Second-year coach Jonathan Smith wants Michigan State football to be a developmental program, and he's banking on roster retention to yield results.

An old idiom espouses the idea that patience is a virtue – and perhaps no one will come to embody that statement quite like Michigan State football head coach Jonathan Smith. The Spartans are a program with a history of success yearning for a return to the spotlight,

Smith took over the Spartans after the disastrous end to the Mel Tucker era and the typical roster overhaul followed a change at the top. A 3-0 start last fall raised a few eyebrows but Michigan State dropped seven of the last nine games to finish with a losing record for the third straight year.