Jan. 8, 2003

By Dave Dye, The Detroit News

This is John L. Smith's 20th day as Michigan State's football coach. It has been a hectic three weeks for him.

Smith has hired a coaching staff and is working to salvage a recruiting class. He returned to Louisville, Ky., to celebrate the holidays. He is living out of a hotel while his wife is trying to sell their home and prepare for what he said is their 25th move in 32 years of marriage.

Smith addressed recruiting, his thoughts on the team he inherited and many other topics in this question-and-answer session with Dave Dye of The Detroit News.

Q. You've had a couple of weeks now to start evaluating the program. What have you learned?

A. We've got a lot of work to do. We're behind in recruiting. We're trying to make up ground, we're trying to catch up. We've got about 10 kids (making official visits) this weekend, a dozen the weekend after. We're going to have to go right up to the very end (signing day is Feb. 5), which normally you don't do. Normally it's done (through oral commitments) prior to that. We're going to have to continue to dig under every rock out there. The strange thing about recruiting is everybody can go back and say they took a guy late and he's better than the big-time guy. So that sometimes happens. We're hoping it happens a few times this year. But there's still some big-time guys out there that hopefully we can turn and get them coming our direction.

Q. What are the key areas you have to address first with the program?

A. We're going to change the philosophy. Our philosophy is it's got to be us, we and our. I, me and my, selfish people, you're not going to make it here. That's going to happen. There's going to be some attrition. It's going to be a lot more blue collar than maybe they have had, which is just us. All we're doing is bringing in us, and this is what we're all about. That has to change, which we're going to get changed.

Q. How does the returning personnel fit into your system?

A. We've got a little bit of work to do there. It's a slow molding of the clay pottery, you might say. We're a little bit poor in wide receivers. We play with more of those guys (in a spread offense). You need more. I think our quarterbacks are pretty decent. Our tight ends are pretty decent. Our offensive front, we've always got to bring people in there. We're poor in linebackers. We need linebackers. You can never have too many. They do all your special teams. They're on the field all the time for you, in everything you do. And we need some (defensive backs) as well. I think our defensive front should be fairly decent, to a point.

Check here for the entire Q&A in The Detroit News.