How Curt Cignetti's Indiana upped pressure, eroded patience for Jonathan Smith, Michigan State to win

East Lansing — Jonathan Smith never told us all to Google him. 

Nor did he arrive to his role as the Michigan State head football coach with the sort of brash, take-no-prisoners energy that his coaching counterpart this weekend, Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, arrived with in Bloomington. And he certainly hasn’t backed up his early tenure quite like Cignetti, who in a span of about 20 months has turned a moribund program into a legitimate national title challenger. 

And right now, that’s all becoming a problem of perception and patience for Smith or, more accurately, everyone outside of the MSU football facilities who wants to see this team take the next steps. 

“We just try to stay locked in on the guys,” tight end Jack Velling said. “We have a team meeting, the guys in the chairs and the staff around, everyone in that room, we kind of focus on voices in that room.”

Amidst a three-game skid to sit at .500 entering a road game against No. 3 Indiana (6-0, 3-0 Big Ten), Smith’s slow-build Michigan State (3-3, 0-3) program is under the microscope as fans’ simmering doubts about him leading the Spartans risk boiling over. It was never a secret that Smith came to MSU to execute a measured, methodical restoration of the Spartan football program, built on strong culture off the field, a physical brand of football on it, and a commitment to development within the program. 

It’s a similar pathway that Smith followed in his six years at Oregon State, where he didn’t post a winning season until Year 4. But in an age of college football where Cignetti can arrive at Indiana, a consistent doormat in the Big Ten for decades and, overnight, make it a College Football Playoff contender, it's Smith’s methods that need some proof of concept over the second half of this season to assuage an ever-restless fanbase. 

“Definitely have a greater awareness that things are out there, whether we're talking about me particularly or things around the program,” Smith said.” We do take some deep pride in our approach and how we're going about it, we want to be in a place, at a place — great energy, passion, compete at the highest level and part of that, if you wanna do that, comes with the other side of things when it doesn't go right. So it's not a big, big surprise to me. I'll go back to the confidence, and really steadfast in the people in that building that we've got that we can right the ship here.”

So as the Spartans head to Bloomington this weekend, it’s worth digging into the contrasts and similarities between these two rebuilds, why those are, and how the Spartans can chart an upward course forward.

Portable programs

Indiana named Cignetti the head coach five days after Michigan State announced Smith in November of 2023. What they did in the following month in the portal helped set the foundation for their disparate courses. 

When Cignetti came to Indiana, he left a James Madison program that he’d guided from the FCS levels to the FBS, with great success along the way. He had a program that the players understood and had produced success on the field. So when he left for Indiana, he brought about as much of it as possible — players, coaches, anything. 

The result was a Hoosiers side that hit the ground running in 2024, racing out to a 10-0 start before losing to Ohio State on the road. 

In total, Cignetti brought more than a dozen players from JMU to Indiana, highlighted by the likes of wide receiver Elijah Sarratt, cornerback D’Angelo Ponds, linebacker Aiden West and defensive lineman Mikail Kamara. Many are still on the team this year, including the four aforementioned stars. 

And that success helped Indiana land another crop of transfers this year, headlined by quarterback Fernando Mendoza.

“Yeah you gotta go get guys,” defensive coordinator Joe Rossi said of a fast rebuild. “So when he came in and took over, he went and got guys. Some really, really good players. So then they coached 'em up well and they had success and that allowed them to get better guys. So then it kind of worked from there.” 

Contrast that to Smith, who brought three players over from Oregon State to MSU for his first year, although he did bring a fair few coaches. 

The biggest get, of course, was bringing over quarterback Aidan Chiles, who played for Smith as a true freshman in 2023 in spurts then followed him to East Lansing. Chiles had interest elsewhere in the portal to stay on the West Coast but he stuck with his head coach and his commitment served as a big reason for optimism for Smith’s tenure.

Additionally, Velling and offensive lineman Tanner Miller came with Smith. Offensive lineman Luka Vincic played 2024 with the Beavers before transferring to Michigan State for the 2025 season. 

“They did a great job and I think they brought in a large number of guys from James Madison with them that knew their system and knew their culture,” offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren said. “We didn't bring quite as many from Oregon State with us and kind of came in and looked at the current roster and worked with them and tried to get some guys from the transfer portal with a little bit different angle. Not saying one's right or wrong, but he's done a great job." 

And unlike Indiana, where Sarratt is the leading receiver and West and Kamara are key pieces of the defense, outside of Chiles, the Oregon State contingent on Michigan State’s roster hasn’t been highly impactful. 

The situations are far from 1-to-1 in terms of who each coach could realistically get to follow them, but Cignetti’s porting of his James Madison program to Indiana proved to lay the foundation for his success, while Smith’s Michigan State is still shaping a core of key contributors for their program.

In an era of college football that has seen the likes of Cignetti and others hit the ground running as new coaches, the Spartans’ crawl through the first season and a half under Smith has begun to look more and more like an outlier. 

Soundbite machine or stately manner?

