Depth of Talent on Michigan State Defensive Staff Makes Football Better

The depth of the experience and talent that Mel Tucker has hired on his first Michigan State Spartan football staff makes life much easier for terrific coordinator Scottie Hazelton.

East Lansing, MI—Mel Tucker is one of the most highly regarded defensive minds in all of football. So when he reached out to Scottie Hazelton and offered him the keys to his first defense in East Lansing, it spoke volumes. Hazelton was already one of the fastest rising stars in all of football as a coordinator, and Tucker’s respect was a compliment to Tucker and Hazelton.

Tucker and Hazelton put together the staff in East Lansing, and what emerged was the depth of talent and experience in the coaching staff on that side of the ball. 

Hazelton spoke about the immense talent of his staff.

“Well, so far, it’s been great. There have been some discussions and things that we all might have run the same call, basic, alignment of it, or whatever you’re talking about, like this blitz, we’ve all done this before. And the cool thing is, is that all of us have coaching points of that. And the cool thing is, I think we’re all humble enough that we might say, oh that was a really good point, or oh, that worked well. And so you can take the best of whatever everybody’s saying and hopefully you can make it stronger than it’s been for all of us. At each individual place, we might have done the same thing, then you put together, and you could say, Hey, we had this issue, and we had this issue. And y’all know the problems that you had with it. And then when we talk about it, we say, Hey, this is how we fixed all this stuff, and you can all talk about things that you fixed. It’s kind of cool because it’s like having an offseason clinic, except, you are at work, and you’re doing it right now, and you’re building your defense, it’s kind of cool.”

The Spartans kick off the season on September 5, 2020. They will be hosting in the Northwestern Wildcats with a rare, season-opening Big Ten game.

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