Transcription of John L. Smith Press Conference
12/19/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 19, 2002
EAST LANSING, Mich. - MSU's Athletics Director Ron Mason
Introduction:
"Before I introduce the new coach, I want to thank the advisory committee for their help. Many of their reviews are contained in our new coach. I want to thank the support I received from President McPherson and Dr. (Fred) Poston. Dr. Poston and I were day-to-day with this decision and the president was brought up to speed at all times. The Board of Trustees also stood with me on this decision. A lot of people wondered if they would stand by me, and they did, and I'm very thankful for them.
"When I was asked what I was looking for in a coach, it always came back to, 'What's the right fit for Michigan State?' I also thought that building programs as well as turning programs around was of the utmost importance. This man has done that, as well as win championships. John L. Smith and his wife are very excited to be here at Michigan State. We are very pleased they have joined the Spartan family. Without further ado, the 23rd football coach at Michigan State University, John L. Smith."
MSU Football Coach John L. Smith
Introduction:
"First off, I want you to meet my wife Diana. (pause) Anytime you leave a place, it's tough. You get very close to those people around you, and it was a tough deal to leave the University of Louisville. Our players and fans gave us great support. But it's like life - you have to move on. The decision to come to Michigan State was very, very easy for me. When you grow up, you see Michigan State vs. Michigan, Michigan State vs. Notre Dame and Michigan State vs. Ohio State, and that's what you get used to. And that's really the pinnacle. As a football coach, this is like a dream come true. I feel blessed and I feel honored to be here as your coach. And I can promise you this - you will see a good product.
"Our philosophy is blue-collar. We're going to get up everyday and we're going to get better. We care about each other. We are and 'us, we and our' program, not an 'I, me and mine' program. Everybody should care about their teammates, and that's an important thing to us. You are going to see a good product on the field because we're going to work hard. You are going to see a good product in the classroom. And you are going to see a good product in the community. It's like I told the players I met with earlier, we are blessed and God has given us some special things. We have to cherish that responsibility and we have to share with the community, and we're going to do those things. Other than that, we basically have three goals. One is to always have our seniors go out as winners. Two is to go to a bowl game. And the third is to win championships. And to win a championship in this league, you have a chance to win the whole deal. Those are our athletic and academic goals."
On when MSU contacted him as a coach:
"I made up my mind for certain today. Ron (Mason) and I met about four weeks ago and we have not had much contact since then. This is my first time in Lansing...we didn't speak before the bowl game. The agents spoke to each other."
On what he knew about Michigan State:
"When you look at the history of Michigan State, you go back to Duffy Daugherty. Just to walk down the hall lined up with All-Americans. It speaks for itself. I was fortunate long ago to coach at the University of Montana, and on the other side with basketball was Jud Heathcote. It may be kind of fitting to start out my coaching career with Jud and, to a degree, end with Jud."
On what he knew about last season's team:
"I know we have to win more football games. I believe we have to be a more disciplined football team. We are going to do that. We're going to bring in a different philosophy. Whatever philosophy was here, I'm not going to criticize it, but I'm going to bring a philosophy that fits us. We may lose a guy along the way. The kids are going to respect and love the game and respect and love one another."
On how he will bring stability to the program:
"I think based on what we've done in the past. We have a great track record. I think we've gone to places that were worse off than Michigan State. We took over a Louisville program that was 1-10 a few years ago and probably one of the worst programs in the country. We're going to love one another as far as football goes and we're going to win some games. You will see a quality product."
On the L in his name:
"Well, it doesn't take long, does it? Everyone asks, what's the L stand for? I'm going to be serious, and let you write it one time - it stands for Lansing."
On the hardest part of taking over the team:
"The hardest part will change as we move along. The hardest part right now will be to put together a staff. We're going to sit down and analyze everyone that's already here. You can't tell me that everyone here is a bad coach. We're going to sit down and talk to those guys. We're going to find out who wants to stay and agree with our philosophy. Then we will put the other pieces of the puzzle together. Once we get a staff out here, then we have to worry about the players on the field to make up what we've lost in recruiting. We've got to get a recruiting class."
On the Jeff Smoker situation:
"Here's the way we deal with problems. In any family, you're going to have problems. If a player and I have a problem, I will give that particular individual an opportunity to overcome that problem. If you can't overcome that problem, then maybe we can live with it. We don't live with a lot of problems. But if you can't overcome it, and we can't live with it, then we have problems. And usually that's a bad deal. We as coaches are in this profession to make a difference in somebody's life. And if we can save somebody, and that person has a good heart, then we're going to give that player an opportunity to overcome the problem. It has nothing to do with his play on the field. I haven't even seen Jeff (Smoker) throw a ball.
