Michigan State DC Joe Rossi, sorting through player evaluations with many new faces

EAST LANSING, Mich. – The first week of fall camp isn’t supposed to be geared so much toward player evaluation. But that’s where Michigan State defensive coordinator Joe Rossi and his staff find themselves as the rebuilding process enters August, eight months after they inherited a defensive sink hole.

When Rossi, Michigan State’s first-year defensive coordinator, watched film of the Spartans’ final game of the 2023 season against Penn State, there were only 16 players on defense who played meaningful roles that season and were set to return to the Spartans in 2024.

Then after spring practice, three key players – Jaden Mangham , Derrick Harmon and Simeon Barrow – exited via the transfer portal.

Heading into spring practice, Michigan State had only 13 proven returning defensive scholarship players: Jordan Hall , Angelo Grose , Dillon Tatum , Ade Willie , Chance Rucker , Cal Haladay , Malik Spencer , Ken Talley , Jalen Thompson , Maverick Hansen , Avery Dunn , Caleb Coley and Khris Bogle .

And “proven” is a debatable word for some of those guys. Willie, Talley and Coley weren’t regulars in the playing group.

Michigan State dressed only four scholarship linebackers for the Penn State game: Hall, Haladay, Aaron Alexander and the graduated Aaron Brulé .

“When we first got here I think there was like four active (linebackers) on the roster,” Rossi said.

One of them was Darius Snow , who had missed the final six games of the season with recurring ailments. Snow is still with the team, trying to forge a successful comeback from a devastating 2022 injury.

Michigan State added two quality inside linebackers from the transfer portal in late December, in Jordan Turner (from Wisconsin), and Wayne Matthews (from Old Dominion).

Those two additions, plus defensive end Quindarius Dunnigan and defensive tackle D’Quan Douse of Georgia Tech, helped the Spartans piece together a defense for spring practice.

But then after Barrow, Harmon and Mangham left, some of the progress that had been made during the spring was uprooted.

Michigan State added 11 more defensive players via the transfer portal after spring practice. Those guys are as new to the Michigan State system, and to the eyeballs of the Spartan coaching staff, as the incoming freshmen.

Of the 42 scholarship players on defense, more than half (22) are transfers or incoming freshmen.

Fifteen scholarship defensive players (11 transfers and four incoming freshmen) are taking the practice field as Spartans for the first time this week.

Defensive tackle Alex VanSumeren and safety Armorion Smith missed spring practice while recovering from injuries. They’re back on the field in front of Rossi and his staff for the first time this week. All told, 17 of the team’s 42 defensive scholarship players have yet to practice in full pads for head coach Jonathan Smith and the new staff. That will happen for the first time on Monday.

“It’s unique football now,” Rossi said. “You can coach football for a long time like I have but the way the game is now, is different. We have 10 or 11 guys who weren’t here playing spring ball. And now they’re coming in and you’re going to be counting on them. It’s just different.”

They’re trying to retool a defense which ranked No. 13 in the Big Ten in total defense last year, and No. 12 in the conference in yards allowed per play.

“When I say this, I’m being completely honest: We’re in the process of evaluating people,” Rossi said.

What is the Michigan State defensive system going to look like? Rossi will have a better idea after he learns more about his players.

Michigan State has 12 players on defense who have started at least two games. But no one is rolling into a guaranteed starting spot.

“There were guys who were starters here last year, and that’s great,” Rossi said. “But this is a new program, this is new coaches, this is new culture. We’ve brought in new players and obviously there are new coaching techniques. So I respect everything that the guys that started last year were able to do, obviously, but they are being evaluated now in comparison with the other players on the team.”

Newcomers Turner and Matthews are pushing Haladay and Hall hard at the inside linebacker positions. Dunnigan and Douse looked like leading candidates to start during spring practice.

“The guys that were here playing in the spring have a little more experience in what you’re asking to do,” Rossi said. “Those guys are invaluable. That part is important.”

After spring practice, Michigan State added defensive transfers with starting experience, such as cornerback Ed Woods (Arizona State), rush end Anthony Jones (Indiana) and safety Nikai Martinez (Central Florida).

Rossi was asked about the five starters Michigan State has back in the secondary – Tatum, Spencer, Grose, Rucker and Charles Brantley – and how they will shake out in the face of newcomers like Woods, cornerback Lejond Cavasos (North Carolina) and Jeremiah Hughes (LSU).

“We are so early with that right now that we are still figuring that out,” Rossi said. “So we will work different rotations, we’ll have guys that are in the ones, and the next day in with the threes. And we are just going to evaluate. And as we get toward the end of camp, we will have a feel for that.”

Returning starters are getting evaluated too. Spencer started nine games at strong safety last year, and played predominantly at nickel back in two games (against Minnesota and Ohio State). All of the Michigan State safeties cross-trained at nickel back in the spring.

“We are looking for the best combination of guys out there,” Rossi said. “Malik is playing multiple spots.”

The same goes for sophomore Jalen Thompson . He looked like a rising star as a true freshman, starting the last four games of the season at defensive end.

He spent the spring as a stand-up rush end, a staple in the Rossi system. But Thompson began this week with his hand in the dirt as a traditional strongside defensive end, while Bogle, Jones (the Indiana transfer), Dunn and Cincinnati transfer Tyler Gillison repped at rush end.

“Same thing as Malik,” Rossi said, when asked about Thompson’s shift. “When you get in and you’re coaching guys for the first time, what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to evaluate where they’re best at, based on their skill set. Guys are doing multiple things and we will get a picture of what is this guy best at. Wherever the guy is best at, that’s where we want to play him.”

