MSU's Jonathan Smith Receives Favorable Ranking Among Big Ten Coaches

While positive predictions for Michigan State football's upcoming season have been scarce, Coach Jonathan Smith was recently ranked as one of the best coaches in the Big Ten.

Jonathan Smith / Michael France

Few coaches in the Big Ten have as much of an uphill battle this upcoming season as Michigan State head coach Jonathan Smith.

Michigan State’s new coach faced many obstacles in his first offseason in East Lansing, and Michigan State also has one of the most challenging schedules in the country. That is in addition to the fact that Michigan State’s football team has faced many changes this offseason. 

One media outlet has put Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith in the upper half of its recently released Big Ten coaches’ power rankings. College Football Daily recently released its rankings of Big Ten head coaches heading into this season. The list ranked Coach Smith much higher in the coaches' rankings than most of the preseason rankings have ranked Coach Smith’s football team. College Football Daily ranked Coach Smith as the ninth-best head coach in the Big Ten this upcoming season. 

Ohio State coach Ryan Day was ranked as the best coach in the Big Ten, followed by Oregon coach Dan Lanning, USC coach Lincoln Riley, Penn State coach James Franklin, and Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz to round out the top five. Smith finished a few spots behind them, as they are all leading some of the best college football teams in the country. Smith was ranked just behind Nebraska’s Matt Rhule and one spot ahead of Illinois’ Bret Bielema. Ohio State’s Ryan Day was at the top of the list.

Michigan State has a new coach, plenty of additions to the roster, and new systems for those players to learn. There have undoubtedly been many moving parts for Michigan State’s football program this offseason. It will be up to Smith to live up to the top-ten Big Ten coaching rating he received from College Football Daily for Michigan State to have a successful season.

As challenging as Michigan State’s schedule is, Smith can lead them to a bowl game in his first season at the helm, as Michigan State has multiple games against beatable non-conference teams and against teams that are predicted to be some of the worst in the Big Ten.

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