When former Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith announced that he'd be leaving Corvallis to head east to East Lansing to coach the Michigan State football team, it came as a relatively big surprise to folks in college football circles. Sure, Michigan State is generally considered to be a more prestigious program than Oregon State, and while the Spartans have solid footing in the Big Ten, Oregon State is left to figure out what to do after the destruction of the Pac-12. The surprise here was that Smith would leave Oregon State because he was an alum.
Not only did Jonathan Smith attend Oregon State, but he had a successful college football career as a quarterback. Smith threw for over 9,000 yards in his four year career at Oregon State and led the Beavers to a Fiesta Bowl win in 2000. The natural assumption was that Smith would be content with remaining in Corvallis, but that turned out to be false.
“I thought a lot of what I value? Which, wherever I’m at, I’m going to value these things. Again, the family piece, the community network, a passionate fanbase. The opportunity to win, the resources available to win, the community that is invested to win,” Smith shared, per Sam Gillenwater of On3.com. “I think all of that was here.”
All of that seems fair, especially in the NIL era where the willingness of schools to provide those resources to the program is paramount. By that logic, the choice to go to leave Oregon State to become the head coach of the Spartans does make sense, even if it still does come as a bit of a surprise.
It's tough to imagine that Jonathan Smith will be able to make an immediate impact in East Lansing. Even at Oregon State, it took Smith four seasons to secure a winning record. The Spartans only had one bowl appearance in Mel Tucker's four years there, and with the Big Ten getting more and more competitive, Smith has a difficult challenge ahead of him.
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