Michigan State football: Defense, special teams depth chart projections

Michigan State football opens the 2024 season on Friday night against FAU and here’s what the defense and special teams may look like.

After taking a stab at the offensive starters last week, we’re back to preview the Michigan State football defense.

In its first year under new defensive coordinator Joe Rossi, Michigan State will be transitioning to a new scheme. While it’s a little challenging to pigeonhole Rossi’s scheme, he’s historically played with three down lineman, an edge rusher, and a variety of linebackers and secondary defenders depending on the situation. Because of that uncertainty, we’ll be pretty lenient here with the starters and reserves.

The ultimate goal here is to identify the names to know for Week 1. Let’s give it a try.

Defensive line

Impact players: Khris Bogle, Maverick Hansen, Quindarius Dunnigan, D’Quan Douse, Jalen Thompson
Key reserves: Alex VanSumeren, Jalen Satchell, Anthony Jones, Ru’Quan Buckley, Avery Dunn, Ken Talley

There are a lot of names here, and for good reason. Outside of Bogle and Hansen, there is very little returning production from a year ago. MSU lost Simeon Barrow and Derrick Harmon to the transfer portal, leaving a ton of snaps up for grabs. Dunnigan and Douse are both sixth-year transfers that feel like plug and play options for the start of the season. As a true freshman, Jalen Thompson came on down the stretch and could be in for a big leap in year two.

Of the reserves, I think VanSumeren is the most likely candidate to steal a large role. The former four-star prospect played in four games as a true freshman before missing all of last season with an injury. Dunn will be involved in pass rushing situations as he has been each of the last two seasons. The rest of these guys have multiple years of eligibility remaining and will be fighting for situational snaps as depth options. But this is all very undecided.

It wouldn’t surprise me if this list looked very different in November.

Linebackers

Impact players: Cal Haladay, Jordan Hall, Jordan Turner, Wayne Matthews
Key Reserves: Darius Snow, Aaron Alexander, Marcellus Pulliam

For my money, this is the strength of the Michigan State football roster. Cal Haladay returns after leading MSU in tackles each of the past three years. He enters his final season ranked 18th on the all-time career tackles list at MSU. While there’s no such thing as “stress-free” when it comes to football coaches, defensive coordinator Joe Rossi has to be ecstatic to put a seasoned, dependable tackling machine in the middle of his defense.

Also returning is true sophomore Jordan Hall. The former Under-Armor All-American started six games as a true freshman. His 67 tackles were good for second in the Big Ten among freshmen. He’s an exciting, talented young player that could be in for a huge leap in year two.

New to the roster are Wayne Matthews and Jordan Turner. Matthews comes in as the fourth ranked linebacker in the transfer portal, amassing 135 tackles at Old Dominion last season. Turner was named a captain after fall camp. The Wisconsin transfer has 18 starts at inside linebacker in his career. Darius Snow has the potential to be a versatile chess piece for Rossi, provided he’s healthy. Snow took a redshirt season last year after his 2022 season ended in week one with a devastating injury.

Unless there’s an injury, that feels like the rotation we’ll see the most of. This is an extremely experienced position group with a proven track record. If MSU is going to improve defensively, it’s going to start right here.

Secondary

Impact players: Dillon Tatum, Malik Spencer, Nikai Martinez, Chuck Brantley, Angelo Grose
Key reserves: Chance Rucker, Armorion Smith, Jeremiah Hughes, Ed Woods, Khalil Majeed, Lejond Cavazos
Wild cards: Justin Denson, Jaylen Thompson

Well, the good news for MSU is it has options in its secondary. There are almost too many to list. The hard part is filtering through those options. In any case, we know we’ll be seeing a lot of Dillon Tatum and Malik Spencer. The junior defenders have played substantially since their arrival on campus as freshmen.

Chuck Brantley is back after missing the final nine games of last season. UCF transfer Nikai Martinez arrives after playing a whopping 731 snaps on defense last year. If I had to guess, I’d say Spencer and Martinez are your starters at safety. Tatum and Brantley get the nod at corner, with Grose filling in at nickel. But I’d put my confidence in that at about a two out of 10.

Chance Rucker started eight games as a true freshman after Brantley went down. Armorion Smith got a nice run at safety before he was lost to injury. Jeremiah Hughes is a talented sophomore that played in all 13 games at LSU as a freshman, indicating he’ll have a say here as well. Ed Woods and Khalil Majeed are likely depth options (both could be starters) or special teams contributors. Cornerback is the one position where we are sometimes surprised by a true freshman, as we were last year with Rucker. The two to watch are Denson and Thompson. Similar to the defensive line, this is all far from settled. But don’t be surprised if we see any combination of these names take the field first against FAU on Aug. 30.

Special teams

Punter: Ryan Eckley
Kicker: Jonathan Kim
Long-snapper: Kaden Schickel

There’s not a lot of drama here. Punter Ryan Eckley emerged as one of the nation’s best last season after Michigan State’s offense gave him a ton of practice. The redshirt sophomore is a preseason all-conference selection and a member of the Ray Guy Award watch list. Jonathan Kim was one of the few bright spots from a disastrous 2023 season. After serving as the kickoff specialist at North Carolina, Kim transferred to Michigan State football to win the job and convert 13 of 18 attempts. Kim was particularly effective from distance, hitting four kicks from 50 yards out. He was also perfect on extra points and field goals inside of 40 yards. His leg strength is going to give him a chance to kick in the NFL if he can build on the accuracy he showed last year.

Kaden Schickel is the new long snapper after transferring in from James Madison.