Michigan State football: Chris Kapilovic named Big Ten’s best OL coach

Chris Kapilovic is representing Michigan State football well as he was rated the Big Ten’s best offensive line coach.

Recruiting-based site 247Sports recently released its preseason All-Big Ten coaching staffs and Michigan State football assistant Chris Kapilovic was named the conference’s top offensive line coach.

The site partnered with Matrix Analytical, which consults athletic consultants, to create a formula to evaluate and quantify each coach’s performance. Position coaches in this analysis are “graded on the cumulative play-by-play effectiveness of their unit.” Within the grading scale, coaches are not graded on the same playing field. The formula takes into account the talent level each coach had to work with. Doing more with less has a positive effect on the final grade.

*This is based on on-field coaching and not each coaches value as a recruiter.

What stood out?

Kapilovic has more than a decade of experience working as an offensive line coach. The article states that ‘longevity and consistency’ is what got him to the top spot. At both MSU and North Carolina, he has had an offensive line finish as semifinalists for the Joe Moore Award (2015, 2021). He tenure at UNC features seasons where the Tar Heels led the conference in sacks allowed and three players from these units were drafted to the NFL.

So ChopMan, what does this mean?

It means that MSU has elite coaches in the trenches. It may not feel like that right now, based on the offensive line woes we’ve seen under this coaching staff the last couple years but let’s not forget that elite programs like USC tried to poach our Juice Squad leader at one point.

The term ‘games are won and lost in the trenches’ is undeniably cliché but extremely true. The issue is, you don’t see development in this position group overnight. It takes time to get kids to the size needed to play at the college level. And then even more time to re-teach footwork when they become the size of a small bulldozer.

Kapilovic will finally have his guys firmly in the mix this year and that makes me more excited than the last time the McRib came back.

Juice Squad,
ChopMan