Michigan State football announces the ‘final piece’ of the defensive coaching staff

A week ago, Winston DeLattiboudere III was asked about the rumors of him taking the defensive line coaching position with Michigan State football by Arizona Cardinals reporters.

DeLattiboudere had spent the 2025 season with the Cardinals after spending the previous two seasons at Minnesota. It was quite the promotion for the former Minnesota defensive lineman under Joe Rossi.

When asked about the Michigan State job, however, DeLattiboudere didn’t comment, instead saying that his focus was on his current job.

That caused a brief panic among Spartan fans who expected him to be the defensive line coaching hire, but it felt like he was just being respectful to his current players, team, and employer. Speaking on another job while still employed would have been in poor taste.

Still, there was some doubt creeping in about his role with the program.

That was until Monday afternoon when Michigan State officially announced the hire of the “final piece” of the defensive coaching staff.

All the doubts have been put to rest. Pat Fitzgerald, Rossi, and Michigan State have found their guy, and DeLattiboudere rounds out the defensive staff which is looking like one of the best that the Spartans have had in years.

The defensive staff has Mark Dantonio era vibes

With the hire of DeLattiboudere from the NFL, he becomes the second defensive staffer to have played at the collegiate level in the past 10-12 years. Max Bullough was at Michigan State until 2013 before attempting to build an NFL career.

Unfortunately, he never quite panned out, but his football IQ has been raved about by his former NFL coaches. He was an excellent hire by Fitzgerald.

Now joining him on that side of the ball as a relatively recent college grad who played high-level Big Ten football is DeLattiboudere. The former Minnesota defensive lineman played for Rossi and will now coach alongside him at Michigan State. This is quite the full circle moment for both coaches.

The defensive staff is coming together nicely and everyone brings a sense of toughness and a blue-collar mentality. The staff has a very Mark Dantonio era vibe to it.

Not only do the Spartans have a defensive-minded head coach, but they also have two intense co-defensive coordinators, a highly-touted cornerbacks coach, a rising safeties coach, and a defensive line coach who’s young, will connect with recruits, and played recently in the Big Ten.

I’m loving this defensive staff.