Jonathan Smith “worked all last night” to flip Jace Clarizio back from Alabama

Jace Clarizio was Alabama bound after Kalen DeBoer and Chris Kapilovic (yes, that Chris Kapilovic) worked to flip him to the Tide last week. But Michigan State head coach Jonathan Smith would not be denied.

The first-year head coach just wrapped up a 5-7 season and watched one of his top recruiters on staff, Demetrice Martin, leave for the same position at UCLA. It was a rough couple of weeks for Smith but he had been hearing all the doubters pile on during this stretch.

And he wasn’t about to let early signing day come and go with no momentum on his side.

The former Oregon State head coach flipped a recruit from 2023 who signed with the Beavers in that class before taking a two-year mission trip and also held off Ohio State for high three-star cornerback Aydan West.

But the biggest win of the day was his re-flip of Jace Clarizio from Alabama — and it wasn’t an easy task.

“I’m told Jonathan Smith personally worked on him all last night to get this done.” –@JustinThind.

So please, do not tell me that Jonathan Smith took his money and does not care about this program. Do not tell me he didn’t care about recruiting this cycle. https://t.co/fVE7UDFXKT

— Emmett Matasovsky (@E_Matasovsky57) December 4, 2024

Clarizio flipped from Michigan State to Alabama last week and it felt like the end of that saga as the East Lansing kid wanted to head to Tuscaloosa to play for a perennial powerhouse. It didn’t take long before Smith got to work on him.

The Michigan State head coach worked his magic and apparently stayed up all night to secure this flip. This is the kind of recruiting we need to see from Smith moving forward because he can clearly beat out the big boys of college football for recruits. He just needs to work at it. Plus, he needs some help from Sparty NIL which seemingly helped him close on Clarizio.

This is now the second straight offseason in which Smith went toe-to-toe with Alabama and won (last offseason with Ed Woods).

Smith has been getting a lot of heat from the fanbase lately regarding his 2025 class being ranked in the 60s (now No. 58) and the 5-7 season feeling like a disappointment, but this type of recruiting effort to flip Clarizio back from Alabama won’t go unnoticed.

If he continues this same effort in the transfer portal, the 2025 season, and the 2026 class, Michigan State will be in good hands with Jonathan Smith.