Tom Izzo on Jonathan Smith firing: 'I hate what's happened'

Tom Izzo has seen a lot of Michigan State football ups and downs over the decades. However, Monday brought a tone of disappointment that cut deeper than usual for the Spartans head basketball coach. 

Reacting to the firing of head coach Jonathan Smith, Izzo made clear how much he regretted seeing a colleague, and a man he openly respects, pushed out after just two seasons: “I hate what’s happened because things did not go as well as I would like them,” Izzo said. “But more importantly, things did not go as well as he would like it.”

Izzo wasn’t merely speaking from afar. He frequently attended Smith’s practices, seeing firsthand what the former Oregon State coach was trying to build. He praised Smith as a sharp football mind and a leader whose character was never in question. 

The season may have spiraled after MSU started 3-0, but Izzo said he admired the way Smith refused to let the bottom completely fall out: “To get yourself off the ground and continue, that’s what we get paid for,” he said. “But to get your players off the ground and continue? That was what was most impressive.”

Alas, Smith’s tenure never found its footing in East Lansing. Michigan State finished 4-8 in Year 2 and just 1-8 in Big Ten play, a step backward from last season’s already uneven campaign. All in all, Smith leaves town with a 4-15 record. 

It was a stark contrast to the rise he engineered at Oregon State, where he climbed from 9–22 in his first three seasons to 10–3 and a top-20 finish in 2022. But MSU’s momentum never mirrored that arc, and the school moved quickly to make a change, hiring longtime Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald as his replacement.

Still, Izzo’s larger frustration wasn’t only about Smith, it was about what the decision symbolizes in the modern era: “It used to be, you had four or five years to turn a program around. It feels like sometimes you have four or five weeks,” he said. 

The lack of patience, he argued, is a byproduct of everything from the transfer portal to NIL to a fanbase culture that expects instant transformation: “Some of it is impatience in general,” Izzo continued. “But I am saddened by what happened.”

As Michigan State enters yet another restart under Fitzgerald, who went 110-101 in 17 seasons at Northwestern, Izzo’s words linger over the process. Smith arrived with a proven résumé and belief in long-term build. But in today’s landscape? Long-term no longer means what it used to, and Izzo recognizes that.