Michigan State Football: Defense should see drastic improvement in 2022

Michigan State football’s defense in 2021 has been far from perfect. But with a lot of great recruits, fans could see major improvements in 2022.

Michigan State football’s defensive unit this season has been far from one of the best in the country. Yet, with that, the Spartans still finished 10-2 and are about to play Pitt in the Peach Bowl on Dec. 30.

Now, with Early Signing Day in the books, let’s take a deeper look at the Spartans roster and see why and how the defense will improve in 2022.

This season’s defensive ranks

MSU’s defense did not fare well in comparison to a lot of other schools. For example, the Spartans finished 117th in the nation for yards allowed a game at 455.6 along with a horrendous 130th place finish, which is last in the nation, in passing defense.

The Spartans have allowed over 4,000 yards total on the year (4,052) and are last in passing yards allowed per game with 338. All in all, giving Michigan state one of the worst passing defenses in the country.

But, they did do one thing right: defend against the run.

Michigan State finished the regular season 15th in total rushing yards allowed with 1,415 and 18th in rushing yards allowed per game with 118. So, what does all this mean for the Spartans’ defense? It means that they have a solid defensive line and linebacking corps and a — to put it nicely — horrid secondary.

Despite having the worst passing defense in the nation, the Spartans are in the middle of the pack when it comes to points allowed a game, ending the regular season only allowing 25.7 points per game and ranking 61st in the nation.

The secondary has not been very good but the defensive line and linebackers are good. This was evident also by the fact that the Spartans finished No. 12 in the nation in sacks with 38.

How will the defense improve next season?

Well, first and foremost, the Spartans can change by the talent they have coming in next year.

Players like Alex VanSumeren, Jaden Mangham, Dillion Tatum, Zion Young, and Caleb Coley along with six other three-star defensive recruits should improve the outlook. To add to that even more, Mel Tucker and the Spartans are doing what they did best last offseason, hitting the transfer portal, getting linebackers Jacoby Windmon and Aaron Brule as well as edge rusher Khris Bogle.

Mangham and Tatum have not been announced where they will play yet because they have to get to practices and the team will see where they fit best. But from reports, I’ve seen Mangham is going to be looked at as a cornerback or safety while Tatum is looking like a safety. Then you add the fact that you have VanSumeren on the interior of the defensive line with Young and Bogle off the edge, we could see some special moments come from this Spartan defense.

Those are just the recruits and transfers coming in. Michigan State still has a lot of good talent for the freshmen to play alongside like Chuck Brantley, Jacob Slade, Darius Snow, Ronald Williams, Cal Haladay, and (potentially) Xavier Henderson.

So they could improve just solely off the fact that they are adding such good young recruits and also bringing in some good upper-classman talent.

Could there be a scheme change next season?

There very well could be a scheme change next season because of how poorly the defense performed and the fact that with the two linebacker transfers, the Spartans will have a lot of linebackers on the roster on top of losing a good amount of edge rushers.

What this means is we could see the Spartans switch from a 4-2-5 scheme and use some of the linebackers to come off the edge and get to the quarterback because of the lack of ends and the surplus of linebackers.

Another reason it may seem like this is going to happen is because in just two years at MSU, it has seemingly looked like Tucker is trying to build a more SEC-esque roster. If you look at some of the bigger SEC schools like Alabama and Georgia, they use 4-3 and 3-4 schemes as their base defenses.

Another reason that could point to this happening is just strictly based on the fact Scottie Hazelton’s scheme wasn’t effective. The better quarterbacks and teams the Spartans faced were able to pick apart the defense and with Mel’s background of being a defensive guy and even working in the NFL, I’m sure they will draw something new up together.

Tucker and Scottie Hazelton are going to have their work cut out for them this offseason to try and find the best spot for all the recruits and current players on the roster along with finding out what the best solution will be to fix the passing defense problem while also keeping up the great job they have done at getting sacks and pressures on the quarterback and being able to control the run.

No matter what they do, though, I’m excited to see what will happen in year three of the Tucker era as I’m sure it will not disappoint.