The Michigan State football program has made a crucial hire in the recruiting/personnel department. On Monday, head coach Mel Tucker announced the hiring of Mark Diethorn as MSU's new executive director of player personnel and recruiting.
Diethorn comes to East Lansing slightly over a month after Michigan State parted ways with Saeed Khalif, who was previously the program's general manager/executive director of player personnel and recruiting. MSU also did not renew the contract of Jensen Gebhardt, who was the recruiting operations coordinator.
"Mark has a vision and a passion for recruiting and understands what it takes to be successful at this level," Tucker said in a statement. "He has also shown the ability to identify talent in the transfer portal. He's very organized and has a thorough process for evaluating players and managing a roster. I'm excited for Mark to hit the ground running and make an impact on our program."
Most recently, Diethorn spent four years as the director of player personnel at his alma mater, Virginia Tech from 2018 through 2021 under then-head coach Justin Fuente. While with the Hokies, he oversaw the daily recruiting and personnel operations. This included campus visits, prospect evaluations, roster management, road travel for coaches, recruiting board and database organization, summer camps, prospect admissions and more.
In 2019, Diethorn led the Hokies to a top-25-ranked recruiting class.
He also monitored the transfer portal for Virginia Tech and helped identify targets from there to bring to Blacksburg. One such player was running back Khalil Herbert from Kansas in 2020. Herbert led the ACC in all-purpose yards that season (1,791), and went on to be selected by the Chicago Bears in the sixth round (No. 217 overall) of the 2021 NFL Draft.
Prior to Virginia Tech, Diethorn served multiple roles at Pittsburgh from 2012 through 2017 under head coaches Paul Chryst and Pat Narduzzi. He started with the Panthers as a recruiting assistant and worked his way up to the title of director of recruiting. He also worked as a scouting and player personnel intern with the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers during training camp in 2017.
While with the Pittsburgh Panthers, Diethorn had a hand in acquiring 31 players who would go on to play in the NFL, including several NFL draftees such as wide receiver Tyler Boyd, running back James Conner, offensive guard Dorian Johnson and many others.
Before Pitt, Diethorn was a football recruiting assistant at Florida, in 2009 and 2010. He worked under then-head coach Urban Meyer while in Gainesville, and helped bring in the No. 2-ranked recruiting class in 2010 (behind only USC).
The 37-year-old Diethorn is a Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania native. He has a master's degree in sport management from Florida and an MBA from Pittsburgh. Diethorn earned his bachelor's of science degree in business information technology from Virginia Tech in 2007.
