Less than 24 hours after its season ended in a shutout loss to Penn State, Michigan State has elected to hire former Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith as the university's 26th head football coach.
A new era of Spartan Football is here!
— Michigan State Football (@MSU_Football) November 25, 2023
Please welcome Jonathan Smith as the 26th Head Coach in program history.
| https://t.co/cianmGIS3E#GoGreen pic.twitter.com/3lGTurivLF
Smith will inherit a program that desperately threw a nine-figure contract at Mel Tucker only a few years ago. The university fired Tucker earlier this year amid sexual misconduct allegations, which put a great amount of stress on not only MSU's coaching staff and players, but also the school's NIL collective.
The former Oregon State head coach departs his alma mater after finishing with an overall record of 34-35 but going 18-7 over his final two seasons at the helm. Smith played quarterback for the Beavers from 1998-2001 before electing to begin his coaching career at the same school by becoming a grad assistant. He was the MVP of the Fiesta Bowl two years prior to Ohio State's own victory in Tempe, AZ over Miami in the National Championship.
Smith won Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors a season ago, highlighted by a signature win over Oregon in the Civil War. The Beavers failed to put on an encore performance last night, but their former head coach will have new concerns on his mind as he heads to East Lansing to clean up the mess left by Tucker's departure.
