Michigan State’s Jonathan Smith bringing five assistant coaches from Oregon State

Jonathan Smith is Michigan State’s new football coach and he’s bringing staff members with him from the West Coast.

Smith, who was named the 26th coach of the Spartans on Saturday , is retaining five of the 10 on-field assistants from his former Oregon State staff, according to MLive sister publication, The Oregonian/OregonLive . Those five are offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brian Lindgren, offensive line coach Jim Michalczik, running backs coach Keith Bhonapha, tight ends coach Brian Wozniak and secondary coach Blue Adams.

Additionally, The Oregonian reported Smith’s chief of staff and director of operations Dan Van De Riet, strength coach Michael McDonald and director of player personnel Cole Moore will also join him with the Spartans.

None of the staff hires have been announced by Michigan State. Smith, a former standout Oregon State quarterback who spent the last six seasons coaching his alma mater, is scheduled to be introduced in a Tuesday afternoon press conference at the Breslin Center. His hire still needs to be formally approved by Michigan State’s Board of Trustees.

Coach Mel Tucker was suspended and fired for cause in September and secondary coach Harlon Barnett posted a 2-8 record as interim head coach. The Spartans (4-8, 2-7 Big Ten) finished the season with a 42-0 loss against Penn State on Friday night at Ford Field in Detroit.

Lindgren, a former quarterback at Idaho, made coaching stops at Redlands, Northern Arizona, San Jose State and Colorado before spending the last six seasons coaching quarterbacks and running Oregon State’s offense.

Michalczik, who was an offensive lineman at Washington State, has more than three decades of coaching experience in college and the NFL while serving in a variety of roles. He won a national championship coaching Miami’s defensive line in 1991 and had stops at Montana State, Oregon State, California, the Oakland Raiders, Cal again, Arizona and then back to Oregon State for the last six seasons. In addition to coaching the offensive line, he was Smith’s run game coordinator and associate head coach.

Bhonapha was a defensive back at Hawaii and he coached at his alma mater before stops as the running backs coach at Boise State Washington, Boise State again in 2022 and then spent this season leading Smith’s backfield while also serving as assistant head coach.

Wozniak, an Ohio native, was a starting tight end and three-time Big Ten champion at Wisconsin who joined the Oregon State staff in 2015 and served as a graduate assistant, then offensive quality control analyst before being named tight ends coach in 2018.

Adams was a defensive back at Cincinnati who was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the seventh round in 2003 and appeared in 50 career games while splitting time with the Jaguars, Buccaneers and Bengals. He coached at Northern Iowa, with the Miami Dolphins, West Virginia and South Florida before serving as Oregon State’s secondary coach the last five seasons.

The five assistant coach hires leaves Smith halfway to filling out his first on-field staff leading the Spartans. It’s unclear if he will retain any of the assistants who were on Tucker’s last staff.