Following the Michigan State football loss to Illinois, I spent the day driving home from Champaign. While it was disheartening to see the Spartans put together two mediocre halves of football after a hot start, I was not overly negative. When I got home, I logged onto X and saw a meltdown happening.
Which prompted my question: what is going on?
With each ensuing action, the social media portion of the fanbase railed against athletic director Alan Haller. Bryce Underwood flipped to Michigan? Alan Haller must raise more funds or be fired. Michigan State football survives a Purdue team after being up 24-3 at half? Fire Jonathan Smith and Haller. The Spartans fall flat at Senior Day? Fire Haller.
My question is: why?
It’s year one of coach Jonathan Smith on the gridiron. If it was not for a strong showing in Maui, social media would be saying Tom Izzo should be fired. The amount of negativity on the app increased with each loss, or in the cases of Bowling Green for basketball and Purdue for football, a close win was just as bad.
Even amidst a season in which a head coach was ousted and the team fell to 4-8, there was not as much negativity around football. It all has escalated each week, and the question remains: why? Jonathan Smith did not come into the program and promise a 10-2 season, or even a 6-6 season. After the offseason, a lot of fans would accept a 5-7 season. The top four defensive front-seven threats left, multiple projected starting linemen transferred, and the entire quarterback room needed replacing.
With the season over at 5-7, now it is a case of all that Smith is not. Aidan Chiles does not care about the fans. The world is ending.
Except, I do not think that is the case. Smith is building this program up, and he has quite a bit that he has to replace in order for the new growth to happen. The team took their first steps this year. Everyone’s timetables seemed to move up after a throttling of Iowa at home in October. While my expectations were heightened to, that is also a game where I believe there was a glimpse of what will be for the Spartans.
Chiles’ comments may have seemed harsh, and they definitely rubbed fans the wrong way. I am of the belief that it was a situation where a partial joke fell flat. Additionally, if the starting quarterback took all the time in the world to care what @Spartan582395724380570 said on X, that would be a problem of itself. Chiles is not with Michigan State football to be a fan favorite or be a goofy guy. He is here to throw for touchdowns and win games. Currently, he’s upset that both of those goals for him were not accomplished. He’s shown this edge before to the media, after the first game. He was upset at himself. I believe Saturday was a similar situation, except the young quarterback never had his “I’m sorry if I am short tempered, I am upset with myself” moment that he did post-FAU.
Chiles, while he finished 1-2 in the final three games of the year, accomplished something he only did once the other nine games of the season: he went turnover-free. The sophomore was a first-year starter, captain, and leader, and he was learning as the season progressed. He is willing to be the tough love leader, and he was open about that in the post-game press conference. He improved as a player, as seen by those last three games, and he is only going to get better.
The future will be bright. We need to have faith and belief in these Spartans.
That said…
I am not blind, nor am I only spewing sunshine and optimism. There are a ton of things that I would love to see improved around the Michigan State football program. I would love to see renovations to Spartan Stadium following improvements to both Munn Arena and the Breslin Center in recent years. Attending away games, as well as the occasional MAC game during the week or an MSU bye week, has opened my eyes. Toledo brings in food trucks behind an end zone to keep the options fresh. Illinois has a concession map on their website. Both these stadiums, as well as SECU Stadium in Maryland, have a much more “open” feel than that of Spartan Stadium. It is a ton of concrete, without much in terms of defining characteristics.
Toledo has a rocket that is aimed at Bowling Green’s 50. Illinois has concrete columns on the exterior of their stadium with lights to give it character. The Illini also have “Grange Grove” where the team walks through during their “Illini Walk” (sound familiar?). That said, the grove is a lot more customized than that of Munn Field outside of Spartan Stadium. Outside of the Spartan Statue and Spartan Walk, there is not much that makes a Michigan State game day unique. I, for one, would love to see an improvement to engage the fans and improve the game day experience.
After working media at four away football games (Boston College, Michigan, Maryland, and Illinois) and an away basketball game, alongside an exhibition at Little Caesars Arena and the Big Ten Basketball Tournament, in the last calendar year, I can say with complete certainty MSU’s media hospitality has the most to improve. That said, media hospitality would be the absolute bottom of my gripes. I could easily sit with a bucket of popcorn and not even a Spartan Stadium hotdog if it meant the Stadium was being renovated. That said, it is a lot easier to be complimentary of other programs when the experience goes so well.
Another big complaint is that of NIL. In a world of NIL programs and huge signings, the social media accounts for Michigan State regarding NIL have remained relatively under-the-radar or desolate. While the program should not rely on the average fan’s money to solely support a program, an increased presence could lead to extra money and awareness each month. Over time, that will snowball and show up on the bottom line. If it was not for the players themselves retweeting and spreading awareness about an NIL raffle for sideline passes to the Michigan State football game against Iowa, I would have had little to no awareness about it.
