Breaking Down Alan Haller's Hires as Athletic Director
Michigan State announced that it will part ways with athletic director Alan Haller on Thursday.
Haller made significant coaching hires in many different sports for the Spartans since taking over the athletics department in September 2021.
Since the creation of the Big Ten hockey conference, Michigan State had nine straight seasons with a winning percentage under .500 from 2013-2022. Haller made the decision to let go of former head coach Danton Cole and hired the head of the US National Team Development Program Adam Nightingale.
Nightingale shifted the dynamic of the program quickly once he was hired. In year one, the Spartans narrowly missed out on the NCAA Tournament. However, he followed it up with a record-setting season, winning the Big Ten regular-season title and tournament for the first time in program history.
Even though the Spartans came up short of their goal of a National Championship last season, the fact that the program now has expectations of championship-or-bust is a reflection of Haller’s hiring of Nightingale.
Haller also made a home run hire with women’s basketball head coach Robyn Fralick.
Fralick had won at every spot she coached, going 104-3 at the Division II level and 88-73 at Bowling Green. The Okemos native is the first Spartans’ head coach to qualify for March Madness in the first two seasons with the program.
Haller was faced with a tumultuous situation regarding former head coach Mel Tucker. Less than two years after signing Tucker to a $95-million extension in the middle of the breakout 2021 season, Haller fired him for cause after he was accused of sexual misconduct.
After a coaching search at the end of the 2023 season, Haller hired Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith.
Smith brought in big transfers with him from Oregon State, including Aidan Chiles, a promising dual-threat quarterback. However, they weren’t able to materialize as the Spartans had a record of 5-7 in year one of Smith’s tenure.
Haller will be unable to see out the full length of Smith’s seven-year $35-million contract. However, Smith still has the opportunity to be another successful hire on the resume of Haller.
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