Michigan State Football 2026 Top 30 Players: No. 20
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Production on the interior of the defensive line will be a determining factor for Michigan State this fall.
The biggest move MSU made at that position on offense was landing Illinois transfer Eli Coenen. He’s set to take on a starting role for the Spartans in his first year with the program. He is also No. 20 on my ongoing top 30 list of Michigan State players for the upcoming season for a couple of different reasons.
Early Background on Coenen
Coenen is entering his redshirt junior season with MSU and has two seasons of eligibility remaining. He actually began his career at the Division II level for Bemidji State. Coenen spent two seasons (with one redshirt) there before making the leap to Illinois for the 2025 season.
The rise of Coenen makes him an interesting piece of the Spartans’ defense. He played tight end and defensive end in high school. The move to defensive tackle seems wise thus far. Coenen is now up at 6’6” and 287 pounds on Michigan State’s spring roster. His height and overall size make his ceiling something to watch. Nobody as tall as Coenen played regularly for MSU at defensive tackle last season.
Starting will also be a newer concept for Coenen. He’s only started one career game thus far, coming during his redshirt freshman year at Bemidji State. Coenen still got a fair number of stats at Illinois last year, helping the Fighting Illini to a 9-4 season.
He received 222 total defensive snaps, making 12 total tackles with 1.5 sacks. Four of those tackles and one of those sacks came during the Music City Bowl against Tennessee. Coenen appeared defensively in all 13 of Illinois’ games last fall.
Coenen entered the transfer portal again during the winter and, as you can see, decided to stay in the Big Ten. He announced his commitment to the Spartans back on Jan. 12, just a tad over a week after news broke that he was leaving Illinois.
Defensive tackle was a major need for Michigan State during the transfer portal season. Coenen wrapped up at 930th overall in 247Sports’ portal rankings this cycle, as well as 99th among defensive linemen. He needs to be a hit for MSU to find success in 2025.
Importance of Coenen, DL Play in 2026
The other additions at defensive tackle via the portal are a bit underwhelming, to be honest. Michigan State got tasked with replacing Alex VanSumeren (now at USC), Grady Kelly, and several other contributors at the position.
With the next roster essentially set, depth at defensive tackle is a concern. Coenen was one of just two additions at the position when it seemed MSU might need more. The other transfer portal commitment at defensive tackle was from Toledo transfer Carlos Hazelwood. He’s probably not a player the Spartans want to rely too much upon in 2026, given that he played fewer than 100 snaps at a MAC school last season.
Coenen is the likely No. 2 in Michigan State’s rotation. Returning redshirt senior Ben Roberts is probably at the top of the depth chart. Most teams are going to put two defensive tackles on the field at a time, but they also rotate and bring in players off the bench. That’s how Coenen wound up getting more than 200 snaps last season, despite never starting a game.
Just behind Coenen is probably redshirt freshman Derrick Simmons, who was the No. 23 player on my list for the upcoming season. Not every team rotates the same number of defensive tackles into the game, but three would make plenty of sense. This keeps the best players on the field while also giving them the occasional snap or shift off.
Three would also make the most sense for MSU because there seems to be a drop-off after Simmons. Hazelwood is likely fourth on the depth chart. After him, it’s probably Mikeshun Beeler, who only played in one game and four snaps last season. After Beeler, there is true freshman Hudson Aultman.
That is a big reason why the group of Roberts, Coenen, and Simmons will be so important, and why I wish Michigan State had brought in one more defensive tackle from the transfer portal. The Spartans are basically one injury away from giving regular snaps to players who are very inexperienced. That can be said about Simmons, but he was also a 4-star recruit. Those behind him were not that well-regarded coming out of high school.
Setting Expectations for Coenen
Coenen should be one of the 11 defenders out there for the first snap of the season against Toledo in Week 1. One has to imagine one of the reasons he picked MSU while in the transfer portal is that he’d be going somewhere where he would start and immediately be needed.
What made Coenen a solid pickup during the January window is that he is a more proven body in the interior. If you go find the tweets reporting his departure from Illinois, the Fighting Illini fans who offered reactions expressed disappointment rather than “good riddance” or general apathy. Even though Coenen wasn’t a “starter,” he was an appreciated contributor at a Big Ten program that has been operating at a level above Michigan State as of late.
The fact that Coenen went from redshirting at a D-II school to being a regular contributor to a Power Four school makes his future interesting, too. His size already shows some good projectability, but the two seasons that he’s actually played thus far in college have shown that he has plenty of room to get better.
Coenen’s blend of projectability and proven production makes him one of the Spartans’ most interesting newcomers. Michigan State is still going to be seeking a step forward from what he was doing at Illinois in 2025, but the task can’t be as difficult as when Coenen jumped up from the D-II level last offseason.
Other Top 30 Articles
No. 30, WR Samson Gash | No. 29, WR Charles Taplin | No. 28, S Devin Vaught | No. 27, KR Kenneth Williams | No. 26, OL Luka Vincic | No. 25, OL Rakeem Johnson | No. 24, CB Tyran Chappell | No. 23, DL Derrick Simmons | No. 22, TE Carson Gulker | No. 21, WR KK Smith
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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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