MSU Must Recruit, Develop Better at Key Defensive Position
The output on the football field has not been impressive for the Michigan State Spartans in recent seasons.
Outside of a nine-win season in 2017 and a New Year’s Six bowl victory in 2021, the Spartans have not been a consistently winning program. Fans have grown restless and impatient waiting for a better product on the field.
MSU has also not produced a tremendous number of NFL players recently, as it has only had one player drafted in each of the last four seasons, breaking a nearly 80-year streak that began years ago.
Several college football programs send nearly a double-digit number of players to the league each year, while the Spartans have just snuck into the final rounds of the NFL Draft. That does not exactly sell recruits on the program.
One position at which MSU has struggled especially is at defensive tackle. As 247sports.com’s Stephen Brooks points out, the last Spartan defensive tackle to be drafted was Malik McDowell by the Seattle Seahawks in the second round of the 2017 NFL Draft.
MSU did not have an interior defensive lineman drafted in 2025, as D’Quan Douse earned a minicamp invite with the San Francisco 49ers, while Maverick Hansen received one with the Indianapolis Colts.
Douse was a solid player for the Spartans last season, but he was a transfer from Georgia Tech and not a home-grown player.
If you are Jonathan Smith and Legi Suiaunoa, how do you sell the program to a top high school defensive tackle? You cannot point to NFL success, which is the ultimate goal for many players, so putting together a pitch would be tough.
The Spartans landed four-star defensive tackle Derrick Simmons in the last recruiting cycle, and he may be the player to start a run of Spartan DTs in the NFL. It will take serious development from Suiaunoa to turn him into a professional.
Winning in the trenches is the best way to build a consistent winner. MSU must do both to finally snap its postseason drought and develop defensive tackles into NFL players to maintain that level of production.
The Spartans are not far off from being a consistent winner. Strengthening the defensive line should be a start.
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