John L. Smith

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John L. Smith

Date of birth	November 15, 1948
Place of birth	Idaho Falls, Idaho
Sport	Football
Overall Record	132-86
Awards	2001 Idaho Athletics Hall of Fame 2003 Big Ten Coach of the Year
Coaching Stats	College Football DataWarehouse
School as a player
1960s	Weber State College
Position	Linebacker & Quarterback
Coaching positions
1989-94 1995-97 1998-2002 2003-2006	Idaho Utah State Louisville Michigan State University

This article refers to the football coach. For the World War II Marine Corps ace and Medal of Honor recipient, see John Lucian Smith.

John L. Smith (b. November 15, 1948) is an American football coach, most recently the head coach at Michigan State. He was previously the head coach at Louisville, Utah State, and Idaho.

Smith was born in Idaho Falls and raised in nearby Iona. He lettered in football, basketball, and track at Bonneville High School, graduating in 1967. He played college football at Weber State College in Ogden, Utah, as both a linebacker and quarterback. He married Diana Flora on August 15, 1970 and they have three children: Nicholas, Kayse, and Sam. He is the uncle of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith.

In 2000 Sports Illustrated recognized Smith as one of Idaho's top 100 athletes of the 20th Century. He was later inducted into the Idaho Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001.

His overall record has been mixed, with great success at Utah State and Louisville, but also with a mediocrity at Michigan State. Critics have cited a lack of discipline among his players (such as keeping a convicted drug dealer on his team at Louisville), and an offense which does not feature a fullback or power running game.

Contents 1 Head coaching record 2 Assistant coach 3 First year as head coach 4 Trivia 5 NFL Network 6 External links

[edit] Head coaching record

John L. Smith had a record of 22-26 (.458) in his four seasons at MSU. The Spartans’ 2006 record was 4-8 (1-7 in the Big Ten).

He has compiled a record of 132-86 (.605) in his 18 years as a college head coach. After being an assistant head coach for Dennis Erickson for seven seasons, Smith began his head coaching career in 1989 at Idaho, posting a 53-21 record (.716) in six seasons. Under his leadership the Idaho Vandals, then in the Big Sky, made the I-AA playoffs five times. His 53 wins are the most in school history (by 17 games). Smith left Idaho following the 1994 season, moving up to Division I-A with Utah State for three seasons (16-18, .470). Smith then spent five seasons at Louisville (1998-2002), where he put together a 41-21 record (.661), including five-straight bowl appearances and back-to-back Conference USA titles in 2000-2001.

After the 2002 season, John L. Smith was hired as the head football coach at Michigan State. This created controversy for two reasons: Smith was hired before Louisville's bowl game that season, and he did not inform his players of the decision until halftime of this bowl game, while soundly losing to Marshall.

Smith ranks 12th among active NCAA Division I-A football coaches in career victories.

12 of his 18 teams have participated in postseason play, including seven straight appearances from 1997-2003. Smith is one of 18 head coaches in college football history to take three different teams to bowl games.

Smith, a defensive coach for most of his career, is also known as one of the disciples of the spread offense, learned from Dennis Erickson through Jack Elway and Jim Sweeney. After introducing it at Michigan State in 2003, his first season with the Spartans, Smith was named the Big Ten Conference Coach of the Year.

[edit] Assistant coach

John L. Smith began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Weber State College in 1971. For the next 17 seasons, Smith was an assistant coach, first at Montana (1972-76) for five seasons then at Nevada (1977-81) for five more as the defensive coordinator. He then joined Dennis Erickson as defensive coordinator and assistant head coach for 7 seasons at three locations: Idaho (1982-85), Wyoming (1986), and Washington State (1987-88). The middle initial "L." became part of his public moniker in 1982, due to another John Smith on the Idaho coaching staff.

[edit] First year as head coach

When Erickson left WSU for Miami in 1989, and Idaho's Keith Gilbertson departed for an assistant's job under Don James at Washington in Seattle, Smith decided to stay on the Palouse and become the head coach at neighboring Idaho.

