Michigan State Football: Top 50 players of all time
20. Julian Peterson
Linebackers are flooding this list, it seems. Michigan State has been known as a typical, hard-nosed defensive school over the years and when Julian Peterson decided to transfer to the program after playing a couple seasons at Valley Forge Military Academy, the Spartans thrived.
Maybe the best transfer player in school history, Peterson only played two seasons in the green and white before getting drafted 16th overall in 2000. Nick Saban lured the talented blitzing linebacker to East Lansing after he racked up 39.5 sacks in two seasons with Valley Forge.
Although he played just 23 career games with Michigan State, he finished his productive two-year stint with 140 tackles, 25 (3rd) sacks and 48 (1st) tackles for loss. He had an uncanny nose for the ball as he could have absolutely demolished all-time school records had he been a Spartan for three or four seasons instead of only two.
Just looking at his overall body type, it was clear that he was an athlete and Michigan State’s defense was scary at the linebacker position as the All-American soared up draft boards during his impressive senior season in which he had 30 tackles for loss and 15 sacks — just unreal numbers.
If Peterson was on the 2013 and 2014 Michigan State defenses, those could have been some of the scariest units in Big Ten history.
Next: 19. Le'Veon Bell