Everything Michigan State Head Coach Jonathan Smith Said After Win Over Boston College

What did the Eagles’ opponent say after their win on Saturday night?

Sep 6, 2025; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Michigan State head coach Jonathan Smith walks across the field following a double-overtime victory over Boston College at Spartan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brendan Mullin-Imagn Images | Brendan Mullin-Imagn Images

Boston College football suffered its first loss of the season to Michigan State 42-40 in double overtime on Saturday night.

After the game, Spartans head coach Jonathan Smith spoke about his team’s performance.

Below is a transcript of everything Smith said.

OPENING STATEMENT: I'll start with that was a beautiful football game, really by both teams. I thought going back and forth, competing, obviously into double overtime. Appreciate the crowd. I thought it made a difference. That was an electric atmosphere. Student sections, yes, but the whole place. It was a beautiful football game and it was a beautiful locker room after that. Really proud of the guys just continue to fight and find a way. And especially I think about the second half, coming out and getting that early score, get some momentum going. But they played well too. I thought both quarterbacks played really, really well tonight and it came down to us getting a stop on a two-point conversion and us executing to finish the deal. So really proud of the guys.

Q: Armorion Smith’s story- To have that breakup on the two-point conversion. For him to have a game he had, he had a few other big plays. What does that mean to you to see a player achieve like that? 

SMITH: Yeah, it means a lot especially for that guy. The quality man that he is. Effort. Football means a lot to him and I think he was a part of that early fumble recovery and then to have the breakup on the two point play, it's just awesome.

Q: Jonathan, one of the themes from your players in here talking was that this is a game that last year's team probably wouldn't have won. I'm wondering, what is the trait or quality that's either stronger or is here now that maybe wasn't a year ago, that allows that thing to happen and for them to feel that way, that this is an outcome that wouldn't have happened? 

SMITH: Yeah, I think there's been growth. There's a closeness, a bond, that we got to do this thing together. Experience, we've got some more experience. I mean, I go back to playing these guys last year, that experience, we need to learn from every game and that kind of thing. But I do think the confidence grew offensively in the second half that you could continue to go and again, the defense holding them to six. I think there was some confidence there. And these guys are aware these are long football games. There's going to be momentum swings, going back and forth. Just really proud of the toughness they showed for more than 60 minutes.

Q: Coach, what does it mean? Just this last season, you always would find yourself in positions where good first half might not be able to close games like these, but today, finally, all pieced together and you got the victory. What does that mean?

SMITH: Yeah, I think it's a step forward that, yeah, you found a way to win it like this. Again, this is game two. We're hoping to play a lot more games beyond just 12 type thing. And so it's early. But again, we talked about confidence can come from displayed performance and these guys did it tonight and hopefully their confidence continues to grow from it. 

Q: Jonathan, I know you've only been here a year and 10 minutes, but I gotta believe that would be your finest moment as a coach here. And what was it like to see your players celebrate like that after a win like that?

SMITH: Yeah, that was meaningful for them to battle that thing out, get into that locker room. The hugs going around. Accomplishment at home. To win a game like that is big and we got to take advantage of it now and grow from it. But it was really just happy because there's a lot of players in that locker room [that have] been working now and it hasn't always gone their way, but it came together tonight and I think we're going to grow stronger from it. 

Q: I think I heard Nick Marsh say he told you were one of the coaches in 1-on-1 “Give me the damn ball.” You okay with that?

SMITH: I think if that's the case, he's probably right. If it's one on one. And Nick's a competitor. I thought that was huge. Talk about his first touchdown, he's carrying guys into the end zone on slant like that. He is a competitive kid, talented and so yeah, we got to continue to find ways to get him the ball. I do like the fact we spread the ball out pretty well tonight, multiple guys touching it, and that helps an offense.

Q: Jonathan, I was wondering, when you go into the halftime taking the knee? Fans are booing because obviously [that’s] the way it goes. How big was it to come out of the second half and score, kind of get a little bit of that momentum back, and feel like you're more in the game a little? 

SMITH: Yeah, it was big. Now, some of the logic at the end of the half is that we were going to start with the ball. But we needed to regroup, put together and execute it on the first drive, going to Nick on a deep ball and things. It’s a seven point game. At that point, we didn't know we had a field goal kicker that can bang things through at 50 yards. But obviously, I'm always learning to out there on the field. Martin was huge.

Q: Jonathan, do you have a sense now, after playing these guys, and just how good you are in certain areas and where you're concerned? I mean, you talk about the kicker, that's something I think a lot of people found out about. Defensively, you don't get to the quarterback and he has a good game. Chiles has maybe his best [game]. What do you know about this team?

SMITH: Yeah, I think it's starting to grow a little bit more of the capabilities offensively, especially in that second half. You're right on. I did think the quarterback played really well. We got to find… to make him more uncomfortable. We got to get better in all three phases. Talked about the run game. We had some good stuff there, but we got to clean up our hands. We're going backwards on some penalties and things. We gave them a drive. It's third and 12. We hit the quarterback. Extended that. That turns into seven. I mean, so you're always learning. And there's things that we got to continue to get better at, clean up. But, once we've displayed that we can do some things, your confidence level should go up in us being able to do some things.

