Jonathan Smith’s time at Michigan State lasted two seasons.
The Spartans officially fired Smith on Sunday. MSU finished the season 4-8 after snapping an eight-game losing streak with a win over Maryland on Saturday.
“The 2025 football season has not lived up to our shared standards for Michigan State Football. While that does not fall solely on Jonathan Smith, it’s become necessary to make a coaching change in order to chart a new direction for the program,” athletic director J Batt said in a statement.
“We are appreciative of Coach Smith and the manner in which he represented Michigan State with class. Throughout a difficult season, the team continued to compete. While their efforts ultimately didn’t result in enough on-field success, they do speak highly for their character.”
[Get more Spartans football news: Michigan State team feed]
Smith is the second Big Ten coach to lose his job in 2025 season. The first? Former Penn State coach James Franklin. Both teams entered Week 12 at 3-6 and needed to win out to make a bowl game. Penn State did just that and beat Rutgers on Saturday to get to .500. Michigan State did not.
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Michigan State didn’t waste any time finding Smith’s replacement. The school finalized a five-year deal to hire former Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald on Monday afternoon, according to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger.
Michigan State head coach Jonathan Smith acknowledges fans as he leaves the field at the end of Saturday’s victory against Maryland, the Spartans’ lone win in Big Ten play this season. (AP/Jose Juarez)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Six of Michigan State’s eight losses came by multiple scores. The only close Big Ten losses Michigan State suffered all season came at Minnesota when the Gophers needed overtime in a 23-20 win and a week ago when the Spartans lost to Iowa.
Thanks to a season-ending loss against Rutgers in 2024, Michigan State went over a year without Big Ten wins.
That loss to Rutgers meant MSU finished 5-7 a season ago and also missed a bowl game. Through 24 games at the school, Smith’s record was 9-15 and the Spartans’ best win came at home over Iowa in October of 2024.
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Smith came to Michigan State after turning Oregon State into a winning program in the waning days of the Pac-12. The Beavers had three consecutive winning seasons in the final three years of the old Pac-12’s existence and won 18 games in 2022 and 2023 combined.
However, Smith wasn’t able to show signs of quick progress at Michigan State. And now the school is looking for a third coach since Mark Dantonio retired at the end of the 2019 season. Mel Tucker was hired after him and the school has since agreed to NCAA penalties for violations during his tenure.
Michigan State has won just 17 games since the Spartans went 11-2 and won the Peach Bowl in Tucker’s second season in 2021. MSU will miss a bowl game for the fourth straight season. That’s the longest bowl drought for the school in over 40 seasons.
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Fitzgerald hasn’t coached since 2022
Fitzgerald has been out of coaching since he was fired by Northwestern ahead of the 2023 season. He had initially been put on leave following allegations of hazing within the program, but Fitzgerald recently reached a settlement with the school over his wrongful termination lawsuit.
As part of that settlement, Fitzgerald said it had been proven that he did not know about the hazing allegations when he was the team’s coach.
Fitzgerald had three 10-win seasons while he was in charge of Northwestern. But the team’s results on the field trended south in his final seasons. After Northwestern went 7-2 during the pandemic-impacted 2020 season, the Wildcats were 3-9 in 2021 and 1-11 in 2022.
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Overall Fitzgerald was 110-101 in his time with the school. A former Northwestern linebacker, Fitzgerald led the Wildcats to 10 bowl games over 17 seasons and the school was even ranked as high as No. 10 in 2020.
