What did Gary Smith's firing mean for Nashville SC? Probably a lot more changes | Estes

Longtime coach Gary Smith’s firing by Nashville SC last week was more overdue than it was surprising.

The team hasn’t been good for a while, dating to August’s shootout loss to Inter Miami and Lionel Messi in the Leagues Cup final at GEODIS Park. This season, Nashville SC had a 10-match stretch from late February to early May in which it won only one time.

What had been working, it no longer was. Such poor form was below the expectation Smith himself built during his four-plus years coaching expansion Nashville in Major League Soccer, a run that had mostly been successful, perhaps spoiling a growing group of fans who — if social media is an adequate gauge of overall opinion — had made Smith the scapegoat and labeled him the problem.

Whether that was the case, I’m unconvinced. We’ll find out soon enough.

That said, I wasn't surprised by Smith’s firing. Neither were Nashville’s players, and I’d imagine Smith himself. It is what happens midseason when a pro sports team — especially a soccer team — falls into a prolonged slump. Things get stale, and you can’t fire the players. Easier to get rid of the coach to jump-start the operation.

“That's one of the big reasons that we made the move when we did, to do it when there's still plenty of season left," general manager Mike Jacobs told reporters.

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Jacobs' search to replace Smith is ongoing and presumably will move quickly (with interim coach Rumba Munthali in charge for now). Short term, a new coaching hire could easily get Nashville SC back in the playoff hunt this year.

But long term, it’s deeper than that. For the first time, Nashville SC is at a crossroads. It has reached the end of its infancy as an MLS franchise and needs to decide what it wants to be in young adulthood.

With one of the league's oldest lineups mired in an already underwhelming season, this club appears closer to the window of contention closing than remaining open.

Jacobs and club CEO Ian Ayre must figure out what’s still possible as 2024 develops, but they’ll need to do it with an eye on the future and the clock ticking. Can a new coach make a championship push with what’s on hand — or is it time to blow this roster up and start rebuilding a new one?

More change is inevitable. Any new hire can get along for a while, but ultimately, he’ll prefer a certain style, a certain type of player. He'll likely want an identity different from the one built by the hard-nosed, defensive-minded Smith.

“We've done a great job of making that our identity: ‘Nashville is a hard team to break down. They are a hard team to score goals against,’ ” defender Walker Zimmerman said. “Now we have to look at what's going to take us to the next level. I think that's where, when you look at the next coach, is how can they bring in ideas that are maybe more progressive, attack-minded?”

It’s funny how the more Nashville SC has matured as a feature of this city’s sports scene, the more it has taken on the form of its colleagues: Routinely good, yet never great.

If this idea of firing a defensive coach for one geared toward offense sounds familiar, it’s exactly what the Tennessee Titans and Nashville Predators have done in the past year. Similarly, too, previous Titans and Predators coaches had some success doing it their way. Just not enough.

Smith, for years, was ideal for Nashville SC. Negative on-field tactics weren't always a treat to watch, but they allowed this club to immediately contend and reach the MLS playoffs, playing as more than the sum of its parts. Smith’s style didn’t keep Hany Mukhtar from winning a league MVP award, with Zimmerman also solidifying himself as the league’s best defensive player for a long stretch.

But Zimmerman just turned 31 and has had a difficult time staying healthy. Mukhtar is 29 and still the star of the show, but he hasn't been excelling as he was a couple of years ago.

Several other stalwarts under Smith — Anibal Godoy (34), Daniel Lovitz (32) and goalkeeper Joe Willis (35) — are aging. Attacking players Jacob Shaffelburg (24) and Sam Surridge (25) provide hope for the future, but for the most part, Nashville SC’s next generation has yet to reliably emerge.

As a club, Nashville SC isn’t old enough for its fans to be pining for the good ol’ days, but it's headed in that direction.

Have to do something. Had to start doing it quickly.

Smith’s firing wasn’t an end to necessary change for Nashville SC. It was the beginning.

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_Estes.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Gary Smith's firing leaves Nashville SC at an unfamiliar crossroads