith suitors, added 7th year
Nov 28, 2023, 04:10 PM ET
EAST LANSING, Mich.– Michigan State had adequate competitors from Power 5 college football groups also intending to work with Jonathan Smith that it added a seventh year to his contract, helping a shaken program land the former Oregon State coach.
“I fidgeted a couple weeks earlier since there were jobs that were discussing being open– and there were tasks that were open– that were looking at him,” athletic director Alan Haller stated Tuesday, including that Smith will make $7.25 million in his very first season. “I needed to step up my pursuit.”
The Spartans had a lot at stake to get it right.They’re coming off a 4-8 season stunted by news that led to Mel Tucker being fired and getting in a year with the Big Ten broadening to consist of Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA from the Pac-12.”There’s no other Big 10 coach that is going to have that jumpstart on those four schools,”stated Haller, who interviewed 12 coaching candidates at least once.Editor’s Picks 2 Related Smith will require all the assistance he can get due to the fact that Michigan State has actually had just one winning
season in 4 years.The program’s history is marked by inconsistency, revealing it can win 36 games and 2 conference titles in a three-year period as previous coach Mark Dantonio did, and yet stopping working to sustain success in any years given that signing up with the Big Ten in 1953.”A great deal of us in this room comprehend, this is going to take some work,”Smith said at his initial press conference at the Breslin Center. “I am certainly delighted and up for the challenge– and the opportunity.”Smith is set up to get a$ 100,000 raise in each year of his agreement, getting $7.85 million for his seventh season in 2030. This will not be Smith’s very first chance at reversing a team, and the Spartans who remain and those who choose to come will hear his mantra,”low ego, high output,”early and often.Oregon State was winless in conference play and had only one success the year before it brought Smith back to campus.”The location was not having a ton of success, had some chaos,”he said.The Beavers were 2-10 in 2018 during Smith’s first season and improved enough under him to win 25 games over the last 3 seasons of his
six-year stay. He won 10 games last season, sharing Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors, and finished with a 34-35 record over six seasons at his alma mater.Smith, 44, was born in Pasadena, California, a mile from the Rose Bowl. He went to Oregon State as a walk-on and became a two-year captain and beginning quarterback for Mike Riley and Dennis Erickson, coaches he worked for at the school as a graduate assistant.Smith coached quarterbacks at Idaho, Montana and Boise State, where he dealt with Chris Petersen and left with him to call plays as Petersen’s offending organizer at Washington.”I like that he’s a routine guy, “Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo said.”I like that he was a walk-on, who has actually been through the procedure, starting as a grad assistant. It advises me of myself.”Throughout Smith’s very first 2 days at Michigan State, he had supper with Izzo and hung out with the last coach to turn the football program around.Dantonio acquired a team in 2019, coming off three losing seasons under John L. Smith, and surpassed Duffy Daugherty as the school’s all-time winningest coach while winning three Huge Ten titles
from 2007 to 2019.”I had an opportunity to sit down with Coach Smith for an hour and I was satisfied,”Dantonio said.”He’s got an excellent plan progressing and you can tell he’s a precise person who can perform his strategy since he’s done it before.”