{"id":10521,"date":"2023-12-21T16:07:48","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T21:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/?p=10521"},"modified":"2023-12-21T16:07:48","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T21:07:48","slug":"michigan-state-football-harlon-barnett-departing-east-lansing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/?p=10521","title":{"rendered":"Michigan State football: Harlon Barnett not returning to coaching staff"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>After speculation that he might return to Michigan State football, Harlon Barnett is officially moving on from East Lansing.<\/h2>\n<p>Per Graham Couch of the Lansing State Journal, former interim head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/msuspartans.com\/staff-directory\/harlon-barnett\/583\">Harlon Barnett<\/a> will not be joining <a href=\"https:\/\/msuspartans.com\/feature\/coachsmith\">Jonathan Smith\u2019s<\/a> coaching staff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter 20 football seasons at Michigan State, five as a player, 15 as a coach, my time is up,\u201d is what Barnett shared about this news.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Harlon Barnett is leaving Michigan State and won&#39;t be part of Jonathan Smith&#39;s staff. He plans to coach elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter 20 football seasons at Michigan State, five as a player, 15 as a coach, my time is up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Story:<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Fyo4aKim6d\">https:\/\/t.co\/Fyo4aKim6d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Graham Couch (@Graham_Couch) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Graham_Couch\/status\/1737932387315540075?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 21, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Harlon Barnett\u2019s reputation<\/h3>\n<p>There isn\u2019t one bad thing I can say about Barnett. He is the definition of a true Spartan. Harlon stepped up during one of the worst moments in <a href=\"https:\/\/msuspartans.com\/sports\/football\">Michigan State football<\/a> history and helped guide the program through the rough waters. The season may not have gone as we hoped, but the wins and losses shouldn\u2019t matter to his legacy.<\/p>\n<p>As you all know, Barnett took over as interim head coach after <a href=\"https:\/\/msuspartans.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/coaches\/mel-tucker\/1059\">Mel Tucker<\/a> was suspended and then fired. During his time as interim head coach, Harlon led MSU to a 2-8 record with wins over Nebraska and Indiana. He was also close to road wins against Iowa and Rutgers, but late game collapses hurt the Spartans those games.<\/p>\n<p>Harlon spent five years as a player in East Lansing under George Perles. He was a three-year starter playing defensive back and was also a captain as a senior. Barnett was part of the legendary 1987 team that won the Big Ten and 1988 Rose Bowl. During that season, he compiled 73 tackles, three interceptions, and three fumble recoveries.<\/p>\n<p>Harlon should always be regarded as a legendary figure in Michigan State history. He was part of some historic teams in the 1980s as a player and was also part of <a href=\"https:\/\/msuspartans.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/coaches\/mark-dantonio\/72\">Mark Dantonio\u2019s<\/a> staff from 2007-2017 during the height of his era. Even though his tenure in East Lansing may have ended on a low note, what he did for the program now and in the past should make Spartan fans forever grateful.<\/p>\n<h3>Harlon Barnett\u2019s future<\/h3>\n<p>Harlon\u2019s coaching career appears to be far from over. Even though his time at MSU is done, it sounds like he has other coaching opportunities in front of him. Graham&#8217;s post above states that \u201che plans to coach elsewhere.\u201d This isn\u2019t the first time Graham has reported Smith suggesting this, as Graham also shared this in a previous post from a few days ago, \u201cThey&#8217;ve met a couple times, Smith said he&#8217;s been helpful, but that he also has opportunities elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I for one am happy that it sounds like Barnett has other opportunities. As a diehard MSU fan, I try my best to not cheer for other teams. But I think I will always hope Barnett does well and that whatever team he is coaching finds success.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you Harlon for all that you\u2019ve done for MSU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harlon&#8217;s time in East Lansing is over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":10531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[191,189,504],"class_list":["post-10521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-michigan-state-football","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}