Spartan Nation

Could Washington hire Jonathan Smith away from Michigan State?

There's no way this happens, right?

Aedan Mulcrone

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College football’s coaching carousel is in full effect and has shaken up the football world. Michigan State kicked off this offseason’s carousel by hiring Oregon State’s Jonathan Smith as its next head coach. On Wednesday, the greatest coach in the sport, Alabama’s Nick Saban, retired after a historic career.

Saban earned his first head coaching job at Michigan State in 1995, before build national championship programs at LSU and Alabama. He retires having won seven national championships in his career, and producing one of the largest and most successful coaching trees of any head coach in history. College football fans were eager to see who the Crimson Tide would replace Saban with, and that was answered on Friday when Alabama announced the hire of Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer.

As a result, the Huskies are looking for a new head coach and will be one of the last programs to hire in this coaching cycle. In this era of college football no one’s job is safe and any coach could leave for the right price. With that in mind, is there any chance that Jonathan Smith would leave Michigan State to take the Washington job?

Of course, Smith would first need to be offered the job, but is it worth considering after making his move to Michigan State? Smith was born and raised on the West Coast and was on staff at Washington from 2014-17. Prior to Smith accepting the job at MSU, many considered him a candidate for Washington if DeBoer took a job elsewhere. Obviously, the timing of each job opening up had a major impact on how this coaching cycle has played out. Still, Spartan and Husky fans want to know if there’s any interest from Smith after being in East Lansing for two months.

Right now, Smith is putting the final touches on the Spartans’ new coaching staff after bringing five assistants and more support staff from Oregon State. Smith has also made outside hires who are well-regarded in the coaching industry, such as defensive coordinator Joe Rossi and rush ends coach Chad Wilt. Michigan State athletic director Alan Haller has fully supported Smith and provided him with enough funds to bring these coaches on staff.

As for MSU’s roster, Smith and his staff have done a lot of work to add talent over the last two months including 19 high school recruits, 11 transfer additions and nine Michigan State players who entered the transfer portal but have since withdrawn their names. With no ties to the Midwest prior to taking the job, Smith and his staff are off to a good start recruiting the area early in his tenure.

The next factor in any move from Washington made on Smith would be his contract. Would the Huskies offer him more than the $7.55 million contract that he signed with Michigan State? Smith’s buyout from MSU is $7 million, but Washington just received $12 million from DeBoer’s buyout. With those numbers in mind, UW could pay Smith more than what he’s making from MSU. However, in the longterm, Michigan State’s athletic department generates more revenue than Washington’s and MSU would likely be able to match any offer Smith got from UW.

With a larger revenue pool, time already spent rebuilding the roster and the facility upgrades finished, it would take a lot for any program to pry Smith from Michigan State. The Spartans fanbase is pleased with what the head coach has done during his first two months and eager to see what’s in store for spring practice. Washington would be appealing, but all the work the staff put in the last two months would be done for nothing.

This is a discussion that waged across social media over the weekend, but it appears Washington has identified Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch as its top option to replace DeBoer. Fisch has done an excellent job in rebuilding the Wildcats program, and would be a strong hire for the Huskies after the heartbreak of losing DeBoer to Alabama this past week.

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Aedan Mulcrone
AEDAN MULCRONE

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