Michigan State Football: 3 post-spring 2021 breakout candidates on defense

Scottie Hazelton is going to have some talent to work with this upcoming Michigan State football season as key transfers have shown up on campus for the summer.

Guys like Itayvion Brown, Quavaris Crouch, Drew Jordan, Ben VanSumeren, Chester Kimbrough, and Ronald Williams should have big roles on this defense next season, but not all of them were in East Lansing for spring ball.

So for the sake of this article, the newcomers who weren’t on campus are ineligible for my “post-spring” defensive breakout candidates.

Now let’s take a look at the players who were here and look poised to make big leaps this season.

Before Mel Tucker started piling up linebacker transfers, the starting linebackers for 2021 looked to be Noah Harvey and Chase Kline. Harvey started all of 2020 at Mike linebacker while Antjuan Simmons lined up next to him. Now that Simmons has moved on, it’s time to start looking for his replacement and if the staff doesn’t go with a transfer here, Kline would be my pick.

As a freshman, Kline appeared in eight games and had 12 tackles and a sack, but he improved drastically as a sophomore with 29 total tackles, 0.5 tackles for loss, and two forced fumbles in seven games. He looked like a solid depth piece at linebacker behind Simmons but he will finally get his opportunity in 2021.

After a strong spring, I could see the coaching staff going with Quavaris Crouch and Kline at the two linebacker spots and that might actually give this defense its highest ceiling.

Kline isn’t talked about nearly enough.