EAST LANSING — Jordan Hall knew he could leave Michigan State football after Mel Tucker was fired. The coveted freshman linebacker has already made an impact in the Big Ten and would have had no shortage of suitors.
However, during one of his first meetings with new defensive coordinator Joe Rossi, Hall quickly learned that the new linebackers coach already had his eyes on him.
“I think I had a pretty productive freshman year, and he ignored that and focused on what I needed to work on,” Hall recalled recently. “And the way I looked at it, I had the option of moving, so staying here felt like basically being transferred and having a whole new staff member come in.”
So far, so good.
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“I just felt like it was for the best and this is a really good situation,” Hall said. “I feel like things are going well.”
But linebacker depth was thin last season behind Hall, Cal Halladay and Aaron Brule. Especially after Jacoby Windmon lost his season to injury and Darius Snow was suspended for the second consecutive year after four games.
Brule's eligibility expired and Windmon opted to enter the NFL Draft rather than return for the COVID-19 exemption season. But Rossi and new coach Jonathan Smith moved quickly to fill the void, bringing in veteran transfer linebacker Jordan Turner from Wisconsin and Wayne Matthews III from Old Dominion to build depth in the middle of the defense. To do this, they released promising prospect Brady Pretzlaff from his contract with Minnesota. .
“I've been very fortunate. The linebacker room is top notch with great talent and they work really hard and put a lot of effort into it,” Rossi said Tuesday. “So I'm blessed in that respect. … As far as the venue right now, to me, those are all players that can contribute this year. To be honest, that hasn't always been the case throughout my career. I mean. , so all of these guys can contribute, right? So that's a really good thing.”
Halladay is a venerable veteran, entering his fifth season after an honorable mention season where he was named All-Big Ten. This season, for the third consecutive year, he led MSU with 91 tackles and ranked second with 644 snaps as the only defenseman to start all 12 games. Halladay, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 235 pounds, could thrive as Rossi shifts from the two-linebacker setup used by Tucker and former defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton to a 4-3 defense. Three linebacker system.
“It’s just going to be more aggressive in the run game,” Halladay said of Rossi’s plans. …He’s had success as a D coordinator. He knows he knows the game well and is very meticulous and explains things in great detail. And that's what he wants from us. He demands very high standards from us and holds very high standards for the entire defense, especially the linebackers. ”
The 6-3, 235-pound Hall started half of the 12 games as a true freshman and finished fourth with 67 tackles and second with 4.5 sacks. His total sacks and 7.5 tackles for loss were the most of any freshman in the Big Ten.
But Hall believes the Spartans “feel more connected” this spring despite the firing of the coaches who scouted him.
“We met every day to make sure everyone was on the same page,” Hall said. “Not to discredit the last staff member, but I feel like this year has brought us closer together in terms of everyone understanding their roles and the roles of others.”
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Turner and Matthews arrive with a wealth of experience elsewhere.
Turner, a 6-1, 235-pound Farmington High School graduate, earned All-Big Ten honorable mention and was named MVP of the 2022 Guaranteed Rate Bowl. He had 68 tackles, five tackles for loss, and two tackles for loss on the season. A sack, an interception, a forced fumble. Last season, Turner played in 11 of Wisconsin's 12 games and recorded 61 tackles, including 6.5 for loss, three sacks and one forced fumble.
Turner said MSU was “the first school to recruit me, but the last school to offer me a scholarship” during his high school years. Still, he felt the pull to become a Spartan after entering the transfer portal following last season.
“I always wanted to go home to be closer to my family,” Turner said. “Coach Smith came over and I heard great things about him. Then Coach Rossi came over and I heard great things about him. (Wisconsin) was playing defense every year (at Minnesota). The two of them. When I decided to come here, I thought, “Green light, let's go.'' …
“(Rossi) has a variety of blitzes, so I like the way he looks up and changes things and the little things he does. So I felt like I could ride his defense.”
Rossi said he saw Turner play on crossover film when the Gophers were scouting the Badgers, which led MSU's new staff to pursue Turner more aggressively the second time around. He said that was one of the reasons.
“First of all, he's a great guy. He's top-notch and loves the coaches and the kids,” Rossi said of Turner. “Number two, he works hard. And number three, he's talented. So when you have someone who's really good, who works hard, who's really talented, The guys are really fun to coach. And he was great and great for the room.”
While Turner brings Big Ten experience back to his home state, Matthews arrives as a sophomore with 135 tackles in 13 games and earned third-team All-Sun Belt honors. The 6-2, 227-pound native of Largo, Maryland, forced three fumbles and three pass breakups while making 3.5 sacks of his 9.5 tackles for loss.
“Coach Rossi has a great defensive mind. He'll put guys in the right place at the right time to make those plays,” said Rossi, who also visited Mississippi State before signing with the Spartans. Matthews said. “It's just a matter of the players making that play.”
Rossi was also able to convince Pretzlaff, a Gaylord native who had committed to play for the Gophers before the Spartans hired him, to stay home. The 6-3, 227-pounder enrolled at MSU in January and has received rave reviews from Rossi as well as his older teammates.
“I've been impressed with him. He's smart, he's caring. He's got length and he's athletic,” Rossi said of Pretzlaff. “He's in a transition period. He's supposed to be sitting in high school classes right now and going out here and making a lot of representation for us in the Big Ten. And he's on the right path. He has a lot of work to do, but he's definitely on the right path and has a really good future ahead of him.”
MSU also returns Snow, who withdrew his name from the transfer portal in December, as a redshirt junior, and sophomore Aaron Alexander, who arrived as a transfer from Massachusetts before the 2023 season and spent two seasons with the Spartans. Return to the eyes. Smith signed three-star prospect Brady Pretzlaff from Gaylord for 2024 last month.
As for the Spartans' future this fall, Matthews gave a hint as to what fans should expect from Rossi's changes.
“You’re going to see some fierce defense,” he said. “You're going to see some ferocious guys just flying around and making plays. That's what you're going to see this fall.”
Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com.follow him @chrysolari.
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