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Published Jan 12, 2025
Michigan State elevates GA Jacob Lail to assistant OL coach
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Jacob Cotsonika  •  Spartans Illustrated
Staff Writer
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@jacobcotsonika

Michigan State and head coach Jonathan Smith have given another staff member a promotion, this time elevating offensive graduate assistant Jacob Lail to a new spot as the assistant offensive line coach.

Lail has been a part of the Michigan State staff since the 2022 season, where he worked underneath former offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic. He remained in East Lansing during the coaching change and continued his work with the same position group after Jim Michalczik took over the o-line.

The Racine, Wisconsin native also worked in a similar capacity at Division II Wayne State for a couple years. Lail was also a grad assistant with the Warriors’ offensive line before becoming the team’s tight ends coach in the spring of 2022, shortly before departing for MSU. He also helped coach the running backs at Carthage College back in 2019 and 2020.

Lail's promotion comes during a flurry of news regarding the Michigan State coaching staff. Smith has recently hired Jon Boyer as quarterbacks coach, hired James Adams as safeties coach, promoted offensive analyst Aaron Pflugrad to passing game coordinator, promoted defensive graduate assistant coach Antjuan Simmons to assistant defensive line coach, promoted defensive analyst Andrew Bindelglass to assistant linebackers coach and promoted graduate assistant Jacob Lail to assistant offensive line coach.

Michigan State also had a departure from its coaching staff this offseason, as it lost cornerbacks coach Demetrice Martin to UCLA.

The new-look, extended coaching staff comes after a recent rule change in June of 2024 by the NCAA Division I Council, which removed restrictions regarding countable coaches. Now, any staff member may provide technical and tactical instruction to student-athletes during practice and competition. Prior to the rule change, schools were only permitted to have 11 on-field coaches.

Notably, the NCAA still limits how many staff members are allowed to recruit off campus, which is 11.

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