Trey Lisle’s first months at Michigan State didn’t exactly start with a clean runway. The transfer from Southeast Missouri State arrived with a clear lane to depth work on the edge of the Spartans’ defensive line, but his first FBS camp brought some rough patches before the picture started to shift.
Head coach Pat Fitzgerald pointed to a turning point in camp, describing a stretch when Lisle’s frustration hit a low point. “Trey is a great example of a young man that made a decision at a certain point in training camp to change his mindset and his habits..."
Fitzgerald said on Monday. "It wasn't maybe going the way he wanted it during training camp or the way we wanted it, and there was kind of a day in camp that just didn't go well.
Maybe, you know, for lack of a better phrase, just kind of hit a little bit of rock bottom from a standpoint of maybe frustration for him.”
That reset showed up in the way Lisle worked his way into game action. He played just eight defensive snaps combined in Michigan State’s first two games against Toledo and Eastern Michigan, then jumped to 26 defensive snaps against Notre Dame. The spark, Fitzgerald said, came through work on the scout team.
“Trey made a choice that he wanted to impact this team right here, right now, and he did it through scout team reps,” Fitzgerald also said. “He didn't go out and run the defense.
He didn't go out and execute in the kick game. He did it as a scout-look player for our special teams first, and all of a sudden, everybody kind of said, 'That's what we're looking for, Trey,' and I think that just spurred his confidence, and I think his hunger to play.”
There’s still a lot of runway ahead for Lisle, who has two more years of eligibility after 2026. At 6-foot-6 and 254 pounds, he gives Michigan State a big body with the kind of versatility coaches like to move around - from rush end to defensive end and even to defensive tackle at times.
Fitzgerald sees the upside as obvious, and the message now is simple: keep pushing. “He's nowhere close to where he can be, which is exciting,” Fitzgerald said.
“But the future is right now. So we've got to keep coaching you-know-what out of him...
We're really proud of him, and we're going to push him even harder now that he's shown that he's got it.”
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