The photos from the first Jonathan Smith official visit weekend are awesome

The first official visit weekend of the Jonathan Smith era is in the books and the photos from recruits are awesome.

This past weekend, Michigan State football hosted its first group of targets during an official visit weekend under new head coach Jonathan Smith and his staff. There were plenty of high-priority targets on campus and Smith needed set the tone for the rest of June.

As some of you may remember, on Nov. 30 last year, the NCAA banned recruiting photoshoots for players on unofficial visits.

To catch everyone up to speed, there are two kinds of visits a recruit can make to a school:

• The recruit can pay his/her own way to get on campus and see the school (unofficial)
• The school can host a recruit and pay for the entirety of the trip (official)

Now that the recruiting dead period is over, college football programs can start hosting players on officials. You know what that means. Recruiting photoshoots are back. Here are some of the best from Smith’s first official visit weekend:

#GoGreen🟢 @MSU_Football pic.twitter.com/aEbaAE0Ysj

— Houston Kaahaaina-Torres (@HoustonKTorres) June 3, 2024

Go green??? pic.twitter.com/dWKYChcP42

— Jayden Savoury (@SavouryJayden) June 2, 2024

Thank you for setting the bar so high. Our East Lansing Family we love it here? #gogreen💚 pic.twitter.com/aiGah6OC5t

— Brittani Zamorano (@BrittaniSkyy) June 2, 2024

Appreciate the amazing hospitality from @MSU_Football and treating myself along with the fam like royalty all weekend! God bless 🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/EMVBRDrp3A

— Braylon Collier 👑 (@brayloncollier1) June 2, 2024

#GoGreen pic.twitter.com/PgpYcoIzfN

— Darius Afalava (@DariusAfalava) June 2, 2024

The creative department under the new staff has been sneaky good. Flashy is not a word used to describe programs run under Smith but the content we’ve seen thus far has been right in line with what we saw the last three years. And the previous staff was trying their best to be flashy.

The one thing I’ll give Mel Tucker credit for is the implementation of the Shadows uniforms. Those jerseys will never not be cool and there’s a reason many recruits wear them for their photos. I just pray this upcoming season the Spartans win their first game in them.

I’m interested in seeing how Smith handles jersey combos. He doesn’t seem like a guy that would mess with them very much. At OSU last year, the Beavers wore black at home, white away, and orange as an alternate. If I had to guess, Smith won’t deviate at all. All green at home, all white away, and Shadows uniforms when appropriate.

Although there was not a ton of noise coming out of the weekend, everything I saw was positive. Tons of players felt like a priority and really liked the staff. I’m excited to see what the rest of June holds for Michigan State football.