Well, a pleasant good eaton everyone. It is Thursday, February eight,
twenty and twenty four. Welcome to the only show about Spartan Dogs hosted by
Spartan Dogs. This is Sparta MSU. I'm your host, Jason Sprayhorn,
along with my co hosts Otis. The Boss Wiley ju Chew Culcrik is backstage.
He'll be here in a moment, don't worry. And he's wearing a
nice The nice digs for everyone too. But this is your first time,
we want to welcome you to the show. If this is not your first
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MSU. Let us know where are you watching us from Otis Without further ado,
we need to bring on a man who's been working his butt off ever
since taking the job here at Michigan State for the last two plus months on
the recruiting trail, building a staff, doing all the necessary things, and
he's got a process behind that. JAYU and I ask him a lot of
these questions and more in this interview that we have right here with head coach
of Michigan State University Football Jonathan Smith, as he joins the show. Well
out further Ado, we welcome Michigan State head football coach Jonathan Smith joins.
This is part of MSU. Welcome to the show, Coach Smith. Been
a long time since you've been in east Lands, just a few, what
about sixty plus days. I'm just really excited to get you here to kind
of get to see and let the fans know who you are. And you
know, I'll just start right off and ask you know, so, how
did you you know, coming out of the pass at Deena, California,
and you're going down to Oregon State to play your ball, how'd you get
into coaching? Uh? You know, I played high school all the way
back to even lit Leau. When it start and drawing hand, it plays
on my hand with the with the guys in the neighborhood. And I always
just loved the schematics of football, and then I also love just that I
think it's still toiate team game, right. You got so many guys on
a team, and uh, you know, some play offense, some play
defense, the special teams, the contributions from so many always like that.
Had an experience playing college football Oregon State, which was phenomenal because when I
went to college, I thought I wanted to be a high school coach,
but after experiencing college football, I knew I wanted to stay at that level
and that age group, the schematics that comes with calle and then dove into
college coaching, made some different stops and all of that, and I've really
enjoyed every stop I've made. I learned a lot. It's a lot of
great people in this thing. And I like the idea too of working with
eighteen to twenty two year olds give or take, just in that stage of
their life, kind of helping them with all kinds of things beyond just football.
And I've really enjoyed that part and now excited about this opportunity here to
start anew with a new group of guys in the locker room and diving into
them and heavy recruiting first sixty days, but really looking forward to the day
to day now now that you know recruiting has kind of ended this period.
Day to day just being around these guys. We've had a team meeting this
morning. They've been lifting, working and getting to know those guys and moving
forward towards spring Wall. Yeah, that's awesome, and you know, coach
welcome to East Lanson. You know, we talked to coach Antonio and we
talked about, you know, what does it take to building a coaching staff.
One of his things was, I want a guy that I can sit
in the car with for three and a half hours while we go recruited.
For you, what does that take? Because you've put together a heck of
a coaching staff right now that seems like it's such a good fit and mesh
well with the mentality that is East Lamps And what does that take for you
to putting together coaching staff? Yeah, we put a lot of thought into
it. You know, started with some core guys that I've been with for
a while, knew that wanted them to come over here, and they did
a phenomenal job at previous places but speak the language, no kind of the
expectations, schematics, those kind of things. So there's a core group that
came over at the same time this opportunity. I felt like it was important
to fill the staff with some guys that have ties to the area, been
in the conference before, and we were able to land a few of those
guys. And you know, Joe Rossi and Chad Will, both of them
coordinated in this league, know the recruiting paths we want to get on in
those things. And then I think it's important have some guys that have been
at the place played at the place, and so we feel awesome that,
you know, coach Hawkins willing to be a part and stay on with that
piece. And then Dimitri Martin, who who have played here back in the
day. I've actually known him for a long time and competed against him and
he's done phenomenal work at a bunch of different spots. So kind of where
it landed. I think we've got some elite coaches, some background in the
area, but also some elite people. You talk about the guys that want
to be you know, the type of husband's fathers that I value. So
we're trying to create an environment where they could do both, and they were
excited about I think jumping on board on this thing and getting started. Coach,
you know, you have a diverse staff, absolutely, and it seems
like a lot of great men that you just described there, you know,
as you took on the job and you're looking at you know, you hear
presidential candidates talk about the first hundred days. You know, in football,
maybe it's a sixty ninety one hundred and twenty day playing that you may have.
Yeah, what's the process for you behind coming to the Midwest and developing
those relationships and what would be an unfamiliar territory so to speak. I know
you have a staff in place, but what is that process for you to
get to know all the local coaches in that three hour radius that you talk
about. Yeah, there is a lot when we first got over here,
but the first day we could get out recruiting on the road was in Detroit,
starting right there with high school coaches and meeting a lot of players.
