Jonathan Smith talks 'blue-collar' approach to building Michigan State

On Saturday, Michigan State announced the hiring of Jonathan Smith as its head football coach. On Tuesday, Smith was officially introduced at a press conference at the Breslin Center.

Alan Haller, Michigan State's athletic director, spoke before Smith, thanked many people for helping through the search, praised the fans and student-athletes, and introduced the new head coach.

Haller mentioned that 12 different candidates interviewed at least once for the job. After conversations with many people, Haller identified the characteristics he was looking for in Michigan State's 26th head coach:

1. A man of character

2. Committed to building something "special"

3. Somebody who would engage the community, fan base and stakeholders

4. Experience coaching at the Power Five level

5. Vision for success at Michigan State

6. Somebody who is tough, physical and innovative

According to Haller, Smith possesses all of these traits.

Smith, who comes to Michigan State from his alma mater, Oregon State, thanked his family, Haller and many others.

Smith mentioned multiple times that the fit at Michigan State was right for him. He wants to pursue championships and believes he has the resources to do so at MSU. His wife, Candice, and children, Robert, Bella and Charles, supported his move.

"These decisions are not easy," Smith said about moving family during the introductory press conference. "I want to chase championships at the highest level, but at the same time, create an atmosphere for my family to be special. That's why I go back to this fit (at Michigan State)."

After the televised press conference, Smith met with local media members to speak more about his transition to Michigan State.

He discussed the culture he hopes to instill in East Lansing.

"On the culture side, you can have a belief system — in terms of being selfless and trusted and all of that — but it ultimately comes down to how we act," Smith said. "Individually acting the way we believe. Those actions are gonna create how other people experience it. The culture gets driven by actions and how other people experience it."

Smith mentioned that his main priorities are recruiting the current roster to stay, which includes meeting with the players to learn about them as people, building his staff and recruiting high school and transfer portal prospects.

Smith also said he recently had dinner with Michigan State men's basketball head basketball coach Tom Izzo, and has had multiple conversations with former head football coach Mark Dantonio.

Speaking of recruiting the current players on the roster to stay, Michigan State has already had double-digit players enter the transfer portal or announce their intention to enter. However, his message to players is to let them know how excited he is about this opportunity.

"I want to make sure they know how excited I am to do this," Smith said when asked what his message to the team is. "In a lot of ways, I chose them — wanting to be around them and coach them at this special, special place, so giving us a chance to do that. The response from a lot of the guys (was) they're excited to get started."

When asked how the players responded to him during the team meeting on Monday, Smith noted that he was just trying to be real with them. He told the players his story and felt like a lot of the current Spartans are bought in.

"I felt like the response was some belief that I was being authentic to the situation," Smith said.

When asked what he wants this program to look like three years from now, Smith said he wants a "program that this community (can be) proud of."

Coming over from Oregon State, Smith is plenty familiar with in-state rivalries as he had to deal with Oregon. Now, of course, the big in-state rival he needs to focus on is Michigan, which is set to play in its third conference championship game in as many years.

It won't take Smith long to get acquainted with the Michigan versus Michigan State rivalry.

"I know it's passionate, I know it's the biggest game of the year," Smith said about the Michigan rivalry. "Excited to be involved, not just in that game, but 365 (days a year) in regards to talking about it and the energy about it and preparing for it. Special stuff."

Similarly to Oregon State with Oregon, Michigan State has often been the underdog against Michigan. However, as a former walk-on quarterback at OSU, Smith embraces the chip-on-the-shoulder mentality and is ready to work.

"I embrace an approach of having a chip on their shoulder of work ethic and earning things," Smith said. "A blue-collar approach to building a team and competing on the field."

How does Smith plan to make the series competitive with Michigan again, though?

"We're gonna go to work on that, there's no question,” Smith said when asked how he plans to beat Michigan. "Give them credit, they're playing at a high level right now, but next year is a new year."

When asked about living up to expectations from a hungry fan base that has seen its football team struggle over the past couple of years, Smith noted that it will take some work.

"You want to have expectations — we want to get this place to a spot where Coach (Dantonio) has gotten it," Smith said. "There's no doubt, that's some of the goal — the sustainability, the winning and all that. That takes some hard work, there's no sugarcoating it here. We're diving into from (day) one. I'm excited about that, and I think people understand there's some serious work to do."

Smith is also excited about coaching at Spartan Stadium. He called the atmosphere there "special," and after coaching against the Spartans in 2012 as part of the Boise State staff, he is looking forward to being on the home sideline from now on.

As for his recruiting strategy, which is incredibly important with the early signing period opening up soon on Dec. 20, Smith said he is excited to get to work and confident in the staff's approach.

Smith noted that he was going to bring in staff members with ties to the Midwest to help recruit local prospects to Michigan State. He will put an emphasis on the Midwest, and of course recruit other locations, too.

"The best way is to hop in a car and be able to be (within) a three- or four-hour radius, and there is a bunch of football, I know this, (within) three to four hours of hopping into a car (from MSU)," Smith said. "Now, the landscape of college football has (changed), and the world, in ways, has shrunk. So, I'm not saying we're gonna be exclusive to that, but we're gonna build a foundation from that."

He also noted that it will be "really important" to build relationships with local high school coaches and he knows he has "some ground to make up."

As for roster construction, while Smith and the staff want to rely primarily on high school recruiting, they will look to the transfer portal, walk-on additions and all means to build the best team possible.

"We'll use different avenues to build the roster," Smith said. "I'm talking about long-term sustainability, yes we want to be heavy on the high school (recruiting) side, but you can build your roster through the transfer portal, walk-on players live the experience, so there's all ways that you can build a roster and we use all of them."

Smith also mentioned that name, image and likeness (NIL) is a "factor" of college athletics now, but he expects MSU to be "very competitive" in that regard.

Additionally, Smith said he has spoken with Harlon Barnett, who most recently served as Michigan State's interim head coach. While no decision has been made as of yet, Smith is considering Barnett for a role on his staff.

"I talked to (Barnett) yesterday for about an hour, awesome conversation," Smith said. "You talk about a good man that loves this place (it's Barnett). So, yeah, enjoyed talking to him ... We talked about hiring is gonna be a process that's gonna take a little bit of time. It's not gonna be just quick-fix mentality on that, but my impressions were in that hour, that guy is a good man ... (Barnett and I) do plan on talking again."

Smith noted several former coaches have helped guide him throughout his career, including Mike Riley, Chris Petersen and others. In fact, Riley was Smith's head coach at Oregon State and gave him opportunity to start at quarterback as a walk-on.

That "equal opportunity" mantra is what Smith has brought with him as a coach.

"Being a walk-on, I was promised an equal opportunity," Smith said. "I lived that as a player, and now I'm trying to recreate it as a head coach, (which) is equal opportunity and competitiveness."

Smith also briefly discussed competing against incoming Big Ten teams from the West Coast: Washington, UCLA, USC and Oregon.

Smith noted that he has some "inside knowledge" when it comes to competing against those soon to be former Pac-12 schools, but that he can't "overpromise it's an advantage" because those are all really good programs.

Additionally, Smith noted that he is very interested in recruiting back some of the current MSU players who have already entered the portal (or those who plan to), and that there already have been conversations there.

What would his pitch be to get those players back or to prevent more players on the roster from entering the portal?

"The track record of building programs — we're gonna build some trust, equal opportunity," Smith said. "Again, a staff that's done it at a high level, a staff that has done it in the National Football League and a staff that is gonna deeply care for them on and off the field."

One thing is certain: Jonathan Smith is ready to go to work for the Spartans.

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