MSU's Jonathan Smith on Penn State Loss, Recent NCAA Punishment

EAST LANSING, Mich. --- Michigan State lost again, 28-10, to Penn State on Saturday evening. The loss drops head coach Jonathan Smith to 8-14 during his time at MSU and just 3-13 against Big Ten opponents. This season, MSU is 3-7 overall and 0-7 against conference opponents.

Smith spoke after the game about his seventh consecutive loss and his eighth against a conference foe. He also publicly commented for the first time since his five wins during the 2024 season were vacated on Wednesday. A full video of his press conference can be viewed below.

Watch Jonathan Smith here:

Additionally, a transcript of Smith's opening statement can be read further below.

Transcript

Michigan State's head coach Jonathan Smith leaves the field after the game against Penn State after the game on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing. | Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

SMITH: We got beat tonight by a Penn State team. Congratulations to them. They earned that win tonight.

We just thought the game... We really wanted the game to kind of be tight throughout in regards to, I don't know what you want to call it, dirty, sloppy, physical. We thought that would take place and the score sat at 14-10 for a lot of the game. Punting, field position.

They are good on defense and we did think that we had to create a couple opportunities situationally to take a shot. We just did not capitalize a couple of times.

I think about the first half, even, we had a possession start on their 45-yard line. We go four-and-out. You're not going to get many opportunities like that in a short field. We didn't take advantage of that.

Michigan State's Jalen Satchell celebrates a sack against Penn State during the third quarter on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing. | Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

And then into the second half, we came in about the first series. We go down there, it's third-and-4. Really, we're going two-play thinking. We get into the wrong direction on the play and they hit us in the backfield. We end up punting. That was an opportunity with the field position to continue to drive; we didn't do it.

And then at the end, you got one red zone chance. They're up two scores at that point. Then we got the sack-fumble that they were able to separate from there.

Proud of some defensive effort. The fourth-down stops. I thought they kept us in it throughout the night.

Gave up the one 75-yarder; that was a [coverage] bust. Outside of that, I thought they really battled to keep us within striking distance throughout the night, and then it got away from us at the end there with the sack-fumble that I mentioned.

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