There's a lot of players around that area. I wasn't going to you know,
just because everything was moving fast in December, right you got the transfer
portal open, you got your current roster, introduced yourself to try to sign
a signing class in the middle of December. Was going to allow that timeline
to dictate on the hiring of the ten position coaches. And we were pretty
thorough on that. So early on, you're juggling, You're juggling learning the
current roster, getting on the road, want to recruit, need to interview
a few coaches to add, and we were able to do all of that.
The signing date. I felt really good about kind of the high school
talent. We would be able to add. Some of those guys we had
deep rooted relationships with already, some of those guys were committed to the place
already, and then yeah, we were find the nugget or too. There
was completely new Michigan state wise. A lot of work went into that,
and you know, I sit here, I talk about like kind of what
I have my approach. You got you got to surround yourself some really good
people, and there was a lot of work done on the recruiting side,
even the current roster helping us out on the recruiting and that. And then
you know, the transfer portal, it closes whatever it was the first week
of January, so we were able to add some guys there positions a need.
It felt really good kind of those first thirty days through December staff where
we got it at diving into the current roster. Guys were current roster exploring
their options in the portal, which understood, but we were getting a good
amount of those guys back added through high school. We got I think it's
nine high schoolers started school in January and there'll be a year for spring ball,
and so because there's a lot going on, but we targeted the current
roster and the recruiting and then the second piece was finalizing the staff. Yeah,
and uh, you know, definitely I thank you all of those things
that you talked about. That process, you know it was it takes time,
It takes patience going into that, but I think you know, absolutely
knocked it out the park. And especially you know, from being a former
player and being in a text group with former players and just seeing day in
and day out Michigan State. This person's coming and this person's come in.
You know, the text that's going around to in this former player's chat like,
hey, coach Smith's really getting it done. What do you attribute that
the success that you've had in that short time with recruiting too, you know,
and you always look for the right fit, and so trying to be
authentic to you know the vision of what we're trying to do here. I
think there's a lot at Michigan State that sells itself. This thing's a national
brand, the history of tradition of this place, the pride to the former
players. That was another thing that wanted to be intentional, trying to get
face to face with the former players. We had that zoom call just introducing
myself, that kind of thing. Former players help on the recruiting. Recruiting
cyber also your current roster, and so we did just kind of dove in
it that way, authentic, this is the vision, and we were able
to land the recruits. Awful lot of that coach. You know, we've
had Aiden Childs on the show and he and his family spoke very highly of
you. What is your relationship with Aiden going back to his high school days.
Yeah, it's just really proud of proud of him. Does go all
the way back to high school and recruiting them that takes. That's a process
of recruiting. Get to know Nikki, Aiden, Adrian Good people, I
mean just good people. And then Aiden, you know, arrived at Oregon
State, spent a year there coaching them. Talented football means a lot to
him, but he's really a good person. You know, school did well
in school, He's well liked on that team and and all of that.
And so feel fortunate that, you know, we've built a close relationship and
he felt like what was best for him is to come over here, and
we're excited to be working with him again. Yeah, so coach, I'm
for being a running back, a former running back, streaming alignment. I'm
excited that we have an offensive coach. You know, you know it's been
a while, you know, because we've had a lot of defensive line to
coaches before, but you know, so offensively, you know what can Spartan
fans expect to see, you know, in Spartan Stadium and you know this
season offensively. Yeah, obviously my background is on offense. We do got
offensive coaches that run that show. Brian Lingeran been with him a long time
on the offensive Society'll hit that up. We're looking for some balance offensively.
We want to make the thing physical, but it's ultimately about scoring points.
And so You've got to have multiple ways to be able to do that.