MULTIPLE AND FLEXIBLE (IF POSSIBLE)

Joe Rossi photo by Dane Robison for SpartanMag.com.

Rossi’s defenses at Minnesota were multiple. He calls it a base 4-2-5/4-3. But you might see a traditional 3-4 on one snap. Then it’s a traditional 4-3 on the next. Sometimes it’s a 3-4 which behaves like a 4-3 after the snap. Sometimes it looks like a traditional 4-3, but the rush end drops into coverage.

Sometimes they’re one-gapping. Sometimes they’re two-gapping.

Sometimes it’s a 4-2-5, if the offense is a pass-oriented, three-WR outfit. But it can morph into a Dantonio-style 4-3 against run-based teams.

The stand-up rush end is required to provide a lot of the versatility.

“We played with a hybrid end, that rush end who has the abilty to rush, he has the ability drop into coverage,” Rossi said. “He has the ability to create a three-down front. Sometimes he plays off the ball in passing situations and can add into different gaps.

“It (the defense) is based out of a 4-2-5/4-3, but I think there is a little bit of flexibility because of the flexibility of that player, Danny Striggow (for Minnesota last year). Before that was Boye Maffe . Before that was Carter Coughlin . That position in the defense has been a successful player in terms of production in the league. Both of those guys I mentioned are in the NFL, and Thomas Rush was on the practice squad this year with the Titans. That’s been an important piece of the equation.”

Does Michigan State have a player like that on the current roster? That’s what Rossi is trying to find out. Bogle played a similar role at Florida, prior to transferring to Michigan State. Could Thompson move back to that position later this month? It’s possible.

Indiana transfer Anthony Jones started four games for the Hoosiers last year when Chad Wilt served as Indiana’s co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. Now, Wilt is Michigan State’s rush end coach. Wilt worked with Rossi as defensive line coach for Minnesota in 2020 and ’21.

Jones wasn’t a superstar last year. But he’ll get a look this month and all fall. And Rossi will look to adjust according to the entire lot.

“We run the defense based on the personnel that we have,” Rossi said. “I think the fundamentals and the belief system will be the same. You have to tailor the strengths and weaknesses of your (players).”

Rossi gained a lesson in defense from former Maryland head coach Ralph Friedgen , when Friedgen was offensive coordinator at Rutgers.

“I worked with Ralph Friedgen in the last year that he coached (at Rutgers in 2014),” Rossi remembers. “I said, ‘Coach, what are you going to run?’ He said, ‘I don’t know.’

“I said, ‘What do you mean?

“He said, ‘Joe, I’ve run a lot of plays over the years. The ones we run here are going to be the ones our players can do well.’

“I said, ‘You know what? That’s pretty damn smart.’”

Rossi was asked on Thursday if he will have to make any compromises in order to adjust to the personnel he has.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a compromise,” he said. “I would say that as we evaluate what we’re good and not good at, if we’re better at playing man, then we’ll play more man. If we’re better at playing zone, then we’ll play more zone. If we’re better blitzing, we’ll blitz more. If we’re better playing base, we’ll play base.

“So that’s what it’s all about in terms of the evaluation of your people. We don’t have just a set scheme. We have the scheme that fits our guys the best. It’s within the structure, certainly. But we have to call it based on what’s best for the guys.”

Some plans might get diverted along the way.

“There’s a little bit of: Here’s the plan and then if we need to change the plan, we’ll change the plan,” Rossi said.

He’ll lean on his assistants for feedback.

“How are you feeling in your room? How are you feeling with the install? How are you feeling with what you’re hearing from the players?” Rossi said. “If you’re feeling good, maybe you press on. If you’re not feeling good, maybe you pull back a little bit.”

‘THEY PLAYED THEIR BUTT OFF’

In six seasons at Minnesota, Rossi’s defense ranked among the Top 10 in the FBS in total defense three times (No. 3 in 2021, No. 8 in 2022 and No. 10 in 2019). But the package wasn’t identical each year.

“Each year (at Minnesota) depended,” Ross said. “For example, in ’21 and ’22, we had a bunch of experienced guys back. Last year, we were really young and had a lot of injuries. So ’23 was a lot different than ’21 to ’22.

“It’s not like the NFL where these guys are under contract for five years. Every season, that experience level is going to be different.

“So it varies from year to year, but over the course of time, in year four or five, you are obviously going to feel more comfortable than you did in year one.”

Rossi was attracted to Michigan State partly due to the successful teams and defenses the Spartans deployed under Mark Dantonio . Rossi has seen powerhouse football established in East Lansing and believes it can be restored.

Dantonio’s first team ranked No. 8 in the 11-team Big Ten in total defense in 2007. By 2011, Michigan State began a streak of four seasons in which the Spartans were the only team in the country that ranked in the Top 10 in rushing defense and total defense.

“Any really good defense is going to play really, really hard,” Rossi said. “Those (Dantonio) defenses, I have had a chance to see them over the years – being in the league – and I think that’s what you would say about them: They played their butt off.

“The things that we want to see when we put the film on is we want to see guys playing with extreme effort. I think there’s going to be a big emphasis on toughness, the ability to control the line of scrimmage, stop the run, be physical in your tackling, and then we have to be really, really great with our technique.

“They (the Dantonio defenses) were really, really physical, they played with good technique and then they had good players.

“So for us to play good defense, that’s where it starts. So we went out and recruited guys that we believed were a fit for us and now we’re coaching them.

“I know it comes off as coachspeak, but it will be a process of getting better every day. Anyone who gets good at anything has to go through a process to get there. We’re in that process right now. We all want it to happen as soon as possible and that’s what we’re working toward.”

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