I do understand that it is hard to navigate this NIL world as there is a ton of questioning on what is legal, what is not. I am not blaming the department and throwing them under the bus. It’s something I personally believe that MSU can improve, and a ton of social media Spartans have said the same.
One complaint I saw that I agree with is the lack of innovation. While Alan Haller has made a ton of improvements and excellent hires, the Spartans have stagnated in terms of creativity. We have seen the Spartans play on an aircraft carrier in recent years, but we have yet to see a “wow, look at what Michigan State athletics is doing that has not been done in the world of sports before.” Honestly, I would even love to see the Spartans host an exhibition basketball game or a buy game for basketball at Jenison Fieldhouse, which some of our former players had even put on their wish list. While not unique, as Penn State did this last season, it is still more than the status quo.
The Spartan hockey team will be playing an outdoor game next month, but this was a Big Ten arranged deal, not a Michigan State athletics-made deal.
However…
Alan Haller has been the best hire for Michigan State AD in recent memory. Women’s soccer just concluded their best season in program history. Hockey is reaching heights not seen since the 1980s. Women’s volleyball just sent a player to the pro leagues after a season that saw them take down top-20 UCLA on the road. Men’s tennis just had Ozan Baris compete for a national title. Men’s basketball just finished third in Maui and likely heads into the new year with three or fewer losses in the first half of the season. Women’s basketball had to replace coach Suzy Merchant after 16 years at the helm, and Haller’s hire, Robyn Fralick, took the program to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three years and is now ranked.
Spare Izzo and the men’s basketball program, and most of these coaches have been ones that Haller has had to evaluate and choose to hire or re-sign.
The Michigan State football conundrum
Yes, I know, football is the program that makes the big profit. Not a ton of people care about the collegiate sports outside of men’s basketball, and the select “cult” for hockey.
The Spartans faced three College Football Playoff hopefuls, and five other teams sit at 7-5 or greater. Football finished at 5-7, the same record that Mel Tucker’s team had in his third year in 2022.
Eight teams that played the Spartans finished above .500 for the season. They had a gauntlet of a schedule, most of which they faced with a backup line and defensive backfield, along with being down a receiver or two, or five, most games. This was a brutal schedule, a brutal year for injuries, and a year with around half the roster being new to the program.
The next point of controversy is that of “well, the future is not bright, either”. That being, Jonathan Smith’s 2025 recruiting class is 60th in the nation currently. It is 16th in the Big Ten of the 18 teams. I promise, it is not doom and gloom there, either. Smith was very open in that there will be portal evaluations this offseason, saying he wants to bring in players at a few position groups. The players are already willing to offer their belief in this coaching staff.
Jack Velling had this to say when asked on what his pitch would be to players looking to join Michigan State football.
In the new era of college football, it is hard to tell the “impact” of a class until both portal windows are closed and summer camps have started. Also, regarding recruiting, it is year one with a staff relocated from the West Coast. There will be a single year downward spike.
Fans miss the Mel Tucker era of recruiting, but his first class was 45th in the nation. As for the 18 players that class brought, two players failed to finish their first season in the program, while another six members of the class transferred before playing a down. Three more only saw the field sparingly or on special teams. Only four players (Chuck Brantley, Derrick Harmon, Brandon Baldwin, and Keon Coleman) turned into Power Four-level starters. The only players from that class who are still on the Michigan State football roster who could have run out for their Senior Day on Saturday are Brantley and Baldwin.
If things are not improved in year two, it will be time to revisit this. That said, do not run Haller out of the department and Smith out of town on a rail after the football coach has been hired for one year and one week. It was frustrating to see the same mistakes over and over, and quarterback Aidan Chiles implied that anyone who was okay with this mentality would be in for a rude awakening this offseason.
One last note on recruiting: the constant calls for coordinators’ heads, Haller’s job, or Smith’s coaching, those leave an impact on recruits. I spoke to Steven Collier, the parent of longtime MSU football commit Braylon Collier, and he had this to say:
“I understand everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but the masses need to understand the administration isn’t reading Joe Smith’s Twitter ultimatums when making decisions for the program. However, the recruits see it as toxicity and it does affect program perception.”
What we, as fans, end up saying leaves an impact on recruits. Does Michigan State football really want to be viewed as “second fiddle to Michigan, always complaining, toxic the second anything does not go our way” or would we like to be Spartans, who are not afraid of adversity, embrace the grind, and show belief in one another?
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