MSU's Jonathan Smith Reveals Status of Traditional 'Spring Game'

The Michigan State Spartans have begun spring practice for the upcoming 2025 season, and head coach Jonathan Smith made a big announcement in Tuesday's post-practice press conference.

Smith announced that the Spartans will be focusing all of the attention on the 15 practices that his team is allowed by the NCAA and will not be holding the annual "Spring Game" at Spartan Stadium in late April.

"Through the preparation of practices and the thoughts going into it, [we] want to take advantage of all 15 practices, we are going to finish spring ball without a Spring game," Smith said. "Some of it, you only get 15 of these [practices]. ... We think the best for this current unit is to take advantage of all 15 practices, not prepping like you're going into a game."

The decision to cancel the game may raise some eyebrows, but it seems to be the norm that is building around college football circles. The Spartans are not the only school to cancel their spring game as multiple Big Ten schools have already done so, including Ohio State and Nebraska.

Smith goes on to mention that due to the current construction renovations of Spartan Stadium, the logistics of having the game would cause issues, but the main priority is making sure his guys have maximum time to focus on scheme, development and studying practice film to improve.

There are a handful of Spartans who will not be participating in spring activities throughout the 15-practice schedule that has been set. Smith announced the names of keynote players who will not begin their preparation until after the spring concludes.

"We feel solid, we definitely got some guys that will not participate," Smith said. " ... No one is season-ending, we're just being kind of smart. [Ashton] Lepo being one, [ Kristian Philipps, we will see on that end. [Brennan] Parachek, feel awesome that he will be back rolling in June; you won't see much of him. Wayne Matthews, same way."

Multiple of the players listed are still recovering from season-ending injuries that they suffered last season and will slowly be brought back to the playing field as the season draws closer.

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