Michigan State Firing Jonathan Smith after Two Seasons
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Michigan State is resetting its football program again, as the school is reportedly planning to fire head coach Jonathan Smith on Sunday, sources have confirmed to Spartan Nation. After only two seasons and 24 games at the helm in East Lansing, MSU will reportedly be moving on.
The Spartans just finished the 2025 season 4-8 overall and with a 1-8 record against Big Ten opponents. It’s MSU’s fourth consecutive losing season, a stretch that hasn’t happened since five years from 1979-83.
Smith will leave with a mere 9-15 overall record and a 4-14 record against Big Ten opponents, counting the wins from 2024 that were vacated due to NCAA violations that were committed by previous head coach Mel Tucker‘s staff.
Excluding interim head coaches, Smith is the shortest-serving head coach at Michigan State since Harry Kipke was only in East Lansing for one season 97 years ago. Kipke voluntarily left for Michigan.
What Happens Now
In total, the decision to terminate Smith’s contract following the second season of a seven-year deal will cost MSU about $32.5 million. That does not include the cost of replacing all of the assistant coaches, either.
Smith was hired by former athletic director Alan Haller in late November 2023, a few months after Tucker was fired. Just about two calendar years later, the new athletic director, J Batt, has removed Smith and will get his first shot at hiring a coach for a major sport at Michigan State.
Batt had previously made Brent Key the permanent head coach at Georgia Tech in November 2022. The Yellow Jackets finished their regular season 9-3 with a 6-2 record in ACC play.
One of the things that have marred Smith’s short tenure at MSU was just the lack of fit. Before taking the Michigan State job, Smith had never worked at a school at or near the West Coast. His calmer demeanor also just did not connect with fans, who often took it as apathy or a lack of caring.
Still, in a different era, Smith probably would have the ability and the time to turn things around in East Lansing. He went 2-10 during his first season as the head coach at Oregon State and got the Beavers to a 10-3 season during Year 5, which came in 2022.
Things like NIL and the transfer portal became factors during that span, but Smith was able to start his program rebuild before they seemed to take over the sport. By the time he was hired away from Oregon State, his methods may have become a bit outdated. The recruiting at the high school level had been lacking and Smith’s first transfer portal class not only wasn’t enough to make MSU better, but the Spartans finished worse off in 2025 than in 2024.
Now, Michigan State will head into another coaching search. It is a tough year to do so, as well, since several other Power Four schools will have different coaches next year: LSU, Florida, Penn State, UCLA, Auburn, Stanford, Arkansas, and Oklahoma State.
All those jobs being available dilutes the candidate pool and likely puts MSU lower on the totem poll than it might be most years. Add in the fact that a coach may be adverse to going to a place that threw out his predecessor during his second season, and that might make the coaching search just a bit more difficult.
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A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
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