EAST LANSING - If Michigan State is going to get where it wants to go this season, the path runs straight through the middle of its defense.
That’s the way Pat Fitzgerald sees it, and it’s the way the Spartans have built it. The former Northwestern linebacker knows the Big Ten has always leaned on defense, and he’s leaning into that reality in his first season at Michigan State.
“This conference plays defense,” Fitzgerald said Monday, Aug. 24. “That’s pretty evident when you look back over the history of the conference.”
The clearest sign of that philosophy is the linebacker room, which may be the most dependable part of the roster as the Spartans head toward the Sept. 4 opener against Toledo. It is a group defined by experience, production and a clear sense of role.
Jordan Hall sits at the top of that depth chart. He returns as Michigan State’s most productive defender and is also a two-time captain in his senior season.
Hall was the green-dot linebacker a year ago and still piled up 88 tackles while working through injury. He has also served as a connector between the previous two versions of Joe Rossi’s defense and this third one under Fitzgerald.
Michigan State did not leave Hall alone in there. Rossi and Fitzgerald brought in veterans who have already done serious work at the college level, and the numbers back it up.
Caleb Wheatland arrived after a year at Auburn and came with 101 career tackles, 7½ sacks and three passes defended. Dion Crawford came over from Buffalo after three seasons there and put up 81 of his 171 career tackles last season alone.
The year before, he had 8½ of his 12 career sacks.
Hall said the comfort level is real.
“I have the utmost trust in the group of linebackers that we have,” Hall said, “and trust when I’m on the field with whoever it is, that they’ll do their job and motivate me to do mine.”
The top three - Hall, Wheatland and Crawford - bring a combined 3,969 career snaps. If they stay healthy, they should be on the field a lot.
“When you looked at our portal class, it was production, right? I mean that was a no-brainer how we did it,” Fitzgerald said.
“So those guys are really special. They’re really good teammates.
They play a lot of ball. We expect great things from them, to say the least.
And there’s obviously a large group like that at other positions too that we’re really counting on for this year’s team.”
There is youth behind them as well. Brady Pretzlaff missed a significant chunk of last season because of injury, but he is back and expected to have a substantial role this fall.
True freshman Adam Shaw has also earned strong reviews, not just for how his body has developed over a short summer but for his football IQ. Shaw’s father, Scott, was an All-American offensive guard at Michigan State from 1995-97 under Nick Saban.
Hall pointed to that mix of veterans and younger players as part of what makes the room work.
“It’s a different beast out there,” Hall said of the value of experience. “That’s why you don’t see a lot of true freshmen playing because they don’t have that in-game experience of being in the fog of war.
And so it eases my tension, I guess, of knowing I have some guys out there that I can trust in Wheat and Dion who have had in-game experience. But not to shadow guys like Brady and DiMari (Malone) and Cam (Stodghill).”
Michigan State may need that linebacker strength to cover for other areas as the roster comes together. Sound run fits could help an undersized defensive line hold up against the run.
A secondary with several players making the jump from lower levels to the Big Ten will need more than coverage; it will need clean communication. In that sense, the linebacker group becomes the room the Spartans can lean on while the rest of the defense continues to settle.
The staff reflects the same idea. Fitzgerald has a long history at linebacker from his Northwestern days, and Michigan State also added Max Bullough as co-defensive coordinator.
Bullough captained Mark Dantonio’s 2013 team and played on three straight top-10 scoring defenses. Even special teams coordinator LeVar Woods brings linebacker experience from his NFL career.
Fitzgerald said the job has only gotten harder at the position as offenses have gotten faster and more athletic.
“Linebacker, you’ve got to be able to do it all,” he explained. “You’ve gotta be able to wear the green dot and make the calls.
You’ve gotta be able to go out and play in space against skill guys. You’ve gotta be able to fit against two backs, two tight ends, whatever the personnel may be, and then play the run, play the pass.”
He also gave a blunt assessment of how different the position looks now compared with when he played in the late 1990s.
“Thank goodness the game wasn’t what it is today back in the ‘90s, because I wouldn’t have been able to do it,” Fitzgerald said. “I mean, I was like arm length to arm length.
These guys are so athletic. They’re bigger.
They’re stronger. They’re more athletic, and the field hasn’t changed size.
So just to see how the windows are smaller and how much faster they are is just so impressive.”
If Michigan State’s linebackers match that standard, the defense around them has a chance to follow.
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Izzo has made a habit of waiting to see how a team comes together before offering much in the way of public praise, but this group has him feeling better than usual in July and August. For a coach who tends to earn his optimism the hard way, that kind of early confidence says plenty about the potential for this roster, even if the real answers still have to come on the court. [Read more 🡒]