"There may be some disciplinary action that you may not even know about. And it's not your position to know that. That may happen. One thing that's not going to happen is for a player to get embarrassed anymore than they have been. If there's some disciplinary action you should know about, we'll let you know about it. We're going to do what's best for the team. That's the first consideration. The second consideration is the individual. There's a lot of gray area in all of these problems. All problems are not the same. Every problem is different. It's not black and white, there's a lot of gray in the middle. If we really feel the kid has an honest, true heart, he will have an opportunity to overcome those problems."
"That decision may be made over the course of a semester. A lot of times you have to lay some things out and say, 'This is what you have to do to get back on this football team.' And we'll see if that happens. I'm not saying that's going to happen, I'm saying it could happen."
On his philosophy:
"I'll give it to you in a nutshell - we are an 'us, we, and our' program. Not an 'I, me and mine' program. If you have any 'I' in your vocabulary, you better get rid of it. Our philosophy is that we're going to give to one another. The players will become a part of this family. We're going to be blue-collar and we're going to work hard."
On the recruiting class:
"I think we can salvage basically the entire recruiting season. There's no rebuilding process. You have to get out there and sign players. We've got to make up some ground. I know that there are some good players in the state we have to get."
On his offensive strategy:
"Offensively, we are going to spread it out and throw the ball. But don't get the misconception that we're not going to run the football. If we're doing it the right way, we should have a 1,000-yard rusher in the backfield. We're going to spread the ball first, but we're still going to have to run the ball."
On football and basketball coexisting at the same university:
"It can definitely work. I hear that Tom Izzo is a better football coach than a basketball coach (laughing). We should get along, and why can't we? We're going to model ourselves after him. We want to be where he is. We're going to work together."
On ever thinking about coming to MSU, and, at age 54, is this the last coaching job?
"I think this will be my last job. You only have so many rebuilds left in you. I certainly hope it is. To be honest with you, I have set a personal goal of when I want to get out. When I stop beating my offensive lineman up the steps, that's when I should go. I've never dreamt of this job, specifically. When you think of college football, you think of the Michigan State's and the Michigan's of the world. I'm just blessed and honored."
On why he left Louisville:
"I think it's a combination of a lot of things. We had a great run there. We had some fifth-year players that left with two championships. My ego's not that big that I have to play for a BCS bowl. But to be perfectly honest with you, if the opportunity arises, it would be nice. I don't know what else I can accomplish at Louisville. Maybe the next guy can do more. But I have always dreamt of playing in the Rose Bowl."
On academic standards:
"Our goal was to graduate 75 percent of the players that stayed for the full five years. Everybody should be at that rate. With the NCAA rules, and the Big Ten rules, which are more strict than the NCAA's, a kid should graduate if he's playing all four years."
On what kind of players he will recruit:
"We will go after the guys with the most athletic ability. They have been blessed with an athletic talent. Football players were not meant to be rocket scientists. But more importantly, you're only going to win with character. If your players don't have character they're not going to win."
 John L. Smith has compiled a 110-60 record in 14 years as a college head coach. The 110 wins ranks No. 14 among active NCAA I-A football coaches.  | |
On Michigan State's style of play:
"It'll definitely fit into the philosophy. But regardless, you've got to be able to go to the hole and block somebody. That's just the kind of game it is. You don't want to take away the aggressive measures of the game. I don't like to use the term 'smash-mouth', but yeah, we're going to go out and play at an aggressive level, but add a little more athleticism to the game. I mean, that we are going to spread and throw. But, if we have a little more opportunity to run the ball, then we will."
On coming off an 11-2 season in 2001 and going 7-6 this season:
"What happened during the year? I think several things happened during the year. Like I told the group of players that I met with earlier, you are only as good as your seniors and you had better take some ownership of this football team. You had better be accountable for your teammates and accountable to your teammates. So, senior leadership is going to lead you to championships. We had a lot of disruptions. We had a lot of injuries and we had a lot of other problems that we had to correct. We were giving guys the opportunities to correct those problems. Now, those guys might not be with us for two to three weeks or whatever it is at a time and that took a lot away from our continuity. It was a combination of things. All it comes down to is that it is our obligation to open up those things and as coaches, to kick them in the tail and get them going in the right direction and make sure we do win. It's not like we didn't go to a bowl game. There are a lot of teams that would like to have had seven wins."
On the distractions during last night's GMAC Bowl:
"It was a tremendous distraction. I didn't even think about it at the time. We had several players that went to the bowl game, but didn't dress. You just put them back behind the bench. The last thing that I ever thought was that they would have their cell phones. So, when by the time it got to halftime, everybody knew. Moms had been calling their kids on the sideline, so it was not pretty. And I apologized to our guys for letting that happen. Like I've said, there is never an easy way to do some things and that was my fault and I'm sorry. It was not pretty, to be honest with you."
