The Michigan State program will begin its five-week journey of spring practice under first-year head coach Jonathan Smith on Tuesday, March 19.
The Spartans will practice on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for five-straight weeks and it all culminates in the Spring Showcase event on Saturday, April 20 inside Spartan Stadium.
Tuesday will be Smith’s first team practice in East Lansing after arriving in late November.
“It feels like a long time coming to get to working with these guys on the field,” Smith said on Monday. “I know they’re excited.”
Smith is also “eager” to get to learn about his team a little bit more as they step out onto the practice field.
“I’m eager to just kind of learn what it’s like out there,” Smith said. “This is why I chose to coach, is to truly coach and get on the field with them and watch them interact and compete and learn and grow.”
Is there a lot to learn heading into spring football? Sure. But Smith does know something about his team.
“I feel confident that football means a lot to these guys,” Smith said about his squad. “They’ve been in the offices. They want to get to knowing these schemes and working really hard at it. I know that about this group, that football means a lot.”
Smith is also already quite familiar with the three players that transferred over from Oregon State: tight end Jack Velling, offensive lineman Tanner Miller and quarterback Aidan Chiles.
Chiles joins a revamped quarterback room with North Dakota transfer Tommy Schuster and true freshmen Ryland Jessee and Alessio Milivojevic. Smith said that he would describe it as an “upset” if Chiles doesn’t end up being the starting quarterback for the Spartans.
“He’s a great person,” Smith said about the sophomore quarterback. “I think he’s a guy that guys like to be around, enjoy kind of his temperament. And again, football means a ton, but he doesn’t take it too seriously. I think he’s fitting in really well.
“Aidan (Chiles) does got some advantage. He knows some of the terminology already, and so (I'm) excited for him, being a first-year player last year, to taking another step in year two and then the leadership will come through because of it.”
Another new name to Michigan State fans is defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Joe Rossi. While Smith brought over his offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach from Oregon State in Brian Lindgren, Rossi came to East Lansing by way of Minnesota.
Before Rossi’s hiring, Smith talked to other coaches that worked with and worked under Rossi throughout his career. Smith added that Rossi’s reputation of being a “quality man” and being “really smart” has played out to be true during Rossi’s time working with Smith so far.
"Our communication, I feel like, has been great,” Smith said about Rossi. “He’s got some real autonomy on that side of the ball (defense). We got some big picture items that you need to fall under, but I hired him to do a job. It’s been great in regards to leadership. I think communication amongst that defensive staff, because there’s some new pieces for him on that side, and I feel that he’s really organized and ready to go.”
The approach to coaching in spring ball is going to be a little bit different for Smith because this is his first year at a new job. He’s not going to throw the entire kitchen sink at the players.
“I think in this year one, the approach is going to be a little bit smaller at a time, not throw it all at them at once because you are trying to evaluate and see what we’ve got,” Smith explained. “And so, if you throw the whole thing at them, it’s hard to evaluate each individual position if they’re thinking the whole time.”
In terms of health, Smith didn’t dive into specifics. However, he thinks the Spartans are in a good spot right now health-wise to begin spring ball.
“There’s definitely some guys that we’ll have in a limited fashion, still working their way back,” Smith said about injuries. “I think, overall, I feel pretty good of the state of the injuries that we’ll have a majority of those guys going (this spring).”