"Jonathan Smith can't recruit."
That's the phrase that Michigan State football fans got used to hearing after just one recruiting class was signed by the new head coach. I'm not going to count the 2024 class because he only had a couple of months to finalize it, but he did still vault it about 40 spots before February's signing day.
The 2025 class ranked No. 42 in the country, and that caused some concern among fans who expected him to just sign top-25 classes regularly. Obviously rebuilds take time.
In the 2026 cycle, however, Smith is proving a lot of doubters wrong.