MSU Athletics Director Ron Mason
On recapping the events of yesterday:
"First thing I want to clear up something that's unfortunate. It was already alluded to you by Coach Smith. I'm going to back you up to yesterday, when I did talk to the athletics director at the University of Louisville. The conversation went something like this. I asked him for permission to talk to John L., and he said that's fine. I said I didn't want to interfere with the bowl game, that's important. He said what would you like to do. I said I would like to meet with him tomorrow, possibly in the late morning, but we can work that out. He said that was fine. He had no problem with that. I said I'll get back to you or you get back to me once you talk to your coach. That's exactly what happened. Now, as we all know, all of a sudden, here was this press conference going on during the football game and the athletics director talking on the sideline about the Michigan State situation. I was flabbergasted and I was disappointed.
"But if I had to do this again, based on some other schools that were moving quickly with football coaches, it was still the right time to make the call. What I did, or why I didn't do it earlier, was so that it wouldn't interfere with all their training and the 'do you coach', don't you coach' questions. I wanted to wait and keep it until today. I felt that by doing it yesterday, it was a cordial talk, I had no clue that it was going to go in the direction that it did. It's as simple as that."
On making the call yesterday:
"Yes, I thought that if I waited...John L. was my first choice in the college scene. We did not lose one coach to another school. There were some coaches out there who were unavailable to us that I used to here you guys talking about all of the time. John L. was my first choice since day one as far as college coaches go. I would have been devastated and so would you - you would have been the first people to say I dropped the ball - if some other school walked in there today and he ended up there."
On what convinced Mason that Smith was the right man for the job:
"It was an informal situation about four weeks ago, for a very short period of time. There wasn't a lot to discuss. Since that time, of course, I was able to contact a lot of people. As time went along, I felt that he was the right guy for the job.
"Look at his record. He's been to three different spots, rebuilt teams and taken them to championships. They were always the right way. No NCAA violations, none whatsoever. That more than supercedes any one point in one season. He did have difficulties this year and he dealt with them. They were not let go. He dealt with them at the time and they still ended up in a bowl."
On the rumors that have been following the coaching search:
"I can't control rumors. There's just so many of them out there. I wanted to jump on so many radio shows and talk shows and get on the newspaper to make sure that you guys knew the facts. I couldn't do that because of confidentiality. When those things get out, you begin to wonder if some people don't just throw them out there and see if they'll gain any momentum. I think probably this did to a point, but I don't think it had a lot of momentum here. I don't know how he (Kirk Gibson) got the word, whether it came from down in Louisville or what."
 Ron Mason (right) stands with John L. Smith prior to introducing Smith as Michigan State's head football coach. | |
"We have meetings and if we get together somewhere... I'm not going to go out there and see what he thinks or how he thinks, but I'll be certain to say, if you have issues with this, let's deal with this. It's as simple as that. I think he was probably emotional at that point. He's losing an excellent coach and sometimes that gets the best of you. Maybe that's what happened, but I can't speak for him."
On the response from the fan base:
"Right now, the only person's name out there that I saw anybody get excited about was Steve Mariucci. Everybody else's name that was out there - there was always something wrong with them. Obviously, Steve Mariucci is not interested in coming to Michigan State. The reaction of our fans today, or any day, is important to me. But I have to do what I think is right. His (John L. Smith) fit here at Michigan State was right. I think our fans will probably sit back, watch and see what direction we head and how we do it. And I think that they will all be proud. Somebody said to me, 'who knew Bo Schembechler before he came to Michigan?'. Now I'm not comparing John L. to Bo, but I'm just saying I'm a coach and I think I know what a coach is. If you're looking for some Hollywood character to come in here that everybody is jumping up and down about, tell me who they are. I want a football coach. That's what I want. I don't care about winning a press conference. I want to win games and this guy wants to win games."
On recruiting blue chip guys:
"He has a lot of guys in the NFL. So, I guess those are the blue chip guys. I guess he's got something down there. If his quarterback would have had some receivers down there, he probably would have been the No. 2 pick in the NFL draft, behind the guy that beat him on one leg last night. He's a great quarterback. So, blue chippers, I've recruited them myself over the years. I like them to be evaluated at the end of five years, not before they get here. The accuracy of a lot of recruiting people can get lost in the shuffle. I think, at Michigan State, he'll have a better opportunity to recruit the kind of players that will operate within the Big Ten rules and the academic regulations of Michigan State."
On John L. Smith providing stability to the program:
"I think that's one thing that we can almost guarantee. He's a man that's said it to you. I believe him. When I talk to him, I believe him. He's here for the duration. He's not going to be here for a couple years and then run off somewhere else. I think that it's been a logical progression in his coaching career. Each time he's moved, he's made a move up. This is his final move up. You can't get any better than Michigan State and the Big Ten."
On the search process:
"He was the first choice in the college ranks. We looked at the professional ranks and the college ranks. With John L., we had the informal meeting several weeks ago. When it comes time where you think that you are seriously interested, then you ask permission to make sure that you're covered."
On whether or not this hire will define his time as A.D. at Michigan State:
"I'm going to look back at my career here at Michigan State and think that this was a good decision."