One year removed from a 5-7 season and third straight missed bowl game, expectations have been tempered, and then some, for Michigan State football.
Jonathan Smith has a giant task of leading the program out of the gutter and back into the national spotlight and it looked like he might do that in year one with a 3-0 start and a chance to beat a solid Boston College team on the road. Unfortunately, late mistakes led to a come-from-behind win for Boston College and the Spartans began to spiral.
Aidan Chiles became a turnover machine and Michigan State went just 2-6 the rest of the way, beating just Iowa and Purdue before losing by a million to Rutgers at home with a bowl game on the line in the finale.