Unexpected Wins Can Help Michigan State Football’s Rebuild

Coach Jonathan Smith is entering his first season at Michigan State. The Spartans’ football program is looking for a hard reset after the end of the Mel Tucker Era in East Lansing. Upon beginning his tenure with Michigan State, Coach Smith and his coaching staff faced a crisis earlier this offseason when the Spartans saw many players on their roster enter the transfer portal. 

The mass exodus of players put Smith and his coaching staff in a difficult position, as multiple players that entered the transfer portal were expected to be significant contributors for the Spartans this season. 

Although the Spartans lost nearly 20 scholarship players to the transfer portal, Smith and his coaching staff recovered nicely, signing one of the country’s top 2024 transfer portal classes after initially having one of the most disappointing 2024 transfer portal classes.  

With the season approaching, the Spartans will soon begin planning for Smith’s first season. While Michigan State arguably has one of the most challenging schedules in the country, most teams around the country are dealing with turnover on their coaching staffs and rosters, just not as much as Michigan State. While the amount of turnover the Spartans have faced this offseason can be viewed negatively, considering the results of the last few seasons, it could very well be a positive for the Green and White.

The Spartans are not widely expected to have a successful season because of the difficulty of their schedule and the fact they are in their first season under a new coaching staff. However, surprises regularly in college football, and that was before the creation of the transfer portal. Amongst other benefits, the portal represents a tool that allows new coaching staff to shorten the time it takes to see results, as the portal allows talented players with playing experience on the collegiate level to bring that experience elsewhere and thrive. 

Smith and the Spartans’ successful use of the transfer portal will undoubtedly benefit them this season. 

Michigan State has one of the toughest schedules in the country, one that includes a four-game stretch that almost no team in college football would want to face. However, before and after that stretch, they have multiple winnable games.

For the Spartans, though, the upcoming season will be determined not only by how well they do in games that are winnable on paper but also by their ability to win games they are not favored to or expected to win. If the Spartans are able to win the games they are expected to be competitive in and also a game or two they are not, Smith and the Spartans will enter Year 2 ahead of schedule.

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