Greg McElroy grades Jonathan Smith's first year at Michigan State following roster overhaul

Greg McElroy gave Michigan State’s Jonathan Smith a passable grade for how his first season went in East Lansing.

For his job done with the Spartans, Smith earned a B- from McElroy on ‘Always College Football’.

“I’m giving Jonathan Smith, in his first year, a B-,” McElroy said.

This comes heading into his first offseason there after he was viewed as one of the top hires of last year’s coaching carousel.

“Hey, look, 44 years old when he got the job, had never really been out of the Pacific Northwest. He was kind of, I think, one of the hires of the offseason. Extremely well-respected, had a clear and established identity. A guy that was being heavily pursued by a bunch of different places,” recalled McElroy. “Michigan State kind of getting out to the front and getting him before anyone else could really go and have a conversation with him was very, very impressive and it showed, hey, they must have sold Jonathan Smith on something because Jonathan Smith was going to have some options at his disposal.”

That didn’t lead to too much success for Smith, though, in his debut with the Spartans.

Michigan State went 5-7 overall, 3-6 in the Big Ten, in 2024. They would finish 2-7 following a 3-0 start, including a non-competitive final month of the season where they went 1-3 with an average margin in those losses of -28.7.

“Now, first year? It wasn’t great, okay, especially the way things ended for them,” said McElroy. “The final four games of the year, to get blown out in three different games is not ideal. To score zero points in the second half against Purdue when you barely survive and Purdue, at this point, not very good whatsoever? It was not a good finish to the season. November was not kind.”

“They did get a good home win against Iowa,” McElroy did add. “They kept things, I think, competitive against Michigan in Ann Arbor.”

Much of those issues stemmed from two reasons for McElroy.

For one, the program was very active in the portal amidst the coaching change with 24 players coming in and 36 players going out by way of transfer.

For two was a Spartan offense that scored just 19.3 ppg. with only five power teams posting worst averages. Aidan Chiles, their notable quarterback addition, also struggled with 59.4% completion for 2,415 yards, 13 touchdowns, and 11 picks, as part of 15 turnovers in total, in his first full season as a starter.

“There were a lot of games in which, just, you wanted more from their offense,” said McElroy. “Aidan Chiles had a very up and down season – completed less than 60% of his passes, turned the ball over way too much. You’ve got yo get the best out of Aidan Chiles moving forward.”

Still, this was about what McElroy would have thought considering all things for Michigan State. That’s why Smith got a decent grade for his work in year one with Sparty.

“First year? It’s about what I expected, especially taking into account the net portal performance that Michigan State had,” said McElroy.