Michigan State's LB Room is its Deepest Unit, Making For Great Competition
Michigan State football has a ton of depth at linebacker, a balanced blend of young guys, returners and transfers.
Between Cal Haladay, Wayne Matthews III, Darius Snow, Jordan Turner, Jordan Hall, Semaj Bridgeman, Marcellius Pulliam, Brady Pretzlaff and a handful of others, there will be a lot of snap distribution to consider for this coaching staff as Week 1 nears.
On Monday, when asked about the rooms facing the most competition, the first to come to mind for Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith was the inside linebacker position.
"Inside linebacker, we got multiple guys in that room [who] can help us," Smith said. "And so, [the fact that] we don't play seven at a time, I think, is competitive."
Snow, one of the longest-tenured Spartans in that linebacker room, is embracing the competition.
"It's great," he said. "It makes everyone better. There's a lot of great players in the room. There's a lot of great players on defense."
Ironically, the linebacker room was one of the Spartans' most vacant when the offseason started.
"I think when we first got here, I think there was like four active guys on the roster when I was going over things," said Michigan State linebackers coach Joe Rossi earlier this month. "And I was like, we got to add some bodies. And that was with without some of the young guys coming like Pretzlaff, and then, we went out and got some transfers, some guys that have played football.
"The cool thing is I think there's a mix of abilities, I think there's some mix of ages. We got a guy who's in his last year, a guy who's got two years left, we got a guy with three years left, and we got a guy with four years left. And that was kind of important to us that it wasn't like three guys with a year because then all you're doing is creating your own problems for the next year. So, yeah, there's different skill sets, they're all great people, we got some years on them, so it's a good group."
While this unit is the program's deepest, there is competition all across the board. Right now, it's tough for Smith to place a number on the starters he has solidified so far, but he does have some in mind.
"We've got some guys that are going to start, but not at every position," Smith said. "I mean, this thing is competitive, and we talked last night as a team. We want to be a squad that we've got multiple guys that can go in the game. We want to be playing full speed with great effort. And once in a while, you're going to get gassed, and you feel confident with the next guy going in the game, and that's what these next couple of weeks are about."
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