MSU Football: Jonathan Smith's Assistant Coaches Paying Early Dividends On Recruiting Trail

National Signing Day is days away and high school recruitments around the country are ramping up.

Michigan State head coach Jonathan Smith and his new staff have been on campus for less than a month but have already made an impact in rebuilding the Spartans’ 2024 class. With only seven players still committed from the previous coaching staff when he arrived, Smith’s staff has nearly doubled MSU’s recruiting class after adding five commits in the last week, each of whom were previously being committed to a different school.

Smith deserves a lot of praise for the hires he’s made at Michigan State, which has been the biggest reason behind this run of success on the trail. Wide receivers coach Courtney Hawkins was the only coach retained from the previous staff (so far), so these other coaches have had to hit the ground running.

New running backs coach Keith Bhonapha and defensive backs coach Blue Adams have gotten out to the fastest start of the new hires. Bhonapha has added two three-star running backs in Frisco (Texas) Memorial’s Brandon Tullis and McKinney (Texas) High’s Makhi Frazier, after the Spartans lost their previous running back commit, four-star Tampa (Fla.) Carrolwood Day’s Anthony Carrie. Michigan State needed to add depth to the running back position and Bhonapha was able to do that by landing both guys he previously had committed to Oregon State.

Adams has added one commit to MSU’s class in three-star Tampa (Fla.) Gaither cornerback Andrew Brinson IV. Adams is also tasked with recruiting the three defensive backs who were already committed to the Spartans under the prior regime. Thus far, three-star cornerbacks Jaylen Thompson, Justin Denson and Keshawn Williams remain committed to Michigan State after in-home visits with Adams and official visits to East Lansing this past weekend.

MSU has more assistant coach positions to fill, but the guys Smith brought with him from Oregon State have already made their mark after being on the job for less than a month. Since the coaching change, the Beavers have lost nine commitments, four of which have flipped to MSU and the remaining five have taken or scheduled official visits to East Lansing.

At Oregon State, Smith’s staff had success retaining its players and developing within the program. The balance between building a roster through high school recruiting and transfer portal is one of the biggest dilemmas facing coaching staffs in the modern era of college football. There is always a risk of players leaving for NIL money or more playing time at other schools especially with high school additions.

Michigan State’s staff has done well so far on the recruiting trail in less than a month, and each of the Spartans’ 13 commits are expected to sign during the early signing period. With more official visits ahead, the staff expects their 2024 class to be full by the second signing period in February.

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