MSU's Luka Vincic is Another Complementary Piece of the Jonathan Smith Culture

Jonathan Smith brought several players with him from Oregon State last offseason, including quarterback Aidan Chiles and tight end Jack Velling.

But one player in particular decided to stay behind to at least gauge what a new regime in Corvallis would look like.

Offensive lineman Luka Vincic remained at Oregon State another year before transferring over to Michigan State this winter. He stayed loyal to his former program, but ultimately, he decided he wanted to follow this staff when the offseason came this time around.

"Obviously when the transition happened and all of the coaches left, I was pretty bummed, and I told myself I was going to kind of stay another year at Oregon State and see how the new coaches would be under Coach [Trent] Bray," Vincic said.

"And I just felt like this coaching staff, this environment is the place I want to play for. So, I was hoping they would pick me up and luckily, they did."

Fortunately for Vincic, despite being away from this group of coaches for a year, the transition has been rather smooth, considering his familiarity with those who guided him in his freshman season at Oregon State.

"I know all of these coaches, I know all of the staff, and it's been great getting to be with them again and getting to meet new teammates, and everything's awesome, the environment's awesome," Vincic said. "So, it's going really good."

Of course, Vincic knows this offense as well, which also makes for an easy adjustment.

"It's pretty much the same system," Vincic said. "They've refined a couple things and made things a lot simpler, in my opinion, and it's been great just getting the feel of things again."

Former Spartan offensive lineman Tanner Miller was one of few players who followed Smith from Oregon State last year. Having played up front with him before, Vincic connected with Miller over the offseason and was able to get an idea of what he could expect at Michigan State.

"I talked to Tanner a couple times," Vincic said. "And he kind of gave me a little bit of a rundown of the room and how things were going last year. Obviously, with the new coaching staff, there's going to be an adjustment and guys got to kind of understand what the culture is going to be moving forward.

"And I think Coach Smith does a great job of bringing guys together. And Tanner really emphasized that. He said, continue striving to build that culture like we had at Oregon State before all those coaches left.

But what does that "culture" look like?

"One thing that I think really testaments the culture is Coach Smith emphasizing knowing everybody, "Vincic said. "Over fall camp, we emphasized breaking out into groups and getting to know everybody by name, where they're from.

"And I think that kind of bonding, that kind of culture of knowing who you're playing against and being able to trust them is what makes this program really special. So, I think it's awesome."

Vincic knows that it won't be easy getting the program to where it hopes to be, and Miller pointed that out as well.

" ... He [Miller] said we got a long ways to go," Vincic said. "I mean, our goal is to win the Big Ten Championship, win the National Championship. And so, obviously with that in mind, we're always going to have a long ways to go and we're going to hold each other to a high standard."

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