Report: Utah parting ways with head coach Craig Smith

Utah is reportedly parting ways with head coach Craig Smith, according to The Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman.

Smith was in the middle of his fourth season with the Utes and was 15-12 this season, 7-9 in the Big 12. Last season, Smith led Utah to the NIT Semifinals but did not get to the NCAA Tournament during his tenure.

Goodman even provided his take which was one of great surprise as Smith’s dismissal.

“Smith was hired at Utah following 3 straight NCAA tournaments at Utah State,” Goodman wrote on Twitter. “Just beat Kansas and Kansas State last week. NIL needs to improve significant at Utah. Just don’t understand the timing of this one at all.”

Overall, Smith is 290-170 as a head coach with Mayville State, South Dakota, Utah State and Utah. He led Utah State to the NCAA Tournament all three years of his tenure, although the 2020 Tournament was canceled.

Utah State was considered an automatic qualifier due to winning the Mountain West Conference Tournament.

Smith began his coaching career at Mayville State in 1996 as an assistant before going to Northern State as a GA in 2997. From 1998-2001, Smith was an assistant at Minot State.

He got a bigger gig as an assistant coach at North Dakota State from 2001-04 and eventually went back to Mayville State in ’04 to become the head coach.

Smith moved off of coaching to become the Director of Operations at Colorado State from 2007-08 before returning to the bench at CSU from 2008-12. He was then hired by Tim Miles at Nebraska in 2012, following Miles to Lincoln.

Smith eventually got his first Division 1 head coaching gig in 2014 with South Dakota, coaching in the lead chair at numerous stops over the last decade-plus.