Joe Rossi's MSU’s defense has a 'work mentality' ahead of opener vs. FAU

It’s officially game week for Michigan State football as it will take on Florida Atlantic on Friday at 7 p.m. Eastern Time inside Spartan Stadium.

When game week arrives, there’s typically a buzz and excitement on campus and in the community. That is also true inside the walls of the Tom Izzo Football Building, according to Michigan State defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Joe Rossi. With the excitement, there’s also a sense that there is still work that needs to be done to be prepared for Florida Atlantic on Friday.

“Number one, we’re excited,” Rossi said on Tuesday. “We put a lot of work in since January and now you’re kind of getting to game week, you’re getting closer. So, I think there’s an excitement level. I think there’s an eagerness to get a chance to go and play under the lights and in front of fans. I think there’s also been a work mentality. We got to prepare, we got a lot of work to do. The best teams I’ve been around personally, they get better from the beginning of the season to the end, and that’s what we’ve been preaching to the guys.”

The Owls won’t be a pushover on Friday.

Tom Herman is entering his second season in charge at FAU. His squad returns just 10 starters from the 2023 season, but the Owls added many players from the transfer portal, including starting quarterback Cam Fancher. Last season, Fancher started 10 games at Marshall. He completed 66% of his passes and threw for over 2,000 yards and 11 touchdowns. He also ran for 273 yards and four touchdowns.

Not only did FAU add some talent from the transfer portal, but the Owls played tough against power conference opponents last season, despite the 4-8 record. They gained 293 total yards at Clemson. The final score in that game was 48-14, though, partly due to the four turnovers by the Owls. Against Illinois, FAU was in that game right up until the end, losing 23-17.

“This team is very talented and they brought in a lot of players in the transfer portal,” Rossi said. “The quarterback that they got from Marshall I think is a good player. He’s athletic, he can make plays with his feet. They brought in some receivers that we were looking at in terms of just evaluating. They pose a tremendous challenge. Again, watching how hard they played against those Power Five teams last year, they’re going to come in here, they’re going to play their butts off and they got really good players. So, for us, it’s about going out, executing our calls, flying around to the ball and handling anything that they throw at us that we might not be able to see. Then, we’ll come back, look at it, and see what we need to do for the next (game).”

FAU’s top receiver and playmaker from 2023, LaJohntay Wester, transferred to Colorado, so Herman will need to figure out how to fill his void. Despite that loss for the Owls, Rossi is aware that FAU will do some things to make the Michigan State defense think.

“It’s been impressive to me what they’ve been able to do to feature their skill level,” he said. “They do a lot of shifts and motions. They move the pocket well. They create a lot of picks and rubs. They ran it well. They threw it well.”

At the moment, there’s not a ton of sure-fire definite starters on this Michigan State defense. While some could view that as a negative, Rossi thinks that there is an advantage there.

“We’re going to be rotating a lot of guys,” Rossi said. “The one advantage I think we have defensively is we have a lot of guys who have earned the right to play football games, and so, to me, that keeps us fresh, that keeps us engaged, that creates buy-in. Throughout the course of a Big Ten schedule, (you) get to the end of the year, sometimes, it’s a war of attrition. Who has healthy bodies? So, I think that’s an advantage that we have acknowledged and that we’re going to take advantage of.”

For more on what Michigan State can expect from FAU and a look at its games against Clemson and Illinois from last season, check out Chase Glasser's film preview piece.