Michigan State Smith keeps cool as his job is scrutinized FEELING THE BURN Poor 2006 seasons by LLOYD CARR and JOHN L. SMITH may leave the coaches on the hot seat

In John L. Smith's world, there are no hot seats.

Two consecutive losing campaigns at Michigan State haven't put any extra priority on the goals he articulates every season.

Win championships. Send the seniors out as winners.

Publicly, Smith rarely is rattled when asked if another underachieving year could cost him his job as MSU's head football coach. Question him about his job security in East Lansing, as reporters did during Big Ten media days, and he'll get that little gleam in his eye, break out his trademark toothy smile and tell you ...

"I don't feel any different this year than I would any other year."

He might be one of the few who feels that way.

Although Smith is only in the fourth season of a six-year deal that pays $1.6-million annually, anyone with a passing interest in Spartan football sees 2006 as the year that will determine his future at MSU.

Nearly every preseason college football article has Smith as one of the Division I-A coaches most likely to lose his job if he doesn't deliver a winning season. The goodwill that he earned from turning around a turmoil-filled program to an 8-5 record in 2003 gave him a pass the following season, when MSU finished 5-7. But patience evaporated after the Spartans' meltdown in 2005. MSU started the season 4-0 before finishing 5-6.

After all, 2004 was expected to be a rebuilding year after quarterback Jeff Smoker left for the NFL. There wasn't as nice of an excuse for 2005, a season in which MSU won three of its first four games by an average of 37 points and delivered future Bowl Championship Series squad Notre Dame an overtime loss in South Bend -- yet lost six of its final seven games to go without a bowl trip for the second straight season.

Which brings Smith to this point.

He'll have the best collection of talent since his arrival in 2003, with potential Heisman Trophy candidate Drew Stanton as the crown jewel of an experienced offense. Most of his best players on both sides of the ball are seniors, making this season MSU's best chance in Smith's four years to not only finish with a winning record but conceivably challenge for a conference championship.

If 2006 is mediocre, or worse, becomes MSU's third consecutive losing season, Smith could be done.

So how warm is his hot seat?

At the end of 2005, the traditional postseason media news conference featured an unexpected visitor -- MSU president Lou Anna Simon. She and athletic director Ron Mason said Smith would return for 2006 with the expectation that he would fulfill the goals the school had for its football program.

And she left no question about their nature.

"We expect to go to bowl games," Simon said in December. "We expect to contend for championships. Not simply having good games at the beginning, but contending at the end of the game for those great bowl games.

"I care deeply about Michigan State. I'm as tired as you all are of having someone tell me that the glory days were in 1960-something."

When Smith attended the conference's media kickoff in Chicago at the beginning of August, he again faced questions about the intent behind Simon's statement and whether he considered it an ultimatum or a display of confidence.

"I perceived it as a show of support," Smith said. "Were there some expectations set down? I expect there probably was, yeah."

Popular opinion says Smith must win eight games to keep his job after 2006. Wisconsin and Iowa aren't on the schedule, and Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State are seen as the only four games in which MSU could be outmatched in terms of talent. An 8-4 season would still put MSU in the upper half of the Big Ten and send the Spartans to a respectable bowl game.

Simon said last year that his evaluation wouldn't be based on exact record alone but a combination of factors that would show overall program growth. At the end of the season, the administration will likely have to consider a number of factors -- the improvement of academic standards under Smith, a decline in reported off-field incidents and his recruitment of top in-state talent over the past two years.

Stanton remains a supporter, saying that many of Smith's contributions are noticeable to members of the team, if not to the general public.

"It's the little things that everybody doesn't see on the outside that he's been able to come in and do and establish," Stanton said. "Not to say that it wasn't necessarily there in years past, but there's some refining that we had to do. Hopefully (it) will allow us to have that success we're hoping for this year."

The preseason has gone by with little incident, so far this year, save for a possible season-ending injury to sophomore backup cornerback/potential starter Ross Weaver, which worsened the depth in an area already thin after the starting four. But the Spartans have found a starting kicker in freshman Brett Swenson, whose reported talent could erase all memory of the 5-of-16 field-goal accuracy MSU put up last season and the wins squandered because of special-teams miscues.

The offense continues to prove as good as advertised, with sophomore Javon Ringer dominating in practices and Stanton continuing to hit receivers Matt Trannon, Jerramy Scott and Kerry Reed. The defense isn't yet making all of the plays as Smith has hoped, but the unit appears to be stronger overall than last year.

Barring unforeseen circumstances such as injury, the pieces are in place for MSU to succeed and ease the heartbreak of Spartan fans who've ridden the highs of a fast start in September, only to have those hopes thwarted by the end of November.

Does Smith feel that collective pressure? Maybe... but he'll never tell.

"I think you have the same urgency every year," he said. "I think we all feel as coaches and we do know that you've gotta win. But that's every year. And that's our goal. Seniors have to go out as winners. So it's really no different to me this year than any other year."