Running the ball, run, the set up pass and vice a versus pass
the set up to run. You know, a lot of it does boil
down to the quarterback. You want to put that guy in good situations,
what he's comfortable with and how you know, building this thing off of the
quarterbacks skill set is something we always try to do. I do recognize now
being this head coach for six years. You know, there's three facets of
this game, and so each year I feel like more and more be able
to take a greater picture of, you know, what's best for the team
to win. And sometimes that is playing an offense where you score a bunch
of points or an offense where you're you know, putting the defense in good
situations and learning you know, let's face it, November, weather games,
all of that. It's not about just scoring points. It's about it's about
winning games. So flexibility I like to hear that, which is great and
coach. I know today because this is recorded, this is going to come
on tomorrow night actually when people get a chance to see this interview. So
the signing day has happened. This is National Signing day as you sit and
you have I think twenty two players in this class, but you know not
to go over every player, and there's a lot of them that we're going
to cover in detail as we continue to go on, and I know you're
going to give a presentation on that. I'm sure, but there is a
big chunk of guys that are going to be preferred walk ons, and you
know, the word on the street is that these guys are not just your
everyday run of the bill walk ons, and their feedback with you has been
through the roof. Now does your playing days because you were they walk on
at Oregon State prior to being the starting quarterback for Power five University, does
that help resonate and be able to locate talent like this? I think the
story helps because I did live the experience and some of me I see some
real real value of that portion of adding to your overall roster. Right,
we're going to do it in all ways, but guys that choose to walk
on at our place, they're equal opportunity. They're going to be treated just
like everybody else. That's how I experienced it. I trying to tell the
story when I was studo recruited out of high school. The head coach at
the time, Mike Riley was his name, promised me. He's like,
hey, you've come up here and you can be treated just like everyone else.
The only difference is going to be that you'd be paying for it.
He lived up to that with opportunity and how I fit in and had an
experience as a player, and so now I'm just trying to recreate that exact
experience for every walk on, whether they're joining us this summer or they're on
the roster currently, you know, equal opportunity and it is. There's a
lot of good players in the state. We only got a certain amount of
scholarships to be able to give out, but I do feel serious value with
every guy that we were able to add to the roster. Yeah, absolutely,
coach. So coming to East Lanson, you know, obviously it's it's
different than the West Coast. They're definitely different than you know, Court Vallis.
But what are some of the things that you had to you know,
adjust to and pick up with, like East Lanson logo lingos such as someone
says go green and I definitely, you know, you just learned all the
time. I will say, it's been great in regards to the reception,
how welcoming people are. I want to learn a lot of the traditions.
Had a four player in here yesterday talking about old school handshake that I have
to learn. And oh really you got you on the sparting dog head sake,
which is awesome, Which is Uh, it's been fun. I'm in
embracing that and I get being here two months, couldn't be more excited to
kind of about the environment and the culture around this place, this state and
diving into it all right, And uh, you know east Lands and fun
place. You've only been there a couple and you in that process, you
had to recruit, you had to bring us staff, So I don't know
how much you got to enjoy the outside of east Lands in there. So
is there a favorite spot for food right now that you that you find in
East Lansing. We've gotten around some of us. We take these guys to,
you know, recruiting visits and bodies and Capital Prime and it's a really
nice face dag Woods. I've been to a couple of times. Yeah,
and that there's there's a lot of options around here. And again, give
me a little bit more time to explore. But those those few places I've
been to a couple of times. I gotta say, you want a lot
of people over when you were at Dagwoods, because a lot there were people
send him as coach Smiths and Dagwood he's one of us. Yeah, it's
a good spot, man. It's like it's crowded down. You get around
and I learned that you go on a game night, Yeah, yeah,
does you know? And that that's awesome because you know when you're thinking about
the different places to go eat, that's that's George Blaha, you know,
our long time played by play announcer for football. That's his favorite spot after
a game, post game stuff. But coach, when you look at there's
coaches like coach D'Antonio. When he had downtime, he liked to do yard
work. I know, there's guys like Nick Saban. I don't think whoever
was downtown until just now right, And then there's guys to say, you
know, I want to go to the western side of Florida and look at
that sun set over the back. What does Jonathan Smith like to do outside
of coaching. Yeah, well, it definitely starts with my family. I
got three kids, you know, high school or eighth grade or fourth grader,
and so spending as much time with them, their events, those type
of things. I enjoyed reading. When I do get some downtime with this
travel, that's allowed for to do some of that. Pretty simple, man.
We also love the part of ball and working and when it's downtime it's
kind of with the family. Yeah, real quick, I think I say
it right. What is it Oregon or Oregon? Oregon? Yeah? And
a what type of music does come smith? Listen to you? That's interesting,
we're just talking. I'm kind of across the board. I mean,
I just had some Tracy Chapman playing and then it turned into George Straight,
Chris Stapleton, and I have BB King on last you know, yesterday.
I'm baby, I'm gonna mixed bag on that stuff. Okay, lose seal,
we'll tell you know. So, I mean, I think I know
the answer to this, But in your mind, what sets you apart from
a lot of other coaches. If I'm a recruit just wanting to look at
Michigan State really hard, what sets you and your staff apartment? You know,
we definitely try to be authentic in regards to just being open honest.
