Recently Hired MSU Assistant Leaving for Job with New York Jets
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One of Michigan State football's newest hires is apparently leaving already.
Al Netter was set to become the Spartans' senior offensive analyst and assistant offensive line coach. MSU never formally announced the hiring, but that's what his Twitter/X bio and several reports indicated.
Now, he's off to coach in the NFL. The New York Jets announced a round of hirings on Tuesday, and Netter was on the list as the team's new assistant offensive line coach. This is the second time a recent hire has left for the professional ranks, with Michigan State more notably losing quarterbacks coach Mike Bajakian to the same position with the Cleveland Browns.
While Netter was going to fill in a relatively minor role, MSU is losing a pretty experienced coach here. Netter was previously the head offensive line coach at Stanford, had been a co-offensive coordinator at Yale, and also played at Northwestern for Pat Fitzgerald.
More on Netter, Situation for MSU
Of course, this means Michigan State will be on the lookout for another assistant offensive line coach and perhaps another analyst to add to its staff. The head offensive line coach is Nick Tabacca, who had previously been working at Wake Forest for about a decade.
Things are still on flux, going off the official coaching staff on MSU's website. Jacob Lail is still listed as the team's assistant offensive line coach, as of Wednesday morning, but his Twitter/X bio says that he is now the assistant tight ends coach.
That position, though, still officially belongs to Cordale Grundy, whose bio still indicates he's on the MSU staff, but he has been reposting several UTSA-related things lately. While that could be an indication of something, it also could be Grundy acknowledging the school he played for in 2018 and 2019.
Going back to Netter, a big reason he would've been such an interesting add to MSU's staff is his experience. A lot of assistant positional coaches are younger coaches trying to get their foot in the door of the coaching world and build connections at a prestigious program. Michigan State's Antjuan Simmons, a former star linebacker, decided to be the head linebackers coach at Division II Saginaw Valley State over being the assistant defensive line coach at his alma mater for another season.
Someone like Netter, who had been a head positional guy at another P4 school, would usually not look to take an assistant OL job. Normally, he may move down to the Group of Six or FCS level to another such job, but taking an assistant OL job is essentially taking a demotion.
Additionally, his time as one of Fitzgerald's players would have been valuable. Netter was there during the early days of Fitzgerald's head coaching tenure at NU, so he has personal experience to draw from in terms of building the culture Fitzgerald envisions for his program.
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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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