Can Michigan State football secondary’s ‘clean slate’ erase last four terrible seasons?

EAST LANSING — The “No-Fly Zone” ethos of Michigan State football’s past secondary units crashed and burned the past few years under Mel Tucker.

Defensive backs went from jamming receivers at the line of scrimmage under Mark Dantonio’s press quarters man defense to walking sometimes 5 to 10 yards backward pre-snap in Tucker and former coordinator Scottie Hazelton’s 4-2-5 scheme that played mostly zone coverage the past four years. Instead of forcing receivers to the sideline, they opted to redirect routes and funnel plays over the middle.

The results were dismal. And that may be putting it lightly.

In 2021, the Spartans were the nation’s worst in pass defense, ceding nearly 325 yards a game. In 2022, they had the fewest interceptions in the Football Bowl Subdivision with just two. Over the past four seasons, MSU’s defense gave up 85 passing touchdowns in 44 games under Tucker, who was fired for off-field reasons two games into last fall’s 4-8 season.

So when third-year returning starter Dillon Tatum starting digging into new defensive coordinator Joe Rossi’s philosophies, it felt like a rebirth and return to the man-coverage concepts he learned in high school.

Michigan State safety Jaden Mangham (1) and defensive back Dillon Tatum (21) warm up before the game against Western Michigan at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing on Friday, Sept. 2, 2022.

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“Our goal is to literally delete everything from the past couple years,” Tatum said during the early portions of MSU’s first spring practices under Rossi and new head coach Jonathan Smith. “A pure clean slate.”

Of the multitude of issues on defense under Tucker — struggles at stopping the run, inability to get off the field on third down, problems generating consistent…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/michigan-state-football-secondarys-clean-100942054.html

Author : Detroit Free Press

Publish date : 2024-04-09 10:09:42

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