Reviewing Michigan State football’s offseason entering the summer

The next stage to the Michigan State football offseason before training camp gets underway will be summer official visits, looking to close out on some key prospects in the 2026 recruiting class.

Prior to that, though, Michigan State's coaching staff had to solidify the roster pre-and-post spring ball.

It has been a long offseason to this point with a lot of different movement, and different ups and downs being at play, but the Spartans coaching staff has geared up well for the upcoming 2025-26 season.

The 2025 fall is a big one for Smith and his staff, desperately needing to find at least seven wins in order to keep themselves off the hot seat, while keeping the fan base engaged and hopeful for the future of their tenure.

The staff knew this going into the offseason, and operated under the manner of this knowledge.

Let's take a look at the moves MSU made, and analyze whether or not the Spartans did enough to improve for the 2025 season:Assistant coaching movesIt was unfortunate for the Spartans to lose Demetrice Martin, but Smith and Joe Rossi acted swiftly in his replacement.

MSU brought in James Adams to fill the hole, and it was the perfect add for MSU.

Having expereince at Wake Forest, Purdue and Western Michigan, it was the perfect blend for an up and comer to get a shot at MSU's coaching staff.Aside from the Adams move, the coaching staff brought in John Boyer, the former QB coach from Oregon State, to fill that role in East Lansing.

Boyer is familiar with the staff and has been a part of successful runs with the staff and can be someone that brings offensive success.

Lastly, the Spartans have hired a ton of assistant position coaches, like Antjuan Simmons, who should help a ton in game day operations and on the recruiting trail.Ending 2025 strongThe class of 2025 wasn't always pretty, but the Spartans ended it with a bang.

The Spartans were able to flip back Jace Clarizio from Alabama, while also holding off Ohio State from stealing defensive back Aydan West.

Both players should have an immediate impact in East Lansing.Addressing critical needsMichigan State came into the offseason with two position groups having glaring holes that needed to be addressed: The offensive line aside from Stanton Ramil at left tackle and the wide receiver room behind Nick Marsh.

The Spartans addressed both beautifully.To go along with Stanton Ramil on the offensive line, the Spartans added Wake Forest transfer Matt Gulbin, one of the best interior lineman in the ACC to play center.

Two time FCS All-American Conner Moore was also added to play right tackle.

Aside from two massive adds, the Spartans added quality depth on the interior.At wide receiver, MSU has a surefire No.

1 in Nick Marsh, but the Spartans needed help behind him.

Well, MSU won two big time recruitments for Chrishon McCray and Omari Kelly while adding Evan Boyd and Rodney Bullard for depth.The Spartans had two massive holes in the roster and filled both of them about as good as you could have.Missing on needsWell, while there was a lot of good, there was still some bad with the roster management by the Spartans coaching staff.

MSU had massive needs at both edge rusher and linebacker, and honestly, the Spartans didn't do much to address it.Anelu Lafaele and David Santiago are solid adds as young development pieces, but the Spartans needed a surefire edge rusher and only ended up with Isaac Smith and Cam Williams.

Williams, respectively, is a depth piece at best, while Smith has had injuries plague his college career.

Needless to say, a bad pass rush may have not gotten better.On linebacker, MSU suffered with Cal Haladay for most of it's snaps last year, who was not good.

Now, without getting a portal add, the Spartans are tasked with starting players that could not overtake Haladay on the depth chart a year ago.

Color me skeptical.Defensive backfieldMichigan State made it a priority that two injuries in the defensive backfield were never going to derail a season again.

The Spartans added seven transfers into the defensive backfield, that retains Malik Spencer, Chance Rucker and Nikai Martinez, and overall added a higher floor to the talent pool.While I don't know if anyone will be as good as Charles Brantley, there should be an overall level of competency in the defensive backfield room that MSU has not seen in years.Running backsMSU only added Sacramento State transfer Elijah Tau-Tolliver to the room, and he is not a surefire starter at the position.

Tau-Toliver will be a solid safety net, but the Spartans are betting on their young running backs.Brandon Tullis and Makhi Frazier have both showed signs of competency in the past, and Smith and co are showing their inner Tom Izzo, trusting their development and their young guys at the running back position.Overall portal resultsAll in all, this is really tough to decipher.

The Spartans were masterful in addressing the wide receiver and offensive line rooms, but severely mishandled the front seven on defense.

Add in the upgrades at DB, and a safety net running back, this might fall on the net positive side.The offensive line last year was brutal, and those upgrades are critical to the Spartans overall success scoring points in 2025.

I think we will see a major improvement on that side of the ball.Defensively, the defensive back room will be massively better, but can the front seven hold up? Can the Spartans rush the passer? These are concerning questions to have going into the season, when the resources were there to address the need.Overall thoughtsAt the end of the day, Michigan State did enough to increase their talent pool, and address enough of their needs in order to get themselves in a position to win 7+ games in 2025.If this coaching staff is worth anything that they have been advertised on, they will take these increases in talent and use it to have a successful season that the fans can get some momentum behind.This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Reviewing Michigan State footballs offseason entering the summer.

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