Smith is more fiery and animated with the team behind closed doors, Velling said, and the Spartans’ head man does have a quiet intensity about him in public. 

“He cares a lot, he cares about this team, he cares about Michigan State, he cares about the community, Lansing,” Velling said. “He cares deeply about this and his job.” 

But there’s no mistaking the fact that Smith speaks in measured tones, humbly avoiding bulletin board material for opponents while boosting his own program and its progress. 

Contrast that to Cignetti, he of “Google me” quips and visible fury in the faces of officials at Autzen Stadium this past weekend, and the difference is stark. 

Cignetti famously called out not just rival Purdue, but Big Ten powers Ohio State and Michigan when he introduced himself to Indiana fans at a Hoosiers basketball game before even coaching a game. He came to Indiana to challenge for a Big Ten title, and there was no reason not to be up front about that and the teams the Hoosiers would need to beat. 

Smith just isn’t wired that way, and thus isn’t the same front man for his program that Cignetti is. 

It makes sense, too, that Smith pairs a focused, calm public persona with a methodical, years-long rebuild. And while his steadiness has plenty of benefits internally, it’s hard to deny the juice that Indiana has with Cignetti putting himself out there so much. 

One area where the Spartans might find some fire, though, is from all the outside criticism. 

“You can kind of look at it as like, 'There's no one coming to save us,'” Rossi said. “We're going to save ourselves. That mentality is kind of unifying, in some way. Like, 'Hey, block out any type of outside noise. It's the guys in the room doing it for each other.' I think there is the ability to have a bond there, created. Plus, I think anyone who's in competitive sports, when you're told you can't do something, that's motivating.” 

Results matter most

Smith and Cignetti have each coached 18 regular season games as Big Ten head coaches. 

Cignetti is 17-1 in those games, and Smith is 8-10. Cignetti goes to 17-2 if you include Indiana’s loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff. 

And it’s worth remembering Cignetti is doing this at Indiana, a historically bad program. It was fair to wonder if it was just a flash in the pan in 2024, but starting 2025 undefeated with wins over Illinois and a Top 10 Oregon team along the way have shown this Indiana team is the real deal.

The Spartans have yet to beat a ranked opponent under Smith. The closest they came was likely against Illinois last season. 

And the nine-win gap between the coaches during their respective tenures in the Big Ten probably best explains why patience for Smith is running short. The Spartans didn’t need to be as good as Indiana this year or last, but holding on to make a bowl game in Year 1 and not free falling from 3-0 to 3-3 in Year 2 alone would have observers painting a very different picture about Smith. 

"It's right that you want to expect results a little bit quicker and I just think that's how college football has changed in the last couple of years,” Lindgren said. 

It’s not that Indiana is elite and MSU isn’t; it’s that if the Hoosiers can become elite overnight, there’s little reason to think the Spartans can’t also be at least competitively good quickly, too. 

And right now, they aren’t. 

“I do think that's a reality,” Smith said about the desire for quick success. “There's some more immediate gratification that needs to take place. You think about the investments getting made in this environment, I'm speaking broadly to college athletics, I think there's some realities to pushing and wanting things sooner than later.” 

What success might be for MSU

There are some obvious measures like making a bowl or picking off some rivalry wins, like against Michigan on Oct. 25 in Spartan Stadium, that would mark success for Michigan State in the second half. 

More granularly, despite injuries, improved play from the offensive line in the second half of the season would be arguably the biggest sign the coaching staff and players are making necessary strides. Relatedly, Chiles turning around his play (which includes getting healthy) can help demonstrate the strides this program is taking behind closed doors, as can a crisp and assignment-sound final six games from the defense. 

Just capturing some good vibes and carrying them forward after a dull showing against UCLA would be a big turn. As Smith alluded on Monday, there are investments being made, even directly to his roster, and keeping people happy with their spending choices matters, too. 

“We've gotta find a way to bounce back, create some energy by some execution and that's what we talked a lot about, the back half of this season and what we've got in front of us,” Smith said on Monday. 

It’s worth considering the timeline Smith took at Oregon State, too, as those around Michigan State, and certainly relatively-new athletic director J Batt, evaluate the football program. 

Smith won nine games in his first three seasons at Oregon State, posting a pair of two-win campaigns along the way. Over his next three years, he went 23-15, with a 10-3 season along the way. 

“They’ve done it before and I know they’ll do it again,” Velling said. “Might struggle to see the vision now, but I really have, once again, full confidence in them. I wouldn’t be worried a bit. They’ve done it and they know what they’re doing. It might take a second, but it’ll get done.”

The evidence is there that Smith can lay the foundation and then build upon it for future success, and he’s still early on enough in his Michigan State tenure to justify more patience. A buyout figure north of $30 million helps encourage some institutional patience, too. Smith is also not ignorant of what he is subjected to as a head coach.

What’s undeniable now, though, is how Cignetti’s supercharging of Indiana has changed the pressures and eroded patience in the type of rebuild that Smith wants to pull off in East Lansing.