Michigan State Football Camp Takeaways: Joe Rossi on fixing pass rush and defensive depth

EAST LANSING, Mich. - During the Big Ten Network’s tour stop at Michigan State on Thursday, Michigan State defensive coordinator Joe Rossi sat down for a brief interview with BTN’s Jake Butt.  It didn’t take long for Butt to ask about the most pressing area of question and concern for the Spartan defense: the pass rush. Michigan State infamously went six games without a sack in 2024.  “We really wanted to address it three ways,” Rossi said. “The first way was recruiting. When you have a deficiency, you want to look to add it in terms of a talent and ability level. We're looking for length and some twitch, and we were able to do that with some young guys, some older guys, a good mix.  “And then two is development. You know, we felt like we had a good core group of players back, and they worked from January until now on that aspect of the game. “And then the third thing is you can address it schematically. And so it was really a three-pronged attack. And so, you know, sitting here today, breaking camp, we like where we're at. “Now we got a lot of work to do. We need to continue to improve as you go throughout the season because all really good defenses do. But then it's one thing to do it in practice. “It's another thing to go do it under the lights. And so we'll have an opening game. We'll evaluate where we're at and make any adjustments.” When asked for names to watch in this area, Rossi focused on the defensive end position but didn’t mention any of the edge transfers by name. He didn’t mention EDGE transfers Isaac Smith (of Texas Tech), Cam Williams (of Georgia Tech), Anelu Lafaele (of Wisconsin), David Santiago (of Air Force), or second-year Spartan Tyler Gillison. (MORE inside SpartanMag).