Q: I'm wondering about your quarterback. What you saw from Aidan? At the end of regulation, he gets hit again and goes down. What were those conversations like on the sideline? And was there any conversation about whether he would go back in. Or did he just tell you he’s going back in?

SMITH: No, he goes down. He's out there. Obviously the training staff is taking care of him. We're having conversations. I think you saw Alessio. He’s out there getting a couple of snaps if he needed to be ready. And then turned into the overtime and he was up in the huddle and there was no other conversation to be made.

Q: Did you know his toughness was there with him?

SMITH: I do. I think the kid’s really tough. Mentally, all he does, how competitive he is out there, he's running, given so much effort, extending outside the pocket, putting his foot in the ground. I know the kid’s tough.

Q: Jonathan, you've talked about football being a game of imperfection. The fact your team had resiliency today, what does that mean to a team moving through the season? And what does it mean when you get unsung heroes, maybe guys like Alante Brown and [Martin] Connington coming in today? 

SMITH: A bunch of names. Alante on the kickoff return a couple of times. That was massive. I do think the resilience and a genuine belief. True, genuine belief as this game goes on and knowing that we can still win the thing in the fourth quarter. Hopefully we've learned and gained confidence and we can do that. 

Q: How's that help you going through a season now?

SMITH: Yeah, it's gonna be. Because there's gonna be a bunch of games that are competitive like this. We know what kind of conference we're playing in and these games are gonna be competitive.

Q: Jonathan, can you give us some insight on your mindset, the psychology when you're leading your team into the half, when they're down, and what things were said or what kind of emotions took place to give you that kind of output when you came right back out?

SMITH: Yeah, I think the staff did a good job. We needed to regroup. At halftime, offensively, we needed more snaps. We needed to stay on the field and then vice versa. Defensively, we needed to get off the field on third down and stuff and that's why halftime is important to regroup, readjust. Coaches made some nice adjustments. Got the group. And these guys aren't in panic mode at halftime. There's definite frustration, but not panic mode.

Q: Can you talk about how tough it was to stop Boston College's pass attack tonight? What Michigan State tried to do to make adjustments as you went? 

SMITH: Yeah, they challenge you schematically because they're flooding the boundaries some of the times that you don't get a lot of people doing that again. The quarterback, besides being accurate, he could go through a progression. He's not just throwing it to the first guy. He's going through multiple reads. I think 11 [Lewis Bond] is a really good player. Tight end [Jeremiah Franklin] caught the ball. He's a good player. Throw that along in with a coaching staff, schematically, those guys are really good. So all of that, that challenged us. I know on our end, we did miscommunicate a couple of times. You want the crowd into it. You wanted to be nice and loud on third down. Well, we weren't on the same page a couple times, which we got to make sure that don't happen [again]. 

Q: I'm wondering, you mentioned about the miscommunication. It seemed like the two touchdowns early, there was some issues with Jordan [Hall]. Is that just a mess relaying the message? And I'm wondering about the atonement that he showed throughout the game and as well as Stanton [Ramil], who had a couple holding penalties, had a couple missed assignments, but then you're running over him to win to basically get Aidan and [Makhi] Frazier down there.

SMITH: Yeah, I think Jordan does a great job of communicating, but we got to make sure that all the other 10 guys got their eyes locked in on him on that call. We just didn't follow what he was communicating. I'll say it that way without watching the tape deeply, and I'll get back to you on Monday on some of that. But on Stanton’s end too, the guy continues to battle that whole front. And again, we rotated multiple guys in the game again, but no back down, no let down man. 

Q: I’m curious the difference between this defense when Malik [Spencer] is out there and that little spell when he was out with the injury, whatever he's dealing with in that first half. Like how big of a key is he to this defense? 

SMITH: He's a pretty big piece. He is a good player, experienced out there. So yes, he's one of our better players on defense. And so again, we miss him when he's out there, but again, next man that's got to be able to get in. And we had some of that. We'll watch this tape, but I thought Justin [Denson Jr. ]had some good snaps. [Devynn] Cromwell got out there, but we definitely miss Malik when he's not in. 

Q: We've discovered a lot of big weapons on this team. Why is the biggest one Ryan Eckley and how good is his short game? 

SMITH: I know. It's phenomenal. Because they were giving me a little bit of grief. I think it was about 4th and yard and a half, maybe. Offensively, they wanted to go do this thing. Well this guy bombs it, it's 60 yards, puts the thing into the 16th, totally flips the field. And that's a weapon in this day and age to have that. I don't exactly know how he's got this technique where the thing just sits and doesn't continue to go into the end zone, but he's got it. 

Q: Coach, talk about Jay Coyne’s play. And he sat up there and confidently said that from watching it on film and from running in practice, that it was going to work. And you're an offensive guy. Talk about, did you have that same feeling when it was being run?

SMITH: You’re calling it in a tight situation, whether you're in a tight red zone or short yardage, certain one type thing. I do love that kid in regards how hard he works. He's helping a ton on kickoff, and now he's growing his role being the being the fullback, putting his face on guys, making it physical. And then all of a sudden, he's been doing that, and then you slip him into the flat. It's an effective, effective play. So I was happy for him.