Instant Reaction: State Settles

Back in my days as a traditional newspaper reporter. I was once given the assignment of covering a school board meeting. The board was interviewing a candidate for its superintendent opening. By law those meetings are public. The candidate stepped up to the microphone and took the first question. It was a typical introductory question. “Why are you interested in this job?” I will never forget the blunt and honest response.

The candidate calmly informed the board their contract had not been renewed by their current school and frankly “they needed a job”. I jotted this down in my notebook and tried to hold back laughter. To my surprise a few weeks later this person was given the position. As you can probably tell, I am intentionally leaving out some incriminating details— but this a 100 percent true account. Needless to say, the tenure of this person was short and arguably unsuccessful.

If you are still with me after that intro. I am not going to try and compare new Spartan head coach Jonathan Smith to this embattled administrator. Oregon St was unlikely to fire a distinguished alum and moderately successful head coach. What I am going to do is highlight the perils of coaching honesty.

I have legitimate concerns about Smith’s resume. I highlighted them in a previous search firm article. However it was his recent performance with the press that has given me renewed pause. When questioned about job opportunities by the notoriously hostile Corvallis media (that’s sarcasm) Here was Smith’s response.

“I’m not trying to be sarcastic here. I’ve got an agent that’s got a job,”…. “He best be finding out what is out there and people calling. That’s how that works. I can tell you from his side he best be working just because I’m paying him so much. They get a percentage and I’m making a couple million bucks. I’m not trying to be sarcastic. Any coach, they’re aware of what’s potentially out there if their agent is doing their job. I’m not trying to dodge the question. I’m trying to be truthful.”

Wow— that was the best you could come with? For your alma mater? Let me be clear. I am generally in favor of complete honesty. I like it from doctors. I like it when pilots give as much information as possible on a flight. Those are distinctly important jobs with high stakes. Smith is a football coach. Let’s just say embellishment is kind of part of the job.

In honor of Smith’s candor. Allow me to provide a little preview of the opening presser.

On the task ahead at rebuilding the Spartan brand

“Well I got to be honest. It’s a real mess right now. Lot of scandals, probably more stuff is going to come out in litigation— but hey I probably won’t face a three game suspension next year….”

On competing with Ohio St and Michigan in recruiting

“Well I got to be honest. We are probably never going to compete with those two schools for national recruits. I mean look at the resources and history. We are going to shoot for three and two star recruits and try and out execute the big boys. I mean come on, I had to go up against Phil Knight University in Oregon. Do you think I won many recruiting battles out there?”

On what drew him to East Lansing

“Honestly I was going to take the first BCS opportunity I received. Have you seen what happened to the PAC 12? I’m originally from Pasedena, I’ve never coached outside of the Pacific Northwest. If I win here and USC or UCLA were to open up. I’m heading back home. Come on…. I’m paying my agent a good chunk of my multi-million dollar salary.

Yes, that might seem harsh. However don’t forget the first set of quotes are his actual words. When you juxtapose them to my made up quotes. I don’t see much of a difference. As you can probably tell— I’m not a huge fan of this hire. Let’s start with the record. 34-33 and 26-25 in conference is nothing to write home about.

Wait a second…hold that thought. I had too many windows open on my laptop. I got my Oregons confused. That is not Jonathan Smith’s record. That is the near identical record of the one and only Chip Kelly at UCLA. They were both hired by their respective schools in 2018. Are Spartan fans clamoring for Kelly who has a longer and much more accomplished resume? The short answer is no.

I will briefly summarize the long answer. “Smith has built a winner in Corvallis, one the hardest places to win?” If Corvallis is such a graveyard, how have Dennis Erickson and Mike Reilly parlayed that locale into NFL opportunities? Heck, Reilly even snagged the Nebraska job after his second tour. Let’s ask our friends in Lincoln how that worked out? Despite the narrative, Oregon St isn’t as challenging as Vanderbilt or even Duke. The numbers just don’t support that assertion. He has middling results at a middling situation.

Let’s be clear. That might be the best AD Allan Haller can do right now. Smith is clearly a competent football coach. However the cultural fit is not ideal. Let’s be honest, if Oregon St was heading to the ACC instead of Stanford. I doubt Smith would be that interested in East Lansing. Once again sticking with our honesty theme. While those might be true statements. They are not very comforting thoughts.

Don’t hang your head too much Spartan fans. Smith should provide some shall we say interesting material for Connor Stallions to decipher

Enjoy Spartan fans. The last time Michigan St hired a Jon Smith from the Pacific Northwest (John L that is) thing’s definitely were interesting.