Michigan State's Defensive Tackle Depth a Major Concern
Michigan State enters the season with only six scholarship defensive tackles, and just two have meaningful experience: Ben Roberts and Illinois transfer Eli Coenen. The team lost four regular contributors from last year's rotation, including Alex VanSumeren who transferred to USC. Former four-star recruit Derrick Simmons is expected to see significant snaps but remains unproven at the college level.
The Spartans' defensive tackle room was a rare bright spot in 2025, with five players rotating regularly and the run defense ranking 65th nationally despite frequent negative game scripts. That continuity has vanished: three contributors exhausted eligibility, and VanSumeren departed for USC via the transfer portal. Roberts, the lone returning regular, carries an injury history that cost him two games last season.
Coenen arrives after just one FBS season at Illinois, where he logged 222 snaps as the fifth option. Behind them, Simmons redshirted as a freshman, Hazelwood played sparingly at Toledo, Beeler has nine career snaps, and Aultman is a true freshman. The margin for error is razor-thin.
This roster fragility could shape Michigan State's season and, by extension, the broader Big Ten landscape. A thin defensive interior often forces teams to abandon aggressive schemes, lengthen drives, and expose young players to premature pressure. For fans and alumni, another losing campaign would extend a bowl drought dating to 2021, potentially affecting recruiting momentum and program morale. The situation may also influence how other programs evaluate transfer-portal depth strategies, as MSU's reliance on unproven talent highlights the risks of roster reconstruction in the modern college football environment.