Tre Mosley set to lead Michigan State in 2023: 'Leader my whole life'

Michigan State's wide receivers room looks significantly different heading into the 2023 season than it did during the 2022 campaign, but the one constant at the position over the past few years has been Tre Mosley.

Now a fifth-year senior and the "OG" of MSU's wide receiver group, Mosley is ready to lead not only his positional group, but the entire team.

Mosley enters 2023 as the Spartans' presumptive No. 1 target in the passing game following the departures of Keon Coleman (who transferred to Florida State) and Jayden Reed (who now plays in the NFL for the Green Bay Packers). Germie Bernard also transferred to Washington during the offseason, so there are plenty of targets to go around for Mosley and his current teammates.

Head coach Mel Tucker has often praised Mosley, and it was no surprise that the wide receiver represented Michigan State at the 2023 Big Ten Media Days event in Indianapolis on Wednesday. Mosley was joined by Tucker, redshirt linebacker Cal Haladay and fifth-year senior offensive lineman J.D. Duplain.

Mosley spoke about leadership, the mentality inside the locker room, building team chemistry, teammates transferring out, increased competition and much more.

"It means everything," Mosley said about representing Michigan State at Big Ten Media Days. "For my peers and my coaches to allow me to come here and be one of the spokespersons for the team, it means a lot. It's a great honor. Everyone doesn't get this opportunity and I'm thankful for it. I'm looking forward to this upcoming season."

Interestingly, Mosley has primarily worked as the slot wide receiver for the Spartans throughout his time in East Lansing. According to Pro Football Focus, Mosley lined up in the slot on 89.6% of his passing play snaps in 2022 (309 times out of 345 passing plays) and 89.8% of his snaps in 2021 (307 times out of 342 passing plays).

When Spartans Illustrated asked Mosley if that would continue to be the case in 2023, he noted that he has been working both inside and outside and can play at multiple spots this coming season.

"I've definitely been getting reps in both from the inside and the outside," Mosley said. "The more I can do, the better for myself and the better for my team. So, I expect to play both this year, inside and outside. It's crazy because coming in, I did start off playing outside, and that's where I was more comfortable. Then with the transition into playing in the slot, I got more comfortable there. So now it's like, I feel comfortable playing both, and it's just whatever the team needs to be successful, I'm willing to do."

He has recorded 98 receptions for 1,176 yards and eight touchdowns in 35 career games. Mosley caught 35 passes in both 2021 and 2022, but had more yardage in 2021 (530) than in 2022 (359). However, he did catch a career-high four touchdowns last season.

It's not just on the field where Mosley may see his role expand. As a team leader, and the veteran of the wide receivers room, it's up to him to make sure that he is showing the younger guys how to do things the proper way.

It is clear that the team respects Mosley, and his teammates are doing what he asks of them.

"It's been going well because guys are buying in," Mosley said about his role as a leader. "Whenever you get your guys to buy in, it makes the process that much easier. There's no pushback, there's no rebuttal from anybody. I'm appreciative of that from the guys because we're all in this together and we go as far as we do as a team."

While he will see an increased leadership role in 2023, leading is not new to Mosley.

"I looked at it and took it in straight on because that's something that's nothing new to me," Mosley said about leading the team. "I've been a leader my whole life, from little league to high school to college, it's just now I have to be more vocal and just go the extra mile, which I'm very comfortable doing. And I like to bring other guys with me, so it's not a challenge for me at all."

Part of the reason why Michigan State struggled in 2022, finishing the season 5-7 and missing a bowl game, was perhaps due in part to the team's complacency, according to Mosley.

Following an incredible 2021 season in which the Spartans went 11-2 and won the Peach Bowl, many returning players on the team may have felt like they had already accomplished some things, and perhaps didn't pay as much attention to the details last season. Mosley attributes this, along with small miscues that added up during the games, as some of the reasoning for MSU's issues in 2022.

"So, like all humans, when you have success, you can sometimes be complacent," Mosley said. "I think that's what happened to us a little bit last year, along with death by inches — letting small mistakes add up and eventually it catches up to you. So coming into this year, we're more focused than we had been coming into the past season to make sure that we don't make those same mistakes and that we're able to capitalize on opportunities and be as successful as we can as a team.

"With success, it's just something that us as humans, we all can say we probably have done that some time in our life," Mosley said. "You just get lackadaisical, the effort and attention to detail that you once put into things, it may not be the same. You might waver away from that just because you're like, 'Well, I've already accomplished this, I can do it again.' But in actuality, it's not how it works because you've got a bigger target on yourself after having success, so you need to ramp it up even more so you can meet and even succeed (what you've done previously)."

Mosley isn't afraid to hurt feelings if he has to, if he feels that it is best for the team. If he sees players getting too comfortable and not doing what they need to do, he will call them out.

"When I see it, calling it out, and making sure it doesn't happen," Mosley said about how he makes sure his teammates don't get too complacent. "As a leader you can't be afraid to step up and speak. Sometimes you might hurt the teammates' feelings, but it's better to hurt their feelings now than for it to bite us later down the line when it really matters. So, that's something I'm trying to instill within myself more consistently, along with my teammates. If we see stuff that's not supposed to be going on, call it out right there and then and hold guys accountable. And then when you're getting held accountable, take it for what it is, and don't feel some type of way about it."

The lack of accountability may have been the Spartans' downfall in 2022 and Mosley does not want that to happen again on his watch.

"Absolutely," Mosley said when asked if he felt that the 2022 team needed to a better job of keeping guys from getting complacent. "We had the pieces to make it happen, but for some reason, we weren't consistent enough with it, and our record showed that."

Heading into 2023, a consistent theme for the Michigan State players has been "hunger." The expectations for the Spartans this season are quite low from a national perspective. The people in the building, however, feel they have a chip on their shoulder and are eager to let their play do the talking.

This isn't dissimilar from this time in 2021. Heading into that season, Michigan State was expected to finish near the bottom of the Big Ten East. Instead, the Spartans won 11 games and earned a New Year's Six bowl trophy. Mosley drew some parallels between the two teams.

"The hunger," Mosley said when asked how this offseason compared to the 2021 offseason. "Coming into that season, we were coming from the COVID season where we were 2-5. Anytime you come off a losing season, that level of hunger is amped up because you don't wanna go through that again, especially when you know you have the guys who are capable of getting the job done.

"Like Coach Tucker mentioned earlier, we're deep, we've got guys in every position competing their butts off to get on the field. And I think that's good because when guys know that they have their spots solidified, that complacency can happen. But when guys are fighting, they give it their all every day."

Also similar to the 2021 squad, the 2023 version of the Spartans needs to block out the noise from outside of their building. Mosley expects his squad to do just that.

"People and things that aren't within our circle, you can't worry about that because media, fans, your family, they're gonna say their opinion, but they don't really know what's going on within our circle," Mosley said. "Only the players and coaches know what's going on, so you gotta really just lock in and key onto that because at the end of the day, we're all we've got, and that's all we need."