MSU Football Adds Experienced Assistant OL Coach to Staff
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Michigan State is still filling out the remaining crevices of its football staff.
One of (what should be) the final staff moves for Pat Fitzgerald appears to be the hiring of Colin Johnson to be the team's new assistant offensive line coach. Johnson was recently named on Jan. 29 as the head offensive line coach at MAC program Ohio, but he's since changed his bio on Twitter/X to indicate that he actually works for MSU now.
More on Johnson, Job Ahead at MSU
This job was initially supposed to go to Al Netter, one of Fitzgerald's former players at Northwestern and the former head OL coach at Stanford, but Netter left after only a couple of days to take the same job with the New York Jets.
Johnson is a pretty good contingency plan. Again, he was just hired to be the top offensive line coach at the FBS level. Before that, he was the assistant head coach, offensive coordinator, AND the running backs coach at FCS Butler in 2025.
Before that, he was the offensive line coach and the run game coordinator at another MAC school, Ball State, from 2019-24. In his time there, he helped lead the Cardinals to a 7-1 record in 2020, where the team finished ranked 23rd in the AP Poll and first-ever bowl victory. Johnson was actually also the interim head coach for BSU for two games at the end of the 2024 season.
For an assistant position coaching hire, this is pretty impressive for Michigan State. These types of roles oftentimes go to younger coaches looking to gain experience and work their way up the ladder.
Johnson will now get to work with new MSU head offensive line coach Nick Tabacca. Those two will have key roles in trying to turn around the Spartans' offensive unit, as the line play in recent years had never felt like it was truly up to standard. Michigan State allowed 37 sacks in 2025 while Jim Michalczik was the OL coach, which was the second-most in the Big Ten.
Tabacca helped rebuild the offensive line room this offseason. The only returning starter is right tackle Conner Moore (though Luka Vincic probably would've started at right guard if he didn't get injured). In the portal, MSU brought in UConn transfer Ben Murawski at left tackle, South Carolina transfer Nick Sharpe (who played for Tabacca at Wake Forest) at left guard, and also North Dakota State transfer Trent Fraley at center.
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A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
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