Reports: Michigan State fires Jonathan Smith after 2 seasons

Jonathan Smith’s time at Michigan State lasted two seasons.

Per multiple reports, the Spartans are firing Smith on Sunday. MSU finished the season 4-8 after snapping a seven-game losing streak with a win over Maryland on Saturday.

Smith is the second Big Ten coach to lose his job in 2025 season. The first? Former Penn State coach James Franklin. Both teams entered Week 12 at 3-6 and needed to win out to make a bowl game.

Penn State did just that and beat Rutgers on Saturday to get to .500. Michigan State did not.

Six of Michigan State’s eight losses have come by multiple scores. The only close Big Ten losses Michigan State has suffered all season came at Minnesota when the Gophers needed overtime in a 23-20 win and a week ago when the Spartans lost to Iowa.

Thanks to a season-ending loss against Rutgers in 2024, Michigan State went over a year without Big Ten wins.

That loss to Rutgers meant MSU finished 5-7 a season ago and also missed a bowl game. Through 24 games at the school, Smith’s record was just 9-15 and the Spartans’ best win came at home over Iowa in October of 2024.

Smith came to Michigan State after turning Oregon State into a winning program in the waning days of the Pac-12. The Beavers had three consecutive winning seasons in the final three years of the old Pac-12’s existence and won 18 games in 2022 and 2023 combined.

However, Smith wasn’t able to show signs of quick progress at Michigan State. And now the school is looking for a third coach since Mark Dantonio retired at the end of the 2019 season shortly after it agreed to NCAA penalties for violations that happened under previous coach Mel Tucker.

Michigan State has won just 17 games since the Spartans went 11-2 and won the Peach Bowl in Tucker’s second season in 2021. Thanks to Saturday’s loss, MSU will miss a bowl game for the fourth straight season. That’s the longest bowl drought for the school in over 40 seasons.

In any other season, Michigan State would find itself at or near the top of the coaching market. However, this is not a normal coaching carousel. A flurry of coaching moves on Sunday morning has left a shallow pool of potential candidates with other power conference jobs still open.