MSU Football's Jonathan Smith Shares Thoughts on Opposing Coach
Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith will take the field with his Spartans on Friday night in his Green and White debut. The former Oregon State coach will enter his seventh season at the helm of a major Division I college football program.
The Spartans' opponent on Friday, Florida Atlantic, is led by Tom Herman. Herman enters his eighth season with plenty of experience and his own share of prestige. Herman's career record is 58-30, with a 5-1 bowl record.
Smith told reporters on Monday what he thought about the Owls' head coach.
"Coach Herman, got a bunch of respect for him. He's done it at a high level at multiple places, he's in Year 2 at Florida Atlantic. I know they'll be bringing in a challenge for us that we'll have to be ready for," Smith said. "... I don't know him deeply, personally, but you look at the offensive side of the ball and what he has been able to do and the success he had at Houston and really did some good things I thought at Texas, winning some games and bowl games and all of that. So got a bunch of respect for him."
Herman burst onto the scene in 2015 at the University of Houston. Herman led the Cougars on a memorable 13-1 run and a major bowl victory against Top 10-ranked Florida State, just a season removed from a CFB Playoff berth. The Cougars would finish No. 8 in the Associated Press poll.
The next season, Herman would take the Cougars as high as No. 6 in the AP Poll.
Herman's next stop would be just over 160 miles northwest to Austin, where he would lead the Longhorns for four seasons. His teams were ranked in the preseason Top 25 every year and finished ranked three times.
The coach's most successful season was 2018, when his 10-4 Longhorns finished No. 9 in the country with a Sugar Bowl win over Georgia.
Despite stability at quarterback with Sam Ehlinger (a prototypical Longhorn gunslinger if there ever was one), Herman was never able to reach the heights Texas wanted from him. The school has been looking for Mack Brown-level success (they might have it with Steve Sarkisian and an oil barrel's-worth of NIL money).
Herman is in his second season with the Owls.
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MICHAEL FRANCE