Sorry I’m late!! This post was initially meant to be published two weeks ago as a companion piece with the offensive depth chart projection and the soon-to-be-published special teams depth chart projection. Well, a surprise and prolonged hospital visit followed by the birth of a child (everyone is doing well) was set in my lap and here we are; with me two weeks behind on everything.
So I’m not going to waste much more time. Expedition is the mission.
This is a somewhat informed/somewhat blind shot at projection what Michigan State’s depth chart currently looks like. This is based on previous roles and comments from coaches’ press availabilities. That’s the somewhat informed part. The somewhat blind part is that none of the new coaches–including the head one–have led these players in a real, live practice. That makes this difficult. What is clear is that on defense there are a handful of surefire starters and a lot of youth and intrigue behind them.
Let’s get to the defensive depth chart. Later in the week we’ll hit special teams.
Defensive Tackle
- Jacob Slade, Naquan Jones
- Jalen Hunt, Deshaun Mallory
- Maverick Hansen, Evan Brunning
Salde and Jones are the obvious starters. They paired well as a tandem backing up Mike Panasiuk and Raequan Williams in 2019 and have the most experience in the group. Ron Burton has alluded to the fact that they well be counted on to lead the line. Behind them Jalen Hunt is really intriguing. He was supposed to go to Iowa in 2019, but wasn’t going to academically qualify. The Hawkeyes went another direction and then Hunt did end up qualifying and MSU swooped in late to get him. Mallory appeared in a couple games last season and could be used as a backup nose tackle. The interesting thing to watch here is how MUS aligns on defense in 2020. They’ll be slowly transitioning from a base 4-3 to a 3-4/hybrid defense. This means slight position changes for the front seven, which could shake up the depth chart.
