LANSING — Jonathan Smith’s annual stop at the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association’s winter clinic gave the Michigan State football coach a chance to reflect on a busy offseason.
New assistants were hired. New players — transfers and early enrollees — are on campus. The work to rebuild the Spartans is well underway a little over two weeks into the new year.
“I am a believer in consistency, in continuity,” Smith told reporters Friday morning at the Lansing Center. “Guys that come in for a year will improve the next year. And so we have a lot of guys on the roster that have been here now, added some pieces. But I’m convinced with way our coaches go, the longer time they spend at our place, they’re going to get better.”
MSU began its winter conditioning program Monday as classes for the new semester opened. That includes 27 players who weren’t on the roster last year, 16 midyear transfers and 11 freshmen who arrived early from high school to get a jump start on their college careers.
Smith and his staff put priorities on three key areas for additions, with a focus on offense:
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On offensive line, Smith said adding Conner Moore (Montana State), Matt Gulbin (Wake Forest), Caleb Carter (Western Carolina) and Luka Vincic (Oregon State) will add depth and position versatility to a group that struggled in protection and run blocking a year ago: “We need to create more competition in that room. And with the four guys, they got multiple snaps. I mean, they got career starts. They we wanted to create more in there. And getting the four we got, we feel awesome about them.”
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On wide receiver, MSU lost four players to transfer (Jaron Glover, Aziah Johnson, Jaelen Smith and Antonio Gates Jr.). Smith brought in four transfers in Evan Boyd (Central Michigan), Rodney Bullard (Valdosta State), Omari Kelly (Middle Tennessee State) and Chrishon McCray (Kent State) along with two freshmen in Braylon Collier and Charles Taplin: “We got to find ways to continue to get better. Obviously, we got to compliment Nick Marsh, because he’s going to see double team after double team.”
Smith also bolstered his coaching staff with safeties coach James Adams, quarterbacks coach Jon Boyer and offensive pass game coordinator Aaron Pflugrad along with promoting a number of graduate assistants into assistant position coach roles now that the NCAA allows unlimited on-field coaches.
The addition of Boyer will be one to watch. He previously worked for Smith at Oregon State and now will work again with quarterback Aidan Chiles, who enters his second year as the starter. It also allows offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren to take more of an overseer/architect role in the offense after pulling double duty as QB coach last year after also coming to East Lansing from Corvallis with Smith and Chiles.
“Jon had been with us for five years,” Smith said. “He was deeply involved offensively with quarterbacks and all of that, so we feel really excited about kind of him adding to that offensive room.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football attacked 3 areas of need this offseason
