Michigan State's Biggest Obstacle This Season
Michigan State and Coach Jonathan Smith have had a relatively successful start to Coach Smith’s tenure in East Lansing. However, it has not come without a few challenges. In his first offseason in East Lansing, Coach Smith has faced more obstacles than arguably any other head coach in the Big Ten, if not the country. Few college football programs have faced as much turmoil as Michigan State over the last 12 months. Yet, Coach Smith has handled it all admirably.
Coach Smith inherited a profoundly flawed roster and was tasked with rebuilding it and Michigan State football from the ground up. In addition to a roster that needed to be fixed, Michigan State watched its biggest rival win the National Championship last season, pouring salt on the wound of a failed Mel Tucker coaching regime and a broken football program.
Then, Coach Smith and his coaching staff had to deal with losing a significant portion of its roster to the transfer portal. As much as the roster needed to be fixed, losing multiple starters to the transfer portal is never a recipe for success for a first-year head coach. However, like nearly every other obstacle, Coach Smith successfully overcame it.
However, as the season approaches, Michigan State and Coach Smith will undoubtedly face even more hurdles, as every team and coaching staff does during a season. Coach Smith has handled the hurdles thrown his way in a manner that only a coach with experience turning a college football program around can do, but he must prepare for what is to come.
As Michigan State prepares to face one of the most challenging schedules of any team in the country, it will be imperative that Coach Smith also prepares his squad for the mental aspects of being the first team under a new coaching staff.
This season’s Michigan State team will be the foundation of what Coach Smith hopes will be a relatively quick turnaround, but nearly every rebuild of a college football program comes with its fair share of brutal losses. With Michigan State facing some of the best teams in the country, Coach Smith's preparing his team mentally and emotionally for what is to come will undoubtedly be the most significant obstacle he will face this season.
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EZEKIEL TREZEVANT
Ezekiel is a former Sports Editor from the Western Herald and former Atlanta Falcons beat writer.