Michigan State has shuffled through offensive line coaches over the past six years since Mark Dantonio retired and both Jim Bollman and Mark Staten moved on.
Mel Tucker’s offensive line coach, Chris Kapilovic, joined his staff in 2020 and earned a lot of praise from college football experts who touted his resume. Kapilovic was looked at as the guy who was going to build Michigan State’s offensive line into one of the best in the country but that never came to fruition.
He was followed up by Jim Michalczik who came over with Jonathan Smith from Oregon State and he didn’t live up to expectations either. Now we’re on offensive lines coach No. 3.
Tucker’s offensive line coach started this recent downward trend.
Kapilovic was let go when Tucker’s staff was replaced after the 2023 season and he landed at Alabama, surprisingly, under Kalen DeBoer. It was one of those “failing up” situations.
The 2024 and 2025 seasons weren’t exactly ideal for Kapilovic or his offensive lines at Alabama and fans essentially ran him out of town. He became one of the team’s biggest scapegoats and a reason that Alabama wasn’t able to win a national title.
Kapilovic ended up without a job this past winter, but yet again, he landed on his feet. It pays to have built up a strong resume in college football and to know people and the former Michigan State and Alabama offensive lines coach ended up at a rival SEC program. That’s right, Kapilovic did the unthinkable and went from Alabama to Auburn earlier this offseason.
Although he was hired by another SEC program, he did accept a lesser role as an offensive analyst for Alex Golesh and the new staff at Auburn.
It’s been incredible to watch Kapilovic go from struggling offensive lines coach at a recent Big Ten bottom-dweller to a struggling offensive line coach at an SEC powerhouse to an offensive analyst at a different SEC power. He’s seemingly always going to land on his feet — good for him.
Michigan State fans are liking their new OL coach
Kapilovic nor Michalczik are going to be remembered too fondly by Michigan State fans, so it’s fair that they’re being cautiously optimistic with Nick Tabacca so far.
Pat Fitzgerald’s offensive line coach has been the best recruiter on the staff to this point in the offseason, landing several coveted offensive linemen in the transfer portal and also picking up three commitments in the 2027 class already, one of which is the Spartans’ highest-ranked recruit.
There’s definitely some optimism surrounding the offensive lines these days, but the PTSD from the last two head coaches has some of us playing the “wait and see” game.
Tabacca is definitely off to a great start.
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