EAST LANSING — One game remains in Michigan State football's disastrous season.
Whether that is one game left for Jonathan Smith and his staff remains to be seen.
Either way, one of the strangest sagas in Spartan sports history will play out at Ford Field when MSU wraps up against Maryland on Saturday, Nov. 29 (7 p.m., FS1).
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Spartans (3-8, 0-8 Big Ten) head to Detroit immersed in an eight-game losing streak that is tied for the second-longest in school history. They do so against a visiting team mired in a seven-game slide of its own. In a so-called home game inside a dome that is 90 miles away from Spartan Stadium. At the end of a fall that included NCAA violations that resulted in vacating 14 wins from the previous three seasons — including five from a year ago under Smith that resulted from situations that didn’t happen on his watch and oversight that was out of his control.
The decision to shift the game against the Terrapins (4-7, 1-7) goes back to previous athletic director Alan Haller, along with the bitter cold spell in 2022 and infrastructure issues that rendered Spartan Stadium’s east side upper deck effectively useless and unsafe for fans. The violations are from Mel Tucker and his staff.
Michigan State's head coach Jonathan Smith looks on during the fourth quarter against Penn State on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing.Yet the performance downturn falls on Smith, his staff and players, along with yet another year in which injuries played a factor. The play on both the offensive and defensive lines has been in disarray, with too many sacks of MSU’s quarterbacks and not enough of opponents' by the Spartans’ pass rush. Smith is assured a worse record than he had a year ago in his 5-7 debut, and he could be the first coach in program history to lose every Big Ten game in a season. (Duffy Daugherty was 0-5-1 in 1958, with a tie against Michigan.)
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIn short, a confluence of concerns that have muddied the waters of the future. Inference intended.
Smith’s eight-game slide equals the one from the final game of 1981 through the first seven losses to start 1982 under Muddy Waters, a former fullback under Charlie Bachman and Biggie Munn. Even though Waters’ roster had been hamstrung by 25 scholarships forfeited from 1976-79 as a result of NCAA violations, he was fired before MSU’s final game of its 2-9 season. George Perles was hired less than two weeks after it ended.
Former MSU football coach George Perles gets his team ready to face Purdue at Spartan Stadium, his last game with the Spartans.Perles also was fired in the midst of an NCAA investigation for violations that happened on his watch. He was allowed to coach the final month of the season, and the buyout of his final three years was a reported $1.3 million. Nick Saban, his former defensive coordinator, replaced Perles.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt is hard to ignore the swirling rumors about Smith’s job security and the concurrent silence from the school.
New athletic director J Batt, hired in June, has not given support for the coach he inherited. Conversely, Maryland's athletic director, who was hired in May , announced that coach Mike Locksley will return next year for his eighth season, with the Terrapins publicly planning to devote more resources to the program. Batt also has yet to publicly answer questions about MSU’s resolution with the NCAA for the violations that happened prior to his arrival.
Smith’s contract has a clause on “NCAA Sanctions” saying that the deal “will not be affected in any manner whatsoever by any sanction by the NCAA, consisting of loss of scholarships or loss of bowl eligibility, arising from actions or omissions on the part of the University or its personnel that pre-date this Agreement.”
He said earlier this month, when the negotiated resolution with the NCAA was released, that school officials did not reveal the football program was under investigation when he accepted the job in December 2023. Smith also said the athletic department’s compliance staff was not aware that he had a player (brought in by Tucker’s staff) on his roster last season who was retroactively deemed ineligible in January, which is what forced Smith to vacate his five wins from his debut.
Michigan State's Athletic Director J Batt, center, talks with former football coach Mark Dantonio before the football game against Western Michigan on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025, in East Lansing.If Batt is to fire Smith, the school would owe the coach more than $33.5 million for the final five years and two months of his contract. Smith’s contract has a clause that cuts in half the amount he would be required to pay to leave for another job if Haller was terminated (which he was in May).
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIf Batt retains Smith, there is a lot of work ahead — both on and off the field, as well as in the negotiations rooms with others.
Early signing period begins next week, Dec. 3-5. Smith’s potential 2026 class lost a pledge from three-star California offensive lineman Quinn Buckey on Wednesday, as well as two October decommitments from a pair of four-star prospects in Florida receiver Tyren Wortham and Colorado linebacker Braylon Hodge.
Batt has remained tight-lipped about his football program while also actively trying to enhance MSU’s fundraising for a number of things, from NIL payments and the new “Spartan Ventures” project to stadium naming rights deals and other revenue-generating projects.
MSU’s fan base is frustrated with Batt’s silence on Smith’s status. What the stands at Ford Field will look like will be telling, with the school offering free additional tickets to Saturday's game to fans who have already purchased a ticket.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWin or lose, when the offseason begins late Saturday night — for the fourth straight year and fifth time in the last six without a bowl game ahead — the clock will be ticking loudly and urgently on the quest to figure out the future and repair the growing disconnect between MSU’s leadership and fans who simply want to see winning football again.
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Urgency mounting for decision on Michigan State football future
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