This college football season has been brutal for coaches, with big names falling one after another. LSU let go of Brian Kelly to bring in Lane Kiffin — easily one of the most talked-about moves of the year. And now, Michigan State has made its own shock decision, pulling the plug on Jonathan Smith just two years into his tenure. One person who weighed in was Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo.

“I don’t like the way it’s going as far as when you look around the country. It used to be you had four or five years to turn a programme around. It feels like sometimes you have four or five weeks, and that’s a little bit of an exaggeration, but it’s tough now, and some of it is because of the portal,” Tom Izzo said. “Some of it’s because of the NIL. Some of it’s because of impatience in general. But I am saddened by what happened. I understood it. He understood it.”

It was back in November 2023 when the Spartans brought in Jonathan Smith on a seven-year, $52.85 million contract, hoping he would stabilize the program. And just this past Saturday, Michigan State finally picked up its first Big Ten win of the season against Maryland. But even that couldn’t save Smith’s job. His final record of 9–15 ultimately spoke louder than one victory, and the university decided it was time to move on.

The idea of firing a second-year coach — especially someone as respected and proven as Jonathan Smith — might seem wild to a lot of people. But as Tom Izzo pointed out, the money and expectations in college football have never been higher. And at Michigan State, a program that has slipped out of national relevance ever since Mel Tucker’s scandal came to light, the pressure to turn things around fast is bigger than ever.

The Spartans have now turned to Pat Fitzgerald, the former Northwestern head coach who led the Wildcats to Big Ten title game appearances in 2018 and 2020 and earned five AP Top 25 finishes between 2012 and 2020. But bringing him in didn’t come cheap.

Because of the massive contract Jonathan Smith was on, reports indicate Michigan State had to pay a whopping $33 million to buy him out — a reminder of just how costly coaching changes have become in today’s college football landscape.

That said, while the football team continues to endure yet another season of transition, the men’s basketball program, led by Tom Izzo, doesn’t seem to be slowing down one bit.

Tom Izzo’s Michigan State Makes Its Best Start in a Decade

After surprising everyone by winning the Big Ten regular-season title and making an unexpected run to the Elite Eight, Tom Izzo’s Spartans have picked up right where they left off. Michigan State has opened the new season 7-0 for the first time in a decade, knocking off ranked opponents like Arkansas, Kentucky, and North Carolina along the way.

Izzo entered the season with just two returning starters in Jeremy Fears and Jaxon Kohler, but that didn’t stop him from building another competitive roster. Coen Carr and Carson Cooper have stepped into larger roles and earned starting spots, while the veteran coach also made strong additions through the portal. Michigan State welcomed junior forward Kaleb Glenn from FAU, senior guard Trey Fort from Samford, sophomore Divine Ugochukwu from Miami, and Denham Wojcik from Harvard.

These moves have paid off so far and have helped Michigan State position itself as a real contender once again for the Big Ten title, which they won against all odds last season when Purdue entered as the heavy preseason favorite.

Coach Izzo has been part of this program since 1983, and stability like that is almost unheard of in today’s college sports world. There are rumors swirling that this could be his final season, but the Spartans surely won’t want to lose the one steady force in their athletic department at a time when the future of the football program feels so uncertain.