The Michigan State University football team has plenty of depth at the linebacker position, a balanced mix of young players, returning players and transfers.
With Cal Haladay, Wayne Matthews III, Darius Snow, Jordan Turner, Jordan Hall, Semaj Bridgeman, Marcellius Pulliam, Brady Pretzlaff and several others, this coaching staff has a lot of snap distribution to consider toward the end of Week 1.
When Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith was asked on Monday about the positions with the most competition, the first thing that came to mind was the inside linebacker position.
“In the inside linebacker department, we have several guys in that room that can help us,” Smith said. “And the fact that we’re not playing seven at once, I think it makes us competitive.”
Snow, one of the longest-tenured Spartans in this linebacker room, accepts the competition.
“It’s great,” he said. “It makes everyone better. There are a lot of great players in the room. There are a lot of great players on defense.”
Ironically, the linebacker room was one of the Spartans’ empties at the start of the offseason.
“I think when we got here, there were about four active players on the roster when I went through everything,” Michigan State linebackers coach Joe Rossi said earlier this month. “And I thought we need to add some guys. And that’s without some of the young players like Pretzlaff, and then we brought in some transfer players, some guys who have played football before.”
“The cool thing is I think there’s a mix of skill and age. We’ve got a guy who’s in his last year, a guy who’s got two years left, a guy who’s got three years left and a guy who’s got four years left. And that was important to us, that it’s not like three guys only have one year, because then you’re just creating your own problems for the next year. So, yeah, there’s different skill sets, they’re all great guys, we’ve got some years ahead of them, so it’s a good group.”
While this unit is the program’s strongest, there is competition across the board. Right now, Smith is having a hard time putting a number on the starters he has locked into the roster so far, but he has a few in mind.
“We have some guys that are going to start, but not at every position,” Smith said. “I mean, this thing is competitive, and we talked about it as a team last night. We want to be a team where we have multiple guys that can come in. We want to play full throttle and full effort. And every now and then you get worn out, and you’re confident when the next guy comes in, and that’s what it’s all about the next few weeks.”
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