New Michigan State football coach Jonathan Smith pumps up Breslin Center crowd

EAST LANSING – Jonathan Smith drew applause as he took his courtside seat at the Breslin Center on Tuesday evening.

Michigan State’s new football coach also brought fans to their feet when he addressed the crowd during a first-half timeout of the men’s basketball game against Georgia Southern.

Smith, who spent the last six seasons at Oregon State before being named the 26th head coach of the Spartans on Saturday, was introduced and then took the microphone while standing at midcourt.

Jonathan Smith addresses Breslin crowd. pic.twitter.com/GgTkEnurt4

— Matt Wenzel November 29, 2023

“I want to start with saying I appreciate the warm welcome for not only myself but my family the last couple of days,” Smith said. “It has been really special to meet so many and dive into this thing. I want to thank you for that.

“I’m also so excited about coming to a place and being the head football coach at a place that’s so passionate about football, so passionate. We’ve got some passion but we also got some work to do and that’s going to take everybody diving into this community for everybody to put out a product you guys are really, really proud of and I’m anxious to get to that work, really excited about doing that.

“With that, I want to thank you again for again the warm welcome. We’ve got some work to do, I’m ready to go dive in and do that. Thank you and go green.”

Smith, who was hired on Saturday, takes over after coach Mel Tucker was fired for cause in September and the Spartans finished the season 4-8. They missed a bowl game each of the last two years and three of the last four.