This is the vision on how we want to do it, being abill thoroughly
explain why we think the recruit fits, whether position, schematics, location,
what they want to chase On the school education side, which I've been impressed
with that walking in here our current locker room, there's over thirty majors represented.
Guys are chasing different majors, which I think is important because you can
accomplish both being a big time player and chasing dreams of championships but also the
National Football League. At the same time, you can chase being top notch
in the classroom making sure these guys are leaving with a degree, and so
we emphasize those things. Uh. In the recruiting process, it's big on
the relationship and the people. You can spend so much time playing this game,
right, there's high demands of time, and then school you can be
around people NonStop, and so the people we got into building I think sells
itself. M hmm. That's awesome man. Yeah, absolutely, Coach.
You know, just a little tidbit. If this ain't go green, go
white. Yeah you've got that bound yeah, uh yeah, one last thing
before to let you go you've been to a couple of basketball games. Yeah,
you know what, how what have you taken with the resident center experience
that is own and all that awesome atmosphere. Awesome atmosphere. I've been to
like four of them. Now. I enjoy watching this team compete. I
think this team competes and goes. Coach Izzo has been so welcoming as well,
just trying to pick his brain on this place. Coach D'Antonio the same
way. I've been with him a couple of times. That's what I'm back
to. These people around here, just welcoming and willing to help. But
you take myself, families been too the basketball games. Recruits going to the
basketball games, that atmosphere, and it's not just that one. I went
over to hockey as well at things big time. Oh yeah, seeing that
take off. So I'm excited to continue to get around other sports. And
what are you looking forward to for one time for football season in Spartan Stadium?
Well, yeah that I'm glad we got a little time till we get
there, but definitely looking for that the home field advantage, this passionate fan
base to be able to experience that kind of on the correct sideline because the
first time I experienced it, I was at Bois State like twelve years ago.
Yeah, oh yeah, and we got beat pretty good. So imans
just get on the other sideline and have this fan base and that that stadium,
the atmosphere help us, help us win a bunch of games. Oh
I remember that game, that's the Le'Veon Bell Leap game right right? Yeah,
Well, coach Man, we're really excited to have you here in east
Lands and and we'd love to have you back on the show before the season
starts. I mean, don't be a stranger here at all. We'd love
to have you back. I know you have a huge schedule, busy schedule
going on right now with signing day happening and a lot of other obligations,
but we so appreciate your time, coach, and for real, have a
great rest of this spring going into the spring season. And good luck to
you and go Green Yeah, go White Man. I appreciate you having me
having me on and I look forward to doing this again. Yeah. And
if you ever need an in that ricks, I got you, coach Land
Shark Rigs everything. Choose your guy, Choose the guy. Really good conversation
there with coach Smith, Jay you always bringing the energy. It was great
to hear him in his vision, you know, hearing how as a walk
on, how he looks at other walk ons, Andre, not just guys
that are there for fodder necessarily, these the guys that he's looking to develop.
This is very similar to what we saw coach D'Antonio finding talent, finding
diamonds in the rough. And I can see. I mean, this guy
has a vision for the future. Talking about writing plays in his hands in
the Little League, I mean schematics. This is what's on his mind.
He's a reader, a family man, and exactly what Michigan State needs for
its head football coach. And I'm happy for one to have him as the
head football coach at Michigan State University. And I know what you guys do
too. Special programming note, there will be no show next Tuesday, and
out of respect and memorial for those involved in a horrific tragedy that happened on
campus one year ago. It's hard to believe that much time has gone by,
but out of respect for those families and those lives lost, we will
not have a show next Tuesday. Otis and Ju had to run over to
the thirty sixth inning. What's that? That's the Father Welch Memorial Dinner.
It's being held at the American Polish Center Cultural Center over in Troy, Michigan.
This is where one of our own, Mike McNamara, runs this special
event. It's benefiting students at the University of Detroit, Mercy and Loyola High
Schools in Michigan State University head football coach Jonathan Smith is going to be honored
with the Hank at Guire Memorial Award. How about that? So we get
a lot of Coach Smith. You know, it's getting his feet on the
ground, He's getting his feet up under and as soon as he takes a
breath, we want to honor him because we are excited about the upcoming season.
Twenty twenty four is going to be fantastic and talkt to a great start
so far. So for otis Wiley, jay U Culchrick, I'm Jason Strayhorn.
This is Sparta MSU. Have a good night, God bless you,
and go green. This is PARTA. MSU is a combined presentation of playflas
Sports Properties in Michigan State Sports Properties. The show is produced by Tony Le
Barbara Tony Gstella and Processed driven Consulting. Additional supports provided by Brendan Duravage on
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