Less than six months after arriving at Michigan State, J Batt made his first major move in East Lansing.

The new athletic director fired football coach Jonathan Smith on Sunday after he posted a 9-15 record in two seasons.

Batt remained silent behind the scenes and, following Michigan State’s 38-28 season-ending win against Maryland on Saturday night in Detroit, it was still unclear if Smith would be back in 2026 .

Shortly after 3 p.m. Sunday, the university officially announced it was moving on from Smith in a press release with Batt saying “it’s become necessary to make a coaching change in order to chart a new direction for the program.” Less than an hour later, reports began to circulate that Michigan State is close to replacing Smith with former Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgera

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