Jonathan Smith is preaching urgency and wants Michigan State football to avoid panic. Easier said than done with a trip to No. 3 Indiana up next.
EAST LANSING — Jonathan Smith put the onus on his staff, his players, and particularly on himself:
Michigan State football must proceed with urgency, not panic.
“One has control and one doesn’t. One is very volatile and one isn’t,” defensive end and captain Quindarius Dunningan said Wednesday, Oct. 15. “So being able to be urgent, you understand that there are different factors that play into you getting your job done and you have to do it now, you can’t wait until later. And then panic, you’re just kind of flailing. There’s no understanding of what I need to get done, I just need to do something. And that could either be a bad thing or a good thing.
“So of course, we’d rather be more urgent than panicking at this point.”
It would be a difficult line to straddle even if the Spartans weren’t sliding in a three-game skid – and going on the road to face the nation's No. 3 team, suddenly a Big Ten buzzsaw. MSU (3-3, 0-3 Big Ten) is nearly a four-TD underdog against Indiana (6-0, 3-0) for its game Saturday (3:30 p.m., Peacock), another factor adding tension to the already pressurized situation Smith and his coaches face 18 games into their East Lansing tenure.
The Hoosiers are coming off another monumental win under second-year coach Curt Cignetti, an impressive 30-20 road win Saturday at then-No. 2 Oregon. That followed a College Football Playoff berth last year in Cignetti’s debut campaign.
Smith and his staff, meanwhile, arrived at virtually the same time – Smith was hired away from Oregon State five days earlier, in fact – and went 5-7 last season. A disastrous 38-13 homecoming blowout loss to UCLA last Saturday dropped his regime to 8-10 overall and just 3-9 in Big Ten games after .
All MSU needs is for Joe Rossi and his defense – ranked 120th in the country in giving up 31.8 points a game – to stop an Indiana offense that is fourth in points (44.8 per game) and eighth in total yards (502.8). That makes it imperative to prioritize the fixes after giving up 238 rushing yards to the Bruins and a Smith-era worst 289 on the ground in a loss at USC.
Yet, between those two losses, there was a glimmer of hope on the Great Plains; the Spartans made a strong showing in a loss at Nebraska, which managed just 261 yards of total offense. That gives players and coaches belief that they can solve this latest skid without panicking.
“I think what it comes down to with that is trust in that we have what it takes to get it done,” captain and linebacker Sam Edwards said Wednesday. “Even if it hasn’t shown up these last couple weeks, its been a rough stretch for us in terms of execution. Because we talked just along those same lines of the margins. … It’s just a fine line between playing good defense and playing bad defense, playing good football and playing bad football.
“So along those same lines of urgency and panic, it’s just trusting that we can do it when we execute well. And that kind of keeps us out of the panic aspect.”
Rossi had success running Minnesota’s defense before Smith hired him away before last season. Still, MSU gave up 31.1 points a game in nine league games in Rossi’s debut. In last year's 47-10 Indiana win in East Lansing, the Hoosiers had 122 rushing yards and two scores while torching the Spartans for 263 yards and four touchdowns through the air, rolling up the final 47 points unanswered.
In their current three-game losing streak, the Spartans are allowing 40.3 points a game. Combatting potential panic, Rossi said, requires two things.
“Truth. Honesty,” he said Wednesday. “I think the way you have relationships with players in 2025. Back in the day … ‘Because I said so’ and fear and things like that, those things don’t fly anymore. I don’t think they fly with your kids, either, too, when you’re a parent. So I think the best thing to do is just be honest about the situation that you’re in and show examples of why you’re in the situation, and then show examples of how you’re gonna get out of the situation. And know you’re in it together.
“When people feel that way on a team, then they’re willing to work. When you start the blame-complain-deflect operation, then what happens is people pull apart. And then you’re done.”
Rossi said there are segments this season to serve as a reminder, particularly with how well MSU’s run defense played against non-California teams, holding the Spartans' other four opponents to under 100 yards apiece on the ground. Although Boston College posted a season-high 390 yards passing in the Spartans’ double-overtime win, Rossi’s secondary held both UCLA and Nebraska under 200 yards through the air.
“I think the negative portion is that they occurred. The positive is that they can be fixed,” he said. “So you gotta fix them.”
There isn’t much time, particularly at the midpoint of the season, if MSU wants to get to six wins and a bowl berth. Add in the growing clamor of fans openly speculating about – and calling for – firings of Smith, his coordinators or all of the above, and it's a wealth of pressures coaches and players are not oblivious to, no matter how insulated they are.
The Spartans need three more wins to revive confidence in themselves and turn urgency into resolve. Otherwise, things could splinter.
Rossi feels the energy remains strong within MSU’s walls. It’s about summoning some consistency in performance to avoid it falling apart.
“There’s no one coming to save us,” Rossi said. “We’re gonna save ourselves. That kind of mentality is kind of unifying in some ways. Block out any type of outside noise. It’s the guys in the room doing it for each other.”
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football must pick between urgency and panic vs Indiana
Category: General Sports
