Joel Klatt: Jonathan Smith was the perfect guy for Michigan State

Joel Klatt believes Michigan State hit a home run in hiring now-former Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith as their next leader.

Speaking on the news, the FOX analyst elaborated on why he believes the new Spartans head coach was simply the “perfect guy for Michigan State.”

“This is a great hire,” Klatt said, via The Joel Klatt Show. “I feel really bad for Oregon State. I’m sure it was hard for Jonathan to leave. But with where they’re at and where they’re headed, with no spot to land in conference realignment, I don’t think that he had any other choice. Now he goes to Michigan State, and he’s a perfect guy for Michigan State. In a lot of ways, he plays the way that Michigan State wants to play, and has played, in order to be successful. He’s been really good at Oregon State, developing a physical, run oriented, tough team. He’s done it at a place that’s hard to do. So Jonathan Smith at Michigan State, I feel like, is a really good fit.

“He was 34-35 as the Oregon State head coach. 18-7 over the last two seasons, after coming in there when they were just like the dregs, man. They didn’t have anything going for them, and he built them into what they are now.”

Time will tell in Jonathan Smith is all he’s been cracked up to be for Michigan State. Nevertheless, the future hasn’t been brighter over the last couple of months than it is now for the Spartans. Better days lay ahead.

Alan Haller reveals what made Jonathan Smith top choice for Michigan State

As Michigan State athletic director Alan Haller waded into the search for a new head football coach, a number of things made Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith attractive as a candidate. And beyond not hearing a bad word about Smith, Haller could see how Smith would fit nice in East Lansing.

The more and more the two interacted, the more comfortable Haller got. Plus, Smith has certainly proved his mettle on the field.

You know, he just — he can coach. But he fits in to us. He was so much like some of our other head coaches. He had a community feel to him, he loved the student athletes, he wanted to develop them. It was about the university, it wasn’t about him,” Haller said, tacking on a bit about a humorous back-and-forth he had with Smith. “I told him we have 53 people in our football building in terms of support staff. He’s like, ‘Oh, that’s way too many.’ I was like, ‘I like you.’ He’s like, ‘I don’t need that many people.’ I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to hold you to that coach.’ So it’s on tape, please print it.”

Haller also shared that while he might not have heard one single rave review that sold him on Smith, the lack of drawbacks or red flags stood out.

“There was nothing negative ever said about him. It was that,” Haller said. “No one said anything about him that raised a flag. It was, ‘This guy is awesome, the community is going to love him. They’re going to love his style of play. He recruits well,’ and everyone said that.”

On3’s Dan Morrison contributed to this article.