Michigan State’s season has not gone according to plan. The Spartans are 2-5 and have dropped five games in a row as they hit the road to take on Minnesota on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time (Big Ten Network).
One area on the team that has improved compared to the past couple of years is the play of the defensive backs. Michigan State is 85th in the nation in passing yards allowed per game. Sure, the Spartans still have plenty of room to improve in that department, but it’s a welcome increase in production from the previous few seasons, especially the 2021 season in which MSU ranked last in the country in passing yards allowed per game.
“I think the guys are coming along,” first-year cornerbacks coach Jim Salgado said earlier this week. “They’re playing hard, which is the most important thing, playing hard. We had a rough night Saturday night (against Michigan), but just the way they’re coming along as a group, they’re playing together and the experience that they’re getting. We’re making plays on the ball, getting some interceptions the past few weeks, besides this past Saturday which is what it’s all about, taking the ball away. I think the guys have done a good job of that, believing in it and practicing it. And we've just got to keep building them up and it starts again on Saturday out at Minnesota.”
Salgado arrived in East Lansing in March. He has nearly 30 years of experience as a coach and was an assistant with the NFL's Buffalo Bills from 2017 through the 2022 season before parting ways with Buffalo and eventually being hired by former head coach Mel Tucker at Michigan State this past March.
Sophomore Malik Spencer thinks that having a guy with plenty of NFL experience like Salgado on the staff is a “blessing," and he understands what Salgado brings to the table.
“Having Coach Salgado in the room, to me, is a blessing,” Spencer said. “I feel like it’s a blessing for me because he just came from the league. He knows exactly what league coaches are running. He knows how to get the back end to move. He knows everything. It’s most definitely a blessing.”
It’s probably safe to say that Salgado’s first season on the staff as the cornerbacks coach has not gone exactly according to plan. Of course, Michigan State fired Tucker as the program's head coach in September. The team also had its struggles on the field.
Salgado talked about his first season at Michigan State and how unpredictable it has been.
“It’s been interesting to say the least,” Salgado said. “But good, in a good way. First of all, there’s great people here. In our room, as a staff and then the players as a group. If you have that, then it doesn’t matter, you ignore the noise. I know that there has been things that have happened throughout the year. But at the end of the day, I have a job to do. And it’s to coach those young men, to mold them together, to get them to play together, to get them to play hard.
"If you watched that game on Saturday night, if any of you watched the actual game film and it’s the fourth quarter, they’re playing hard. So when I look at that, it means we’re doing the right thing. I know whatever the score was, it was. But that’s what I’m looking at when I go back and watch that tape. Who’s still playing? Who can we count on? It’s been a rough year, but it’s a new week. It’s a new week. And just like I told those guys after we got through that game, ‘Hey, we’re moving on.’ And we need everybody in here. All hands on deck.”
One of the standout players when Salgado arrived in the spring was true freshman cornerback Chance Rucker. Rucker enrolled early in January and has played in all seven of Michigan State’s games so far this season, including starting the last four contests. He’s posted 14 tackles, three passes defensed and one interception in those seven games.
“When I got here in spring, he wasn’t able to really practice, but I saw him move around a little bit,” Salgado said about Rucker. “He had the attributes that you’re looking for in a corner. He got the size, the length, can run, change of direction. So then as we went through the summer and we saw him move around and then as we got to camp, and he was doing really well, I was excited … this kid might have a chance to play early. And then that first week before the opener, he had a little, I think it was, a groin (injury) and wasn’t going to be able to play. So that’s where you saw it, but you didn’t know until obviously you play a real game. So we had to wait a little while and then eventually he got to get in, and every week, he’s just getting a little bit better. He’s a sharp, smart kid. He wants to do well, works hard. And that’s all you can ask for.”
Rucker isn’t just being spoken of highly by the coaching staff. Spencer also sang the praises of Rucker and the confidence he carries onto the field.
“I feel like one thing about Chance is just his confidence,” Spencer said about Rucker. “That’s up there. I feel like just once Chance’s confidence gets up there, through the roof, where nobody can tell him nothing, you are going to see a beast for sure because he’s like that.”
Spencer is second on the team in tackles this season with 47. He has been a constant presence in the defensive secondary for the Spartans. Despite being one of the most productive players on the Michigan State defense, he highlighted his ballhawking ability as one of the areas he needs to improve on among others.
“I feel like I just need to improve more on the fundamentals, the technique, just doing the small things better, most definitely,” Spencer said. “I have to be more ball hungry.”
Salgado, Spencer and the rest of the Spartans face a Minnesota passing offense this weekend that ranks 13th out of 14 Big Ten teams and 126th out of 130 FBS teams in terms of passing yards per game at just 131.9.
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