Michigan State Football Will Face 3 Year-One Head Coaches In 2024
This fall, Michigan State football will begin a new era under head coach Jonathan Smith, who comes to East Lansing after rebuilding the program at his alma mater, Oregon State.
Historically, first-year head coaches at a new school often have some catching up to do against most of the programs on their schedule in Year 1. In modern times, that process has been sped up by the introduction of the transfer portal. In Michigan State's case, Smith and the Spartans won't be as far behind as is typical when the 2024 season comes around.
That's because MSU will square off with three programs which also feature a head coach entering his debut season at his new school, and three other head coaches entering Year 2 at their respective programs. Here's a look at each of these new head coaches, starting with the first-year hires:
Bill O'Brien — Boston College
Last Friday, Boston College hired Bill O'Brien as its replacement for departed head coach Jeff Hafley, who leaves college football to be the new defensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers. O'Brien was hired by Ohio State's Ryan Day to be the new offensive coordinator for the Buckeyes, but his tenure in Columbus was short-lived.
O'Brien has spent extensive time coaching in both college and the NFL. He's had two previous stints as a head coach, first leading Penn State to a 15-9 record over two years, before jumping to the professional ranks as head coach of the Houston Texans. O'Brien led Houston to four division titles, but was fired in his seventh year after an 0-4 start in 2020. The Texans went 52-48 overall during his tenure.
O'Brien is lauded for what he was able to do at Penn State, leading the Nittany Lions to a pair of winning seasons despite the program being hit severely with sanctions in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual assault scandal. O'Brien has extensive experience as an offensive play-caller, having served in a coordinator role at Georgia Tech (2001-02), Duke (2005-06), Alabama (2021-22) and with the New England Patriots (2011; 2023).
Coaching Advantage: Michigan State
Smith and his staff should have an edge over O'Brien's when they meet in Week 4 (Sept. 21). For starters, Smith has spent his entire 23-year coaching career in college, while O'Brien has gone back and forth between college football and the NFL. Secondly, Smith already has an over two-month head start on rebuilding the Spartans' program on O'Brien, who's reboot at Boston College is in its infant stages.
Sherrone Moore — Michigan
Moore has the unenviable task of replacing Jim Harbaugh in Ann Arbor — a tall task made even more difficult by the fact Harbaugh took nearly all of Michigan's defensive coaches, and strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert, with him to Los Angeles. Throw in the fact that the Wolverines are under two separate NCAA investigations, and Year 1 could prove challenging for Moore.
An advantage Moore does have is his intimate knowledge of Michigan's roster, strengths and weaknesses, having been on staff in Ann Arbor since 2018. Also, while the Wolverines lost a plethora of talented players to the NFL this offseason, the program has recruited well over the last several seasons and turned into one of the premier developmental programs (under Herbert's guidance) in the country. I don't expect a massive dropoff in Ann Arbor in 2024, but the program will undoubtedly take a step back after all the personnel that was lost this offseason.
Coaching Advantage: Michigan State
It's not yet time to make any sort of predictions concerning this game, and the Spartans will still have a tough task squaring off against the Wolverines in Ann Arbor, but there's little doubt Michigan State will have the edge at both head coach and staff heading into the 2024's Week 9 matchup (Oct. 26).
Moore is becoming a head coach for the first time. Yes, he led Michigan to a 4-0 record as acting head coach during Harbaugh's two suspensions, but the 2023 Wolverines were still Harbaugh's team. It's a whole new ballgame when you become the full-time head coach, and all the personnel turnover has made that very clear, very early in Moore's tenure.
Michigan still has a better roster from top to bottom than Michigan State, that's indisputable. But, the Spartans will have the advantage in coaching staff, and likely at quarterback. That's a great place for Smith to start.
Curt Cignetti — Indiana
The Hoosiers should look vastly different under new head coach Curt Cignetti than they did during the seven-year tenure of Tom Allen, though whether or not that will lead to improvement is anyone's guess.
Unlike Allen, who came up through the coaching ranks as a defensive guy, Cignetti made his name on the offensive side of the ball. Cignetti has an impressive track record as a head coach, with a career mark of 119-35 across 13 seasons. However, only two of those seasons came at the FBS level, when Cignetti led James Madison to a 19-4 record. There's no doubt the guy can coach, but Cignetti will face a whole new level of competition in the Big Ten, and will often have the deck stacked against him with Indiana's limited resources.
Coaching Advantage: Too Early To Tell
As a whole, Smith and Michigan State will have several advantages over Cignetti and Indiana when they meet in Week 10 (Nov. 2). This is a series that the Spartans have dominated historically, and MSU invests much more money and energy into its football program than IU does. With that understood, it's hard to compare Smith and Cignetti as head coaches, due to little overlap between their two careers. Due to the aforementioned budget disparity, I'd lean toward the Spartans having the better overall coaching staff however.
Second-Year Head Coaches
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, Michigan State will also square off with three programs featuring head coaches in their second years: Tom Herman — Florida Atlantic; Bubba McDowell — Prairie View A&M; and Ryan Walters — Purdue.
Put simply, I'd favor Smith over all three of these head coaches. He has more head coach experience than both McDowell and Walters, and what Smith did at Oregon State over the past two years is more impressive than what Herman accomplished at Houston and Texas. Even if one disputes that, Smith and his staff will have a lot more to work with at Michigan State than any of those other three programs.
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