Smith inherited a Vandal team that went 11-2 in 1988 (Division I-AA semifinals) with a returning All-American quarterback in John Friesz. Despite losing the first two games of 1989 (Washington State & Portland State), Idaho would go undefeated (8-0) in Big Sky conference play, the only time in school history. The Vandals lost in the first round of the I-AA playoffs, and finished at 9-3. Senior quarterback Friesz won the Walter Payton Award for the 1989 season, and was drafted by the San Diego Chargers.

[edit] Trivia

Smith has earned a reputation for his adventurous attitude. Some of his most recent adventures include:

• Paragliding with his children in Zermatt, Switzerland.
• Climbing a 19,340-foot peak on Mount Kilimanjaro.
• Participating in a flight on a T-38 Talon in Texas at Randolph Air Force Base.
• Skydiving from 14,000 feet over Greensburg, Indiana.
• ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain.
• Washing out of basic training for officers with the U.S. Marines in Quantico.
• Slapped himself rather boisterously on live television during a press conference

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith, the top pick in the 2005 NFL draft, is his nephew.

==2006 Controversy==

John L. Smith came under fire during the 2006 season from Michigan State fans and alumni; many of them supported his dismissal as head coach. Those who supported his termination cited the following as examples:

• Losing to Michigan 45-37 in 2004 after leading 27-10 in the 4th quarter. (Although the injury of quarterback Drew Stanton during the game played a very large part in the comeback of Michigan.)

• Losing to Ohio State 35-24 in 2005 in a game that saw the Spartans take a 17-7 lead. MSU had a field goal attempt blocked and returned for a touchdown at the end of the first half. As he ran off the field, Smith blamed the coaches for the confusion on the field regarding what personnel MSU should have had (which led to the blocked kick).

• Losing to Notre Dame on September 23, 2006, 40-37. Michigan State led 37-21 midway through the fourth quarter. Many point to Smith and the coaching staff for poor playcalling that led to the collapse.^{[citation needed]}

• Losing to Illinois on September 30, 2006, 23-20, on Homecoming. Illinois had not won a Big Ten game since 2004. After the game, Illinois and Michigan State players fought at midfield after several Illinois players tried to plant their team flag at midfield of Spartan Stadium, which was banned between Big Ten at protesting by Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr after the Minnesota game in 2005.^{[citation needed]} In the postgame press conference, Smith admitted the coaches were having trouble motivating the players, a statement that is being compared to those of Bobby Williams in 2002 before he was fired. Smith also slapped himself in the face (jokingly) as a reference to a previous claim by Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis where he stated that he had been hit in the face during a sideline scrum in the 2006 contest.

• Losing to Indiana 46-21 on October 28, 2006. Historically, Indiana is one of the Big Ten's worst football programs, having only recorded two conference titles (and no national championships) in 106 years of affiliation with the Big Ten Conference. Indiana's most recent bowl appearance was in 1993, a 45-20 loss to Virginia Tech in the Independence Bowl.

On November 1, 2006, John L. Smith was fired from his head coaching job at Michigan State. Smith and his coaching staff stayed on the job through the end of the 2006.

Smith was credited by some with taking the program to a better place in terms of academics.^{[citation needed]} The team GPA rose higher than it had been in decades, athletes were going to class,^{[citation needed]} and MSU had the most academic all Big Ten selections of any team in the conference in 2005 including two academic All-Americans.

Smith was replaced by Mark Dantonio, former head coach of Cincinnati, on Monday, November 27, 2006.

[edit] NFL Network

• In 2007 he was hired by the NFL Network as a college football analyst.

[edit] External links

• Michigan State University athletics - John L. Smith - bio
• College Football Data Warehouse - John L. Smith - head coaching record
• Deseret Morning News - Smith enjoyed time in Sky - 20-July-2006

Preceded by Keith Gilbertson	Idaho Head Football Coach 1989–1994	Succeeded by Chris Tormey
Preceded by Charlie Weatherbie	Utah State Head Football Coach 1995–1997	Succeeded by Dave Arslanian
Preceded by Ron Cooper	Louisville Head Football Coach 1998–2002	Succeeded by Bobby Petrino
Preceded by Bobby Williams	Michigan State Head Football Coach 2003–2006	Succeeded by Mark Dantonio