EAST LANSING – Michigan State’s defensive line was the centerpiece of the nation’s best run defense last season. With all of its starters and several reserves back this season, the Spartan d-line is looking to leave its mark as one of the best in program history.
“We had the No. 1 run defense in the country and we want the No. 1 defense in the country,” said defensive tackles coach Ron Burton. “That’s going to take everyone being involved from pass, turnover margin, run defense, all of those together. We want the complete package.”
As a group, the Michigan State d-line has the talent to reach the high bar that they have set for themselves in 2019.
Senior defensive end Kenny Willekes is reigning Big Ten d-lineman of the year and a likely first-round NFL Draft pick after the 2019 season.
Starting defensive tackles Mike Panasiuk and Raequan Williams are three-year starters, All-Big Ten performers, and both are next level talents.
Junior defensive end Jacub Panasiuk is a second-year starter, and a rising star of the group coming off a productive off-season during which he shed body fat and improved substantially as a pass-rusher.
Each of those four starters will play a critical role on the Michigan State d-line. The overall success of the unit, however, will be determined by the contribution of its second and third stringers.
Great defensive lines have depth at each position, and that is what Michigan State is striving to build during training camp.
“It’s actually silly at any d-line spot to just talk about the two starters,” defensive coordinator Mike Tressel said. “You have to have four d-end starters, four d-tackle starters or your gonna be in trouble.”
Michigan State has quality depth at d-end. Sophomore Jack Camper and junior Drew Beesley are better than functional back-ups behind Willekes and Jacub Panasiuk. The Spartans are also well situated in the reserve ranks with promising youngsters Jacob Slade, a redshirt freshman, and true freshmen Michael Fletcher and Adam Berghorst.
“Who is going to be that fifth defensive end,” Tressel said. “We know that Camper and Beesley are going a great job as back-ups and coming along. But who is that other guy going to be? Is it going to be Zach Slade or (Mike) Fletcher or (Adam) Berghorst.”
Michigan State has three All-Big Ten caliber defensive tackles in Raequan Williams, Mike Panasiuk, and Naquan Jones. Williams and Panasiuk have already earned some level of All-Big Ten recognition during their football careers at Michigan State, and it appears to be a matter of time before Jones joins them in that regard.
“We expect him to improve himself on run defense, improve himself in pass defense and have more disruption on the field,” Burton said. “He is no different from being a starter. That’s what we expect from him and that’s the way we treat him. We want consistency from him. He does give maximum effort, but we want consistency from him.”
Creating more turnovers is critical for Michigan State’s d-line to live up to the hype of being one of the best groups in college football.
“Turnovers are game changers and we’ll continue to harp on it every day,” Burton said. “That is necessary for us to be one of the top defenses in the country, which is one of our goals. The turnover margin has to be high. The turnovers have to go up. We harp on it on daily basis during practice.”
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INSIDE ROTATION
In typical years, Michigan State has featured four-man playing groups on the interior d-line. Sometimes that group has been smaller, and occasionally the Spartans have worked in reps for a fifth defensive tackle.
“That’s what we’ve done in the past, but we could go with a three-man rotation,” Burton said. “It all depends on the maturation of the fourth guy in that position and whether he can handle it or not.”
Ideally, Michigan State will rotate four defensive tackles. And chances of that happening are strong given the promising underclassmen behind Williams, Panasiuk, and Jones.