Michigan State football: Harlon Barnett, staff officially “relieved of duties”

Michigan State football has reportedly relieved its current coaching staff of its duties. The new staff could be on its way in.

We are officially one step closer to finding out who the next Michigan State football coach will be.

Harlon Barnett was hoping to get an interview and be hired as the Spartans’ next head coach, but it sounds like Alan Haller has let him go along with the rest of the coaching staff as of Saturday afternoon.

Multiple sources confirm MSU football's current coaching staff has been relieved of its duties by athletic director Alan Haller. Sounds like more info could be coming later today regarding the search for a new head coach.

— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) November 25, 2023

This doesn’t come as a huge surprise, but it’s interesting because Barnett was told he’d be getting an interview to be the next head coach. Even after the game, he was confident that he could lead the program into a new era. But it looks like that won’t be the case as Haller has let the staff go and now the next step will be to bring the new coach in.

Michigan State fans are probably thrilled to hear that the entire staff has been let go officially. It’s an expected step in the process, but we’ll see if the next head coach (likely Jonathan Smith) will give anyone on the staff a shot like Mel Tucker did when he took over. I wouldn’t be disappointed to see Barnett held on in some capacity as well as Courtney Hawkins.

But letting the rest of the staff go has been long past due.

The Spartans’ offensive line has regressed over the years, special teams have been horrible, play-calling has been unimaginative, and the defense has been disappointing. It’s time to hit that reset button. We’ll see who the new coach brings in to supplement him but we do know that the assistant pool will be good enough to make the Spartans a competitive football team again.

While he may not have been a great head coach, we do need to give Barnett credit for keeping the team together.