Michigan State needed patience to hire Jonathan Smith. They'll need some more to let him work
EAST LANSING — It took time to get to this moment of catharsis, when Michigan State football could press the reset button, when the Spartans could leave the pain of their recent past behind them, when athletic director Alan Haller could introduce Jonathan Smith as the next coach and usher in a new era.
Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks and even months were spent trying to arrive at this point, when Haller could declare that he knew “we got the right guy,” when Smith could tell a scrum of reporters that his goal is to “create a program this community is proud of,” when MSU’s best coach this century, Mark Dantonio, could give his stamp of approval on the hire.
As Haller later acknowledged, “I haven’t slept a lot since October.”
His life was consumed with finding the replacement for Mel Tucker, the coach who was fired in late September following a public revelation of a sexual harassment claim made against him. It was fraught, restless period when Haller conducted his own research, surveyed industry sources, vetted candidates, and drafted a list of top targets that could be adjusted based on the newest information gathered. This was a thorough, deliberate, exhaustive effort designed to achieve the best result.
“We had to get this right,” Haller said.
In his eyes, this was not going to be another rush job like the one that unfolded in the wake of Dantonio’s abrupt retirement in February 2020. His sudden departure forced MSU’s brass to launch a frantic seven-day search that was as awkward as it was disorganized. The only interviews back then were conducted in person as MSU crisscrossed the country to find a worthy successor to Dantonio.
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The hurried process ended when Tucker agreed to leave Colorado at the eleventh hour. As soon as he landed in East Lansing, he said he planned to “sleep fast” and hit the ground running. In retrospect, it was a telling comment that disclosed a lot about a man who would later describe himself as “impatiently impatient.”
Over the next two years, Tucker would try to fast-track a rebuild by flipping MSU’s roster and bringing in a wave of imports from other college programs. His aggressive moves in the transfer marketplace helped trigger MSU’s sudden ascent in his second season, when the Spartans transformed from a team projected to be among the worst in college football into a contender that finished in the top ten of both polls.
As MSU defied expectations and running back Kenneth Walker III stole the show with a series of breathtaking performances, Tucker was hailed as a visionary for leveraging a new mechanism to accelerate a turnaround. At the height of his tenure in November 2021, he received a 10-year, $95 million contract and the future looked bright.
But the success was fleeting and Tucker's program would prove to be a house of cards built on a weak foundation. It would all fall apart over the next two seasons, when MSU went 9-15 with only five victories over Power Five opponents.
In the shadow of that dismal downturn, Smith arrived in East Lansing and declared in his first official statement there will be “no shortcuts.”
“We will be a program that's willing to do the work required to experience sustained success,” Smith said.
It was a refreshingly honest message by a high-profile figure who seems strong enough to resist the pressures foisted upon him by an A.D.D. society of social media feeds, endless scrolling, on-demand content and instant gratification. In not-too-subtle terms, Smith is asking for patience. And he should get it. The best things come to those who wait, after all.
As Dantonio said Tuesday, “The process is long and hard.”
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Smith knows this as well. It took several years for him to revive his alma mater at Oregon State after he inherited a team that won only one game in 2018. The Beavers made incremental progress, suffering through growing pains. They won twice his first year on the job and five times the next. In the first season after the pandemic in 2021, they qualified for a bowl. Then, in 2022, Smith led the Beavers to 10 wins for the first time since 2006.
The slow, steady climb wasn’t flashy. But it was reflective of a coach who said Tuesday he was loathe to embrace “a quick-fix mentality” and was instead focused on “long-term sustainability.” Smith, consequently, plans to be methodical and strategic as he shapes the program over the coming months. To get the results he is seeking “takes a bit,” Smith cautioned. He plans to do his due diligence as he assembles his staff, pieces together the roster and fosters relationships with area high school coaches in a region he has never worked.
None of this will happen overnight.
But that shouldn’t cause for concern, according to Dantonio. Rather, it should be a source of excitement as MSU enters a new age in an expanded Big Ten that welcomes four new members in 2024.
“It’s fun to get your people in, start from scratch and begin to build,” he said.
It just takes time and patience.
That was what was required for Haller to land Smith.
It’s also what will be needed as MSU’s new coach begins the process of trying to stabilize the Spartans and make them perennial winners again.
Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him @RainerSabin.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Patience is key for Michigan State football, new coach Jonathan Smith
