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thedrifter
10-21-06, 07:47 AM
Slap-Happy Smith Feeling The Heat
Outspoken and entertaining, Spartans' coach also finds his job in jeopardy after rough year
Michael Schlossberg
Posted: 10/20/06
By Michael Schlossberg
The Daily Northwestern

For Michigan State coach John L. Smith, dealing with is pressure is nothing new.

Having climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, skydived at 14,000 feet, paraglided over Switzerland, trained with the United States Marines, and ran with the bulls in Spain, all after the age of 50, the 57-year-old coach is no stranger to extreme situations.

However, none of those experiences can compare to the rush of the Smith's latest adventure - life on the coaching hot seat.

Entering his fourth season at Michigan State with a mediocre 18-18 record, many believed that Smith's future as coach of the Spartans depended on his team delivering a solid season.

But through seven games, it has been anything but.

After a promising 3-0 start, Michigan State was on the verge of improving to 4-0 with a huge upset over No. 12 Notre Dame. Leading by 16 midway through the fourth quarter, Michigan State turned the ball over three times in the final seven minutes, giving up three touchdowns.

They ultimately lost the game 40-37.

As an encore, the following week Michigan State became the first Big Ten team to lose to Illinois in nearly two years.

With the misfortune of playing Michigan and Ohio State in the last two weeks, Smith's team now has lost four consecutive games, which many consider analogous to last year's 1-6 finish following a 4-0 start that had the Spartans ranked as high as No. 11.

Now many of the Spartans faithful are calling for Smith's job.

"They're going to criticize you when you win, and they're going to criticize you when you lose," Smith said. "What I try to do is to consume myself with the things that I can handle and have some control of, and that's the kids and the program. So you spend time with them."

All of the other Big Ten coaches, however, feel that Smith does not deserve the criticism he has received.

Smith currently ranks 12th among active Divison I-A coaches with 131 career wins and has a career winning percentage of 0.615, 17th best among active coaches. He also has taken his teams to the postseason in 12 of his 17 years as a head coach at Idaho, Utah State, Louisville and Michigan State.

"Here's a guy that's won 131 games as a football coach," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said, "and not too many guys can say that.

"Wherever he's been, he's been a winner, and no one will ever convince me that John L. Smith is not a winner."

In the midst of constant criticism, however, Smith hasn't made life any easier for himself.

The coach's eccentric personality has led him to generate additional negative publicity for Michigan State on many different occasions.

A classic example of this came during a press conference following his team's loss to Illinois. Smith was discussing the Illinois act of planting its flag in the Spartans' turf when he slapped himself in the face, seemingly out of nowhere.

While the slap was a reference to Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis' claim that a Michigan State player slapped him on the sidelines, many media outlets, including ESPN, had a field day with Smith's gesture, playing the clip over and over again for a whole week.

"I don't think a lot of people get that side of me," Smith said after the incident. "They don't even know what I was referencing, do they? I regret that ESPN is not intelligent enough to pick up the joke."

In the following week, Smith was forced to answer question after question regarding the incident, which was similar to many of his previous off-the-wall comments and actions.

Yet Smith insists he will not change his personality to accommodate others.

"I probably do make life harder for myself with some of the things I do and say," he said. "But why would I change who I am? I'm not going to be somebody I'm not just so I can be political and you can like me."

Further adding to his troubles, earlier this season Smith admitted to having difficulty motivating his players following the nightmare loss to Notre Dame.

While much of the Michigan State alumni, fans, and boosters have jumped ship, some Spartans veterans say they are motivated to save their coach's job.

"I know you guys think he's lost us or something, but we're down for Coach Smith," fifth-year senior defensive tackle and co-captain Clifton Ryan said in a press conference. "He's my guy. He's my main man. I'm going to continue to fight for him."

Reach Michael Schlossberg at m-schlossberg@northwestern.edu.

Ellie