What Michigan State football defensive snap counts against Western Michigan reveal

The Michigan State football defensive snap count was revealed from the Western Michigan win, and there were some surprises.

Friday brought forth the first opportunity for Jonathan Smith’s Michigan State football squad to take the field. Following a 5-7 campaign, the Spartans looked for improvement in year two under Smith.

Defensively, Joe Rossi’s system came to play. The Spartan defense scored more points than the Western Michigan Broncos, with an Alex VanSumeren and Jalen Thompson safety outscoring the Broncos’ offense.

This came in spite of the Spartans missing multiple players with injury, including defensive lineman Jalen Satchell and defensive backs Dontavius Nash, Nikai Martinez, and Andrew Brinson IV.

Here are the snap counts (out of 57 total defensive plays) for each player, and the takeaways for each group. Starters will be italicized.

Defensive line

Jalen Thompson: (30) 53%
Quindarius Dunnigan: (27) 47%
Grady Kelly: (27) 47%
Alex VanSumeren: (27) 47%
Ben Roberts: (21) 37%
Derrick Simmons: (15) 26%
Ru’Quan Buckley: (7) 12%
Kekai Burnett: (3) 5%

On the defensive line, the Spartan players and coaches had been stating there would be plenty of rotation, and we saw that on Friday night. Jalen Thompson, who was surprisingly not one of the first 11 on field, was the only defensive lineman to play over 50 percent of the snaps.

Grady Kelly was the star here, with his PFF grade at an astounding 92.4. Thompson, Kelly, and Dunnigan were the only three of this group to record a hit on the Broncos’ quarterbacks, which is a small concern. Kelly also batted a ball down at the line of scrimmage. The biggest surprise here is not seeing Mikeshun Beeler take the field after the coaching staff had been giving him love.

As far as younger players are concerned, Derrick Simmons appeared to supplant Satchell’s normal spot on the depth chart. Kekai Burnett saw the field late as a defensive tackle in pass rush situations.

EDGE rushers

Aisea Moa: (17) 30%
Anelu Lafaele: (17) 30%
David Santiago: (14) 24.5%
Isaac Smith: (14) 24.5%
Cam Williams: (13) 23%

If the defensive line was a heavily rotated group, Joe Rossi’s edge rusher group was even more so. Every scholarship edge rusher besides Tyler Gillison got auditioned on Friday night. Aisea Moa got added into this group, with the linebacker playing 11 pass rush snaps, between linebacker blitzes and designated packages with him on the edge. He led the team with two QB hits.

Anelu Lafaele opened his collegiate career with a strip sack on his first play, accounting for the only defensive line sack of the night. That sack and Moa’s pair of hits were the only disruptions from the room on Friday night.

Overall, there was some left to be desired considering the quality of opponent.

Linebackers

Jordan Hall: (55) 96.5%
Wayne Matthews III: (52) 91%
Darius Snow: (12) 21%
Semaj Bridgeman: (6) 10.5%
Brady Pretzlaff: (6) 10.5%
Marcellius Pulliam: (3) 5%

Despite Rossi saying that this is his deepest room at linebacker potentially ever, the Spartans stuck to their aces of Hall and Matthews III for most of the game. Moa’s 17 snaps would put him as the third-most used linebacker on Friday, but 11 of those were pass rush situations.

Darius Snow, despite being introduced on the video board as a starter, only was on field for a dozen plays. Granted, with the Broncos being down 14 by the time two Spartan drives concluded, there were plenty more passing situations than running the ball.

Hall was all over the field, with a sack, occupying two blockers on a safety, and five stops against the run. Matthews III was just as dominant, with five tackles and the first turnover of the year, an interception on a Broncos’ pass that was tipped by Moa.

Hall and Matthews III both led the team in pass coverage grades, as well. Bridgeman and Pretzlaff each made plays in their half-dozen snaps. The only time Pretzlaff was targeted in coverage, he knocked the ball out from his receiver.

Sam Edwards played on special teams from this group, as well.

Cornerback

Joshua Eaton: (39) 68%
Malcolm Bell: (39) 68%
Ade Willie: (30) 53%
Chance Rucker: (19) 33%
Aydan West: (16) 28%
Jeremiah Hughes: (10) 17.5%
Anthony Pinnace III: (3) 5%

Michigan State football had its selection of corners to choose from, and ultimately selected transfers Eaton and Bell, along with longtime Spartan Ade Willie to do the heavy lifting on Friday. Each had their own catches allowed, but showed good poise during the game, making their own highlight plays after.

Rucker came off the bench, but had a game-ending pass breakup to allow the Spartans to kneel the ball out. West turned some heads in his debut, with sticky coverage during his reps. Hughes’s best play came on a corner blitz, out-efforting a running back to put pressure on the quarterback.

Pinnace III played a few snaps, but was predominately a special-teamer in his debut.

A few more defensive backs only played on special teams, with those being Caleb Gash (who had two massive hits on kickoff) and Aveon Grose.

Safety

Malik Spencer: (52) 91%
Armorion Smith: (41) 72%
Justin Denson Jr.: (12) 21%
Devynn Cromwell: (11) 19%

Unsurprisingly, Malik Spencer was the player taking a majority of the reps at the safety position. Armorion Smith joined Spencer as a starter. The game-day captain played 41 snaps on defense in the opener after seeing the field for 58 defensive snaps in 2024.

Denson and Cromwell were the primary backups, with the pair playing right around a dozen snaps. It is worth noting that this group also had a few other cornerbacks rotating with them during the game, likely due to Nikai Martinez being out.

Looking at grades, the only for certain heading into next week is Spencer’s role as a starter. I do not think this position group has much separation.

Overall, Michigan State football defensive snap counts are harder to judge with this side of the ball being more “reactionary” based on personnel, game situations, etc. That said, the only group with clear separation is the pair of linebackers and Malik Spencer’s starting role.