EAST LANSING — Jordan Hall knew he could leave Michigan State football after Mel Tucker was fired. A highly coveted freshman linebacker already was making his impact felt in the Big Ten and would have had no shortage of suitors.
But in one of his earliest meetings with new defensive coordinator Joe Rossi, Hall quickly learned his new linebackers coach already had his eye on him.
“I think I had a pretty decent freshman year. And he kind of neglected that and kind of focused on more of the things that I needed to work on,” Hall recalled recently. “And kind of how I looked at it is — because transferring was an option — I felt like me staying here would basically be like I transferred with a whole new staff coming in.”
So far, so good.
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“I just felt that it was best, and this is a really good situation,” Hall said. “I feel like it’s playing out well.”
Depth at linebacker last season behind Hall, Cal Haladay and Aaron Brule, however, was thin. Especially after Jacoby Windmon got hurt and was lost for the season and Darius Snow got shut down for the second straight season after four games.
Brule’s eligibility expired, and Windmon opted to enter the NFL draft rather than return for his COVID-waiver season. But Rossi and new coach Jonathan Smith moved quickly to fill the void, bringing in veteran transfer linebackers Jordan Turner from Wisconsin and Wayne Matthews III from Old Dominion and flipping prospect Brady Pretzlaff from a commitment to Minnesota to build more depth in the middle of the defense.
“I’ve been super lucky. The linebacker room is just top-notch with great people, and they work really, really hard and put a lot into it,” Rossi said Tuesday. “So I’ve been blessed from that standpoint. … The thing about the room right now, to me, they are all guys that can contribute this year. Which has been — I’ll be honest with you — over my career hasn’t always been the case, where you’re like, every one of these guys can contribute, you know? So that’s really good.”
Haladay is the venerable veteran, entering his fifth season following an honorable mention All-Big Ten season in which he led MSU for the third straight year with 91 tackles while ranking second with 644 snaps as the only defensive player to start all 12 games. The 6-foot-1, 235-pound Haladay could thrive with Rossi shifting to more of a 4-3 defense from the two-linebacker scheme Tucker and former defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton used, considering he was recruited by Mark Dantonio to play in his three-linebacker system.
“It just makes it makes you more aggressive in the run game,” Haladay said of Rossi’s scheme, “and the Big Ten can be a very run-heavy conference. … He’s been successful as a D-coordinator. He knows he knows the game very well, and he’s very meticulous and very detailed. And that’s what he holds us to. He wants us to (have) very high standards, and he holds the entire defense — especially the linebackers — to a very high standard.”
The 6-3, 235-pound Hall emerged to start half of the 12 games as a true freshman, finishing fourth with 67 tackles and second with 4.5 sacks. His sack total and 7.5 tackles for a loss were most among all Big Ten freshmen.
Yet even as the coaches who recruited him were let go, Hall believes the Spartans feel “more connected” this spring.
“We’ve met every day, making sure that everybody’s on the same understanding,” Hall said. “No discredit to the last staff, but it just seems like we’re more connected this year in that way, in everybody understanding their role and other people’s roles.”
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Turner and Matthews arrive with plenty of experience elsewhere.
A Farmington High School graduate, the 6-1, 235-pound Turner was an All-Big Ten honorable mention inclusion and the MVP of the Guaranteed Rate Bowl in 2022, a season in which he had 68 tackles, five tackles for loss, two sacks, an interception and a forced fumble. Last season, Turner played in 11 of Wisconsin’s 12 games and finished with 61 tackles, 6.5 of those for a loss along with three sacks and a forced fumble.
Turner said MSU was the “first school to recruit me … but the last school to offer me” a scholarship when he was in high school. Still, he felt the pull to become a Spartan after entering the transfer portal following last season.
“I always wanted to be back home closer to family,” Turner said. “Coach Smith came, and I’d heard great things about him. Then Coach Rossi came, and I’d heard great things about him. (Wisconsin) played their defense (at Minnesota) every year. When both of them decided to come here, I was like, it’s green light, let’s go. …
“(Rossi) has different blitzes, so I like how he changes looks up and stuff and how detailed he is. So I felt like I could get on board with his defense.”
Rossi said he saw Turner playing on crossover film when the Gophers were scouting the Badgers, which was one of the reasons the new MSU staff went after him more aggressively the second time around.
“First thing is he’s a great person. He’s top-notch, love coach and the kid,” Rossi said of Turner. “Two, he works his butt off. And three, he’s talented. So when you got a guy who’s a really good person who works really hard who’s really talented, those guys are really fun to coach. And he’s been awesome, he’s been great for the room.”
While Turner brings Big Ten experience back to his home state, Matthews arrives after earning third-team All-Sun Belt honors as a sophomore with 135 tackles in 13 games. The 6-2, 227-pound native of Largo, Maryland, had 3.5 sacks among his 9.5 tackles for a loss while forcing three fumbles and breaking up three passes.
“Coach Rossi has a great defensive mind. He will put the guys in the right spot at the right time to make those plays,” said Matthews, who also visited Mississippi State before committing to the Spartans. “It’s just a matter of guys making that play.”
Rossi also was able to convince Pretzlaff, a Gaylord native who committed to play for him with the Gophers before the Spartans hired him away, to stay home. The 6-3, 227-pound enrolled in January at MSU and has earned rave reviews from his older teammates as well as from Rossi.
“I’ve been impressed with him. He’s smart, he cares. He’s got length, he’s athletic,” Rossi said of Pretzlaff. “He’s transitioning. He should be sitting in high school class right now, and he’s out here playing a lot of reps for us in the Big Ten. And so he’s on the right track. He’s got a lot of work to do, but he’s certainly on the right track, and he’s got a really good future.”
MSU also returns Snow as a redshirt junior after he withdrew his name from the transfer portal Dec., along with sophomore Aaron Alexander returns for his second season with the Spartans after arriving via transfer from Massachusetts before the 2023 season. Smith also signed three-star prospect Brady Pretzlaff from Gaylord last month for 2024.
As for the Spartans’ future this fall, Matthews gave a hint at what fans should expect to see from Rossi’s changes.
“You’re gonna see a cut-throat defense,” he said. “You’re gonna see cut-throat guys just flying around and making plays. That’s what you’re gonna see this this fall.”
Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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