Did Dantonio leave cupboard bare? It’s not that simple
EAST LANSING – Justin White chose Michigan State football after his parents moved back to their hometown, Detroit, from California, where he grew up.
Kendell Brooks picked the Spartans sight unseen because he believed in Mel Tucker’s vision and off-the-grid scouting ability.
When MSU takes the field Saturday against Wisconsin trying to end a four-game losing streak, there is a good chance Tucker will start the former Division II players next to each other at safety.
That’s partly because of injuries, partly because White and Brooks earned respect and playing time the past two years and partly cause of the sweeping roster changes Tucker has made during his three-year tenure.
“It can be a bit overwhelming at times,” White said Tuesday after his game- and career-high 11 tackles last week against No. 3 Ohio State. “But you just gotta go out there and do what you did in practice. And that’s the only way you can really look at it. Because if not, things start to go downhill.”
There are many reasons why the Spartans enter their homecoming game against the Badgers 2-4 overall and 0-3 in the Big Ten. Injuries have sheared the top talent from the depth chart at key positions, production has been well below average at other spots and inconsistency has been a major problem on both sides of the ball.
Which has led fans to question whether former coach Mark Dantonio left the cupboard too bare for Tucker, leading to the downturn. The answer isn’t that simple.
A breakdown shows that of MSU’s 110 players this season, 69.1% are players Tucker recruited — 53 high school or junior college players and 23 college transfers. Only 34 players remain who were brought in by Dantonio, though they remain significant contributors on both sides of the ball. That includes two transfer standouts in wide receiver Jayden Reed and punter Bryce Baringer, who was a walk-on addition in 2018.
Since Dantonio retired Feb. 4, 2020, the Spartans have watched more than 60 of his former players with remaining eligibility leave the program. The latest is third-year sophomore wide receiver Terry Lockett Jr. last week after battling injuries for much of the past two seasons. In total, just 24 of the 82 high schoolers Dantonio signed in his final three recruiting classes (2018-20) remain Spartans.
Only four players remain from the 2018 class, with both senior starting safety Xavier Henderson and defensive tackle Jacob Slade having missed the entire losing streak while out with injuries. Defensive tackle Dashaun Mallory and running back Elijah Collins — both of whom have battled injuries throughout their careers — are the other two from that 22player class — four others left while Dantonio was still the coach, and Jalen Nailor departed for the NFL after last season.
Most of Dantonio’s expats transferred to non-Power Five programs, with eight going to major-conference schools. Few of them have made impacts with their new programs. A few left after legal issues. Some quit football entirely or left despite having an extra year to play with the COVID waiver for 2020. Tucker also already has experienced attrition from his first recruiting class in 2021, with six of the 19 players either gone from the program or never having arrived.
Those defections — whether because of the coaching change, due to Tucker’s desire to remake the roster to his own preference or otherwise — forced Tucker to dive headlong into the transfer portal.
That has come with hit-or-miss results, and the dearth of older program vets has affected the depth for his team this fall.
Of the 58 Spartans who played in MSU’s 4920 home loss last Saturday to No. 3 Ohio State, 35 were Tucker’s guys (19 recruits and 16 transfers) and 23 were Dantonio’s (21 recruits, two transfers). However, just four Tucker recruits and six of his transfers started.
About 10 of Tucker’s high school recruits the past two seasons have played significant snaps on offense or defense this season, with others interspersed on special teams. Cornerback Charles Brantley and defensive tackle Derrick Harmon are the top Tucker recruits to emerge as starters on defense, though true freshman Jaden Mangham earned consecutive starts at safety before getting hurt against the Buckeyes. Defensive end Zion Young continues to get more and more work with injuries on the defensive line.
Keon Coleman appears to be a potential star on offense from Tucker’s 2021 recruiting class and has started all six games. Fellow wide receiver Germie Bernard started at Washington with Reed injured and has been the Spartans’ No. 4 wideout as a true freshman. Sophomore Brandon Baldwin, a junior college transfer, started the opener against Western Michigan but quickly fell out of the rotation. Kicker Jack Stone and long snapper Hank Pepper as key contributors as specialists.
Yet the bulk of the starts through six games have been equally split between Dantonio’s recruits and Tucker’s players, predominantly transfers.
Of the 66 starts on offense, 45 have come from players who arrived under the previous coaching staff. On defense, Tucker’s players account for 41 of 66 starts.
Looking at the much-maligned offensive line, the combined 30 starts lean heavily to four Dantonio players who have started every game at four positions — J.D. Duplain at left guard, Nick Samac at center, Matt Carrick at right guard and Spencer Brown at right tackle. Jarrett Horst, an Arkansas State transfer
Tucker brought in before last season, has started the past five games since Baldwin’s debut. The only other player with significant snaps this season is backup guard Brian Greene, who arrived via transfer from Washington State in the offseason. None of Tucker’s offensive line signees, other than Baldwin, from the past two classes have worked into the six-man playing group, though Geno VanDeMark and Ethan Boyd have seen work on the field-goal unit.
However, the Spartans’ primary running backs — Jalen Berger and Jarek Broussard — are both Tucker transfers. Neither has overwhelmed against Power Five competition the past four games, combining for just 131 yards on 47 carries between them during the ongoing losing streak. Tucker laid the fault for MSU’s lack of production on the ground on every position group, not just the line and backs.
Tucker’s defensive transfers have been integral starters, with defensive end Jacoby Windmon, cornerback Ameer Speed and linebacker Ben VanSumeren leading off every game this season. But the pass defense remains a major problem, and 23 of the 30 starting assignments in the back five have been Tucker’s players. Dantonio product Angelo Grose has started all six games — four at safety and the past two at nickel back — and Henderson started the opener before suffering an injury that has kept him out since.
The injuries up front also affected that, with an inability to generate a pass rush during the losing streak. MSU combed the depth of the roster for help on the edge, with Dantonio recruit Jeff Pietrowski and Tucker transfer Khris Bogle both out and injured. Slade has missed the past four games, and the Spartans’ other defensive tackles — Harmon, Simeon Barrow and Maverick Hansen — all have been banged up.
All of that altered the trajectory of a season that began with high hopes coming off last year and built into a crescendo of championship dreams by the start of this season. It all unraveled with each injury leading to each loss over the past month.
“Football is a game of attrition,” Tucker said. “Some years, you can go through and not have very many injuries, and sometimes you go through the season and have a lot. And no one cares. It’s about bottom-line production.”
A lot of football remains for the Spartans to get four more wins to reach a bowl berth, starting with Saturday’s game (4 p.m./Fox). Whether the season’s midpoint provides a time for Tucker to begin interspersing more of his younger players remains to be seen. Michigan is next after a bye week, and Penn State sits at the end of the regular season.
And for MSU to salvage a postseason spot, it needs White, Brooks and the rest of the roster — regardless of how or when they arrived — to make it happen.