Canzano: Jonathan Smith is proof you can never go home

Smith (and Michigan State) are at Oregon on Friday.

Jonathan Smith went 34-35 at Oregon State. (Photo: Naji Saker)

Jonathan Smith’s mother wrote me a note a few years ago. She wanted to tell me how much fun she was having reading about her son’s team at Oregon State.

Robin Smith worked as a college professor in Southern California. His father, Leonard, was an accountant. The Smiths had a long line of extended family members — aunts, uncles, and cousins — who lived in Oregon. It’s partly why Jonathan ended up playing at Oregon State.

His dad, Leonard, was a good athlete. He grew up in Eugene. But he wasn’t allowed to play football.

“Too dangerous,” his parents told him.

Jonathan Smith’s grandmother didn’t like football — until she did. She was born and raised in Portland, as was her husband. They married, had children, lived in Eugene for years, then moved to Corvallis. That’s where their grandson used to visit, and when he later suited up for Oregon State, she didn’t miss a game.

Jonathan Smith makes his return to the state on Friday. This time, as the coach at Michigan State. His Spartans will play Oregon in the first Big Ten game at Autzen Stadium. The Ducks are 23.5-point favorites.

Will Smith get booed?

Does he care?

Or understand why?

I’ve wondered about that in the last few days. Smith was a 5-foot-9 walk-on quarterback at Oregon State. That he engineered one of the greatest seasons in school history — 11-1 and a Fiesta Bowl rout of Notre Dame — was the stuff of legend. Then, years later, he came back as head coach, took over a flat-lining program, and led it back to relevancy. It was fun to watch.

Jonathan and his family lived in Southern California when he was a kid. He attended Glendora High School, the same school as motivational speaker Tony Robbins. When I pointed that out once and asked if they’d ever crossed paths, Smith told me: “Come on, that guy is like 20 years older than me.”

Smith has an older brother, Josh. I met him once when the Beavers played USC. Before that game, Josh’s family stood on the field watching OSU warm-up. Jonathan jogged over, and they slapped backs. A few minutes later, Smith pulled me aside and pointed up to a row of seats at the Los Angeles Coliseum and said: “That’s where we used to sit when I was a kid.”

The Pac-12 teetered and collapsed last year. Amid that, Smith ditched Oregon State for the first ‘Power 4’ job that came his way.

“Any port in a storm,” the saying goes.

Smith could have done better. Washington would have hired him the second Kalen DeBoer ditched the Huskies for Alabama. Or Smith could have ended up at UCLA post-Chip Kelly. Smith was pretty much leaving, no matter what, but he took the seventh-best gig in the Big Ten, and I suspect that’s part of the sting for OSU fans.

UW fans were ticked at DeBoer.

UCLA fans were angry that Kelly bolted on them.

Getting left behind stinks, folks.

I spoke with Smith in July at Big Ten Media Day. He met me down a hallway at Lucas Oil Stadium and talked about his clumsy departure in Corvallis. He knew that dropping his OSU gear at Goodwill on the way out of town was a bad look. It’s something he and his wife had done after every football season.

“Probably in hindsight, not great timing,” he told me.

Any rational person understands why Smith did what he did from a professional standpoint. He had proof of performance. There was too much smoke at Oregon State. The departure and messaging were clunky. Some players were miffed. Boosters felt jilted. Blame Smith if you’d like, but the whole scene was predictable and serves as a reminder of how cruel and cold the business of college athletics can be.

Just ask Scott Rueck, the OSU women’s basketball coach. He watched a potential Final Four roster walk out the door last spring. His players dipped out and defected, one by one, in a painful postseason parade.

Let’s face it — Rueck could have left himself, and we’d have all understood. But he stuck it out, stayed in Corvallis, and I wondered this week how sweet that story will be one day when he takes his team back to the NCAA Tournament.

How about a return to the Final Four?

Can you imagine?

Rueck and Smith are driven by different motivations. They coach different sports. They’re different people. What happens in the next few seasons with OSU women’s basketball has a chance to be a wonderful story of resilience, perseverance, and loyalty. Maybe Rueck is proof there is such a thing as a “forever guy.” I write that last sentence fully aware that I’ve worked at six different daily newspapers. I left every one of them for something better.

Scott Rueck took Oregon State to the Final Four in 2016. (Photo: Serena Morones)

The Beavers are 3-1 in football this season. Smith wouldn’t have done a lick better than his replacement, Trent Bray. Smith went 34-35 in six seasons in Corvallis. There were some uplifting moments and bowl games, but also some puzzling decisions.

Remember the failed fake punts?

How about, fourth-down-and-the-game?

Smith made some strange go-for-broke decisions, particularly when he had an advantage. I wondered at times if his coaching decisions were shaded by his journey. He was an overachiever. He’d taken over an underdog program and helped it punch above its weight. But did Smith know what to do when he had the better team?

Smith’s legacy in Corvallis reminds me a little of a Thomas Wolfe novel from the 1940s — “You Can’t Go Home Again.” Humans are nostalgic. We remember things better than they probably were, particularly our younger years.

Wolfe was sitting around one day with writer Ella Winter, lamenting that fact, when she remarked: “Don’t you know you can’t go home again?”

Wolfe nearly fell out of his chair. He got permission to use the phrase as the title of his book. It might as well be on the side of the Michigan State team bus on Friday.

The Pac-12 is in a rebuild. The conference got a boost of legitimacy this week with the announcement that Gonzaga is joining. There’s suddenly some direction and good energy. Amid it, here comes Smith, wearing different colors, serving as a reminder of all that went down.

Someday, let’s face it, Smith is going to leave East Lansing, too. It’s yet to be determined whether he ducks out for another job or gets fired after losing too many games. Be sure, Smith leaves town carrying a cardboard box, just the same.

“He’s a fake and a fraud,” an Oregon State fan wrote to me this week.

“He wouldn’t be where he’s at without OSU.”

“He could have waited a year or two.”

Football coaches are born liars. They mislead the public about injuries. They talk out both sides of their mouths. They feign loyalty and dedication to schools, recruits, players, and, yes, even the media. Every once in a while, though, the act lines up in a way that sure is something beautiful.

Jonathan Smith had a run like that at Oregon State.

Maybe that’s all it ever was.

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