Michigan State Spartans DC Joe Rossi Goes In-Depth on 1st Spring Scrimmage

The Michigan State Spartans conducted their first scrimmage of spring practice on Saturday, and defensive coordinator Joe Rossi shared his thoughts on what he saw...

Michigan State is now past the midway point of spring practice, and the Spartans had their first team scrimmage this past Saturday.

MSU defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Joe Rossi shared what he saw from the Spartans' defense following practice on Tuesday.

"I thought they ran to the ball well. I thought they were physical," Rossi said. "I saw some good individual plays, but also plays that need to be improved and need to be corrected. For us, kind of our process is to look at that scrimmage and what can I learn from it? If I made a mistake, where can I improve? How can I get better? Take all that information that you can get from that particular scrimmage and then go apply it today at practice. That's what we talked about before we went out. What are the things you need to improve on based on what you saw on film?"

With a new coaching staff in East Lansing, much of the first three weeks of practice were spent with the staff showing players how practices will work under new head coach Jonathan Smith, as well as installing the new schemes this staff will bring. The scrimmage allows players to implement what they've learned, while allowing coaches to evaluate how far along the their position groups are.

"It puts a little more pressure on the players," Rossi said of the scrimmage. "You have practice and it's play-to-play and there's first down, second down, it's all scripted. You get into a scrimmage and it's more of a game-like feel. You're putting the ball down and you're playing. It's not quite a game, but sometimes you take for granted as a player — you get in that situation and now maybe you forget or overlook some of the fundamentals that maybe were there when it was in a more controlled environment. So, the more we can kind of put them in those situations, the better."

Scrimmages are often split into two types of periods — 'thud' vs. live tackling. There's a fine line between the two, as too much live tackling increases the chance for injury, while not enough can result in producing a poor tackling team. Rossi talked about that balance on Tuesday.

"You can get tons done in thud, because everything up front is live. There's a good, physical finish to the tackle, you just don't go to the ground," the defensive coordinator said. "Being able to walk that fine line between being physical but also being able to keep people healthy. The reality is, the more you're on the ground, the more people get hurt. It's not just the guy getting tackled, it's the lineman that's standing near the pile that's getting tackled into. So, coach [Smith] does a really good job of walking that line of here's the physical live periods where we're tackling to the ground, and then also here's the 'thud' periods where we can get good work and hopefully keep each other up."

Michigan State three more spring practices remaining before fans will get their first look at the new era of football in East Lansing at the 'Spartan Showcase' event on April 20 at Spartan Stadium.

The Michigan State Spartan Football Spring Green and White Game (Spring Showcase) will be held at the High Cathedral of the Spartan Nation, Spartan Stadium, on April 20, 2024, at 2 p.m.

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