Michigan State coach Smith resigning after season
With three games remaining in another disappointing season, Michigan State has decided that John L. Smith will not return to coach the 2007 season.
University president Lou Anna K. Simon is expected to make the announcement at a 1:30 p.m. ET news conference on campus.
Smith will coach the Spartans through the end of this season, including a bowl game. Michigan State, 4-5 this season, must win two of its three remaining games against Purdue, Minnesota and Penn State, to qualify for a postseason invitation.
The university will buy out the remaining two years on his contract, which will be somewhere between $3.2 million and $4 million.
Smith turned around a moribund program in 2003, his first season, taking the Spartans to an 8-5 record and an Alamo Bowl berth. However, that has been his only winning season. His last three teams have been dogged by inconsistency. The Spartans record under Smith is 22-23, including 0-4 marks against Michigan and Ohio State.
The Spartans started the 2006 season 3-0 under Smith, but have gone just 1-5 since. That slump started with a 40-37 loss to Notre Dame on Sep. 23 in which Michigan State squandered a 16-point fourth quarter lead.
That was followed by a 23-20 homecoming loss on Sept. 30 to Illinois, a team that had not won a Big Ten game since 2004. Blowout losses to conference powers Michigan and Ohio State came next before a stunning comeback in a 41-38 win at Northwestern on Oct. 21, a game they trailed 38-3 in the third quarter.
Most recently, the Spartans were drubbed 46-21 at Indiana last Saturday. Michigan State took a 7-0 lead before the Hoosiers scored 46 consecutive points.
