MSU-Indiana Shares Two Different Stories of First-Year HCs
When Michigan State faced Indiana at Memorial Stadium last November, it was a battle between two teams in lost seasons.
The dueling coaching staffs consisted of coaches who knew they were on borrowed time, although one featured an interim with little chance of being promoted.
The other was Indiana’s Tom Allen, who captured magic in 2020 but could not sustain that level of success in Bloomington over the next couple of seasons.
Just weeks later, both Allen and Michigan State’s Harlon Barnett would be let go by their schools. Michigan State and Indiana knew new voices were needed in their football programs.
Michigan State went west and rescued Oregon State’s Jonathan Smith from a sinking Pac-12 ship. Indiana googled James Madison’s Curt Cignetti and learned he wins.
Neither the Spartans nor Hoosiers were expected to compete for anything this season, but both hires were considered smart and seemed like they would pay off down the line.
However, this week, Michigan State’s opponent is shattering expectations and surprising college football.
Cignetti’s Hoosiers are 8-0 and rank 13th in the nation (the highest they’ve ranked since 2020). Cignetti brought several players and coaches with him from James Madison, where he won 86 percent of his games.
Cignetti is a case study of how to rebuild in the modern era of college football, utilizing the transfer portal to perfection and quickly turning around a historically listless program.
It has not been the same story for Smith in East Lansing.
While the former Oregon State Beaver quarterback has had moderate success, the Spartans are coming off a loss to Michigan, which has caused fans to question whether the West Coast lifer truly understands the state’s biggest rivalry.
Like Cignetti, Smith brought several former players and high school commits to his new school. It has not brought the same level of immediate success that Cignetti has experienced, but rather marginal gains weekly.
Smith’s loss to Michigan drops Michigan State’s chances of making a bowl game. At the same time, Spartan fans grow restless watching Indiana make a run at the College Football Playoff after being in the same place as Michigan State just a year ago.
However, comparison is the thief of joy, and Spartan fans should not compare the team’s situation to Indiana’s.
Every team goes about rebuilding their program in different ways. Smith rebuilt an Oregon State program that lived in the basement of the Pac-12 for years.
With better resources at a bigger, historically more successful program, he has the chance to bring Michigan State back to the zenith of college football.
While the loss to Michigan was infuriating and almost indefensible, Michigan State fans should not lose faith in the direction Smith is taking the program. Things are on schedule.
Even if Indiana’s immediate success makes it seem like that is not the case.
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