Coach Jonathan Smith's Development Plans During MSU's Fall Camp

There are many new faces on Michigan State's football team this season. Coach Jonathan Smith explained how he plans to develop and evaluate the talent on Michigan State's roster during camp.

Michigan State's head coach Jonathan Smith looks on during the first day of football camp on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in East Lansing. / Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

When accepting the job at Michigan State, Coach Jonathan Smith accepted the responsibility of turning around Michigan State’s football program, similar to how he turned around Oregon State’s football program during his six seasons there.

After an eventful offseason that saw many players come and go, Michigan State and Coach Smith have finally hit the football field for this season’s fall camp.

While there are many things a team wants to accomplish in their fall camps, Smith said that since this is his first fall camp with the football program, the camp will primarily be used as a teaching tool. Michigan State has the difficult task of installing new schemes with many new players on the roster. Smith expects fall camp to help solidify the team’s depth chart heading into the season.

"Yeah, there's some new faces, no question,” Smith said following Michigan State's first practice of fall camp on Tuesday. “There's teaching. They did get the advantage of some summer, and they got some work there. [I] kind of described it to the team last night -- a lot of teaching (in) spring ball, into the summer a little bit. This thing is going to be pretty competitive for the depth chart, and we've got a lot of depth at positions."

Smith said one of the benefits of spring camp earlier this offseason is that in fall camp, many of the team's players are hearing and seeing many of the same things they did months ago, which should help shorten the learning curve in fall camp. Smith believes this will help enhance the competition on the field during camp, and he expects many of the new additions to the team to play a significant role in the increased competition.

"Spring ball is a lot of install, a lot of teaching, so these guys are learning, playing a little bit slower," Smith said. “Now, second and third time hearing it for a lot of the guys – not all of them – but a lot of the guys that have been through spring ball, the expectation is that it's going to be pretty competitive. And then, yeah, we got some new faces this summer. They need to add to that competition."

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