Michigan State has fired football coach Jonathan Smith less than two years after he was hired.
The move was made Sunday by athletic director J Batt, who has been on campus since June, according to a person familiar with the situation speaking only on condition of anonymity because the move had not been announced.
The Spartans lost eight of their last nine games to finish 4-8. Smith’s overall record at MSU was 9-15 and just 4-14 in the Big Ten. Smith is due more than $30 million, according to terms of his seven-year contract, and the school will have to spend many millions to find a replacement. The Spartans aren’t the only ones looking for a winning coach, either.
Smith was 34-35 over six seasons at Oregon State, winning at least eight games in consecutive seasons for the first time in more than a decade at his alma mater. He went 5-7 overall and 3-6 in the Big Ten during his debut season last year. His seat got warm when athletic director Alan Haller, who hired him, left the school last May.
Expectations were low for this season and the results were worse.
The Spartans followed up wins against Western Michigan, Boston College and Youngstown State with an 0-8 start in Big Ten play. They lost to USC, Nebraska, UCLA, Indiana and Michigan by double digits before blowing a late lead and losing at Minnesota by three points in overtime. The only league win came Saturday against Maryland.
Smith benched quarterback Aidan Chiles, who followed him from Oregon State, against the Golden Gophers and gave redshirt freshman Alessio Milivojevic a shot to start, perhaps with an eye toward the future the coach no longer has at Michigan State.
The program has struggled since the school’s winningest coach, Mark Dantonio, retired and ended a record-breaking, 13-year run with consecutive 7-6 seasons and a .500 Big Ten record over two years.
With limited choices in the winter of 2020, inexperienced athletic director Bill Beekman hired Mel Tucker after he went 5-7 in one season at Colorado and had ties to the school as a graduate assistant under Nick Saban.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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