Jonathan Smith may be directly on the hot seat in the middle of Hate Week, but not everything that has gone wrong this season has been the second-year Michigan State head coach’s fault.
While there are factors under his control like clock management, play-calling, and overall roster construction, others are out of his grasp like injuries and poor execution. He can coach his players up all he wants, but all it takes is a tweaked ankle or the wrong cut at the wrong time on a bad knee or an awkward fall on the wrong body part to change everything.