Jonathan Smith reveals how he handles in-season calls for his firing

Now, in just his second season as the head coach of the Michigan State Spartans, Jonathan Smith is aware that the fanbase is getting frustrated. There has even been a rash of calls for him to be fired as the Spartans fell to 3-3 on the season.

That passion is something that comes with the job, though, and Smith trusts his program to get back on track. Though, as he recently shared, he does his best not to pay attention to outside noise, especially during the season.

“Not to take a shot at you guys at all,” Jonathan Smith said. “I don’t follow a ton of it. I’ll be honest. I definitely have a greater awareness that things are out there, whether they’re talking me particularly or things around the program.”

Smith came to Michigan State from his alma mater Oregon State, ahead of the 2024 season. That was at the same time that the Pac-12 fell apart and the Beavers were left without a home. He had spent six seasons there, building the program up and going to bowls in the final three seasons he was there.

At Michigan State, Smith inherited a team coming off the tumultuous Mel Tucker era. In his first season, the Spartans went 5-7 and now, halfway through his second, they’re 3-3 and coming off three-straight losses to open Big Ten play.

“We do take some deep pride in our approach and how we’re going about it. We want to be at a place [with] great energy, passion, compete at the highest level. Part of that, you want to do that, comes with the other side of things when it doesn’t go right. So, it’s not a big, big surprise to me. I’ll go back to the confidence and really steadfast,” Smith said. “And the people in that building that we’ve got that we can right the ship here.”

Jonathan Smith and the staff within the Michigan State program do need to turn things around quickly. However, the schedule won’t get any easier from here. The Spartans hit the road this weekend to play the No. 3-ranked Indiana Hoosiers.

Jonathan Smith addresses status of Michigan State QB Aidan Chiles

Quarterback Aidan Chiles was knocked out of last Saturday’s loss with an injury. Immediately following the game, Jonathan Smith shared a brief injury update, explaining without further detail that he wasn’t available for the remainder of the game.

“Yeah, he got banged pretty good there start of the third,” Smith said. “Wasn’t available the rest of the time.”

Aidan Chiles would be replaced by Alessio Milivojevic. It’s unclear if Jonathan Smith will need to turn to him against Indiana or if Chiles is going to be healthy at this point.