Michigan State Football Top 30 Players Countdown: No. 8
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Michigan State’s new starting rush end is one of the most interesting players on the roster.
Kenny Soares Jr. is the only player on MSU’s roster who has gone through a season with Pat Fitzgerald as his head coach before. His true freshman season was in 2022 at Northwestern, which turned out to be Fitzgerald’s final season at his alma mater. The two of them are now reunited a few years later in East Lansing, and Soares should be among the Spartans’ best players. He’s at No. 8 on my “top 30 players” list for the upcoming fall.
Soares’ Interesting Role With Michigan State
Soares has been a linebacker for his entire collegiate career. That’s what Northwestern had him listed as in 2024, and that’s what NC State had him listed as in 2025. He was positioned as an inside linebacker more than he was an outside linebacker last year with the Wolfpack.
Michigan State seems to look at Soares differently. He’s listed as an EDGE on MSU’s roster, but the more specific classification for him is at rush end. It’s a semi-unique position in Joe Rossi’s defensive scheme, which is somewhere between linebacker and defensive end. Soares will often be seen at the edge of the defensive line on the weak side in a stand-up pass-rushing position.
Adding Soares to the Spartans’ group of pass rushers is certainly an interesting move. Soares has just 3.0 sacks in his career, and he only had half a sack last year at NC State. He was plenty productive as an inside linebacker in 2025; his 80 tackles were the second-most on the Wolfpack.
If anything, much of the surprise was in making him the rush end and not Dion Crawford. The incoming Buffalo transfer had 8.5 sacks in 2024 and 3.5 sacks in 2025, but Michigan State seems ready to make him its other starting linebacker next to Jordan Hall.
Soares got a fair number of reps as a pass-rusher, or at least a blitzer, while at NC State last season. The number is 124 pass-rushing snaps out of 656 total defensive opportunities in 2025, according to PFF. Soares got a good, not great, 68.7 pass-rushing grade from the site and got credited with 11 quarterback hurries and 14 pressures.
The good part for Soares is that he should have some help in the pass-rushing department. Anelu Lafaele is the other prominent rush end on the roster, and he would’ve nearly certainly been MSU’s top sack-getter last year had he not suffered a season-ending injury in the fifth game of the year against Nebraska.
He’ll be the guy Michigan State can turn to in those third-and-long situations where an obvious pass is coming, and those on the EDGEs can tee off a bit. Lafaele only got 68 defensive snaps before his injury last season; he was either rushing the passer or in pass coverage for 60 of them.
The pretty selective usage of Lafaele last fall indicates a need for more of an every-down player. That’s going to be Soares. His background as a linebacker means he should do just fine against the run, and it seems like Rossi and rush ends coach Andrew Bindelglass liked what they saw enough on tape as a pass-rusher to give him that kind of role, even if the counting stats aren’t overwhelming.
More Info on Soares
Soares is up there among the best transfer portal additions Michigan State made this offseason. On3 ranked Soares 410th overall in the transfer portal this cycle, according to its individual rankings. He was also ranked 970th overall by 247Sports. Those two sites had him ranked 29th and 59th among linebackers, respectively, but the position change only makes that mean so much.
Overall, Soares has played in 41 college games (28 at Northwestern, 13 at NC State) and has made 137 total career tackles. He also made 9.5 tackles for loss, 3.0 sacks, recovered two fumbles, and had five pass defenses along the way.
This coming season could be the first time Soares plays a full-time starting role. He’s gotten some starting experience: three games in 2023, five games in 2024, and then eight in 2025, but he hasn’t gone wire-to-wire. Last year was the longest string of his career; his eight starts were in NC State’s final eight games at middle linebacker.
Soares’ first and only year with the program at Michigan State should also be the first time in his career that he’ll be able to start a game during Week 1. Just what chunk of snaps Soares gets while competing with Lafaele will be something to watch early on in the season, but Soares should get the plurality of the snaps there as the more well-rounded player.
That history as a linebacker doesn’t just have to be something of the past, either. If MSU really needs somebody to sub in at linebacker, Soares will be an option. Depth isn’t much of a concern for the linebacker room between Hall, Crawford, Caleb Wheatland, Brady Pretzlaff, and others, but it’s something worth considering if injuries ever start piling up.
Digging back to when Soares was a recruit, he was a 3-star prospect out of New Canaan, Conn., ranked 748th overall in the class of 2022 on the 247Sports Composite. He chose Northwestern over other Power Four/Five offers from Colorado, Indiana, and Maryland.
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
No. 20, DL Eli Coenen | No. 19, OL Nick Sharpe | No. 18, LB Caleb Wheatland | No. 17, RB Marvis Parrish | No. 16, DB Michael Richard | No. 15, EDGE Anelu Lafaele | No. 14, P Rhys Dakin | No. 13, LB Dion Crawford | No. 12, C Trent Fraley | No. 11, DL Ben Roberts
No. 10, CB Tre Bell | No. 9, OL Conner Moore
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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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