As Michigan State forges new era, Joe Rossi remains a constant for defense

East Lansing — Joe Rossi abhors a phony. 

“I do think players feed off energy,” Rossi said. “I do think they feed off of passion. But I do know this: If you try to be phony, they're going to see right through it and they're not going to respond.”

Holden Caulfield’s word of choice aside, Rossi, now solely the defense coordinator, plans on Michigan State’s 2026 defense to be very much the real deal. He believes this group, assembled with heavy contributions through the transfer portal in January, took a necessary step over the summer and have started fall camp in a better spot than they ended the spring. They’re evidently responding to what Rossi and the defensive staff is teaching and instilling. 

And whatever the ultimate limits of their bodies and talents, Rossi extolled his defensive group for already living up to non-negotiables. 

“If guys have the effort and the swarm and the physicality, that's always a good start,” Rossi said. “So we're much further along than we were at the beginning of spring. And we have a lot of long way to go too.”

Rossi, a holdover from Jonathan Smith’s staff, along with the general stabilizing nature of keeping him, was retained in part because of how MSU’s defense rebounded in the final four games of 2025. 

After giving up 32.5 points per game over the first eight weeks (31.75 if the pick six allowed vs. Western Michigan in the opener doesn’t count), the Spartans gave up just 24.75 points per game in the last four contests. That’s a touchdown better on defense in the home stretch. 

Still, though, the 2025 defense for MSU lacked luster, struggling to sack the quarterback or produce turnovers and lacking the sort of stalwart qualities to make the lack of splash plays a moot point. 

And though the improvements coincided with Rossi leaving the booth and coaching from the sideline late in the season, he isn’t searching for credit. He’s trying to be a catalyst for a defense that won’t need a late-season surge to respectability. 

“We have a passionate and energetic defensive staff, from the back end to the front end,” Rossi said. “And I think we got a good group that'll bring energy, enthusiasm. Starts with the head coach. So it's a good group to be able to drive the team.”

As for himself? 

“Some guys get really excited all the time. I'm not an excited-all-the-time guy,” Rossi said.

A big change for Rossi this season relates to the defensive staff that’s been brought in. Rossi is no longer coaching the linebackers, as MSU brought in Notre Dame linebackers coach Max Bullough, an MSU football legend in his own right from an illustrious Spartan family. 

This detachment from any one position room has freed up Rossi to bounce around the defensive position meetings and, as he described it, “inject the why” into the conversation and teaching. 

“I think it does two things: It connects the defense, and then I can inject the why,” Rossi said. “So when we're in meetings, I just alternate from different positions. And so I go in and I wanna hear the players. I want to be around the guys. You know, when you're a coordinator and a position coach, you don't get around the guys as much. But then you say, 'Hey, listen, this is why we call this,’ ‘this is what the linebackers are doing’ when you're sitting in the secondary meeting, ‘this is what the linebackers are doing’ when you're sitting in the D line meeting, it just kind of pulls everything together.”

While what happens on the field will be the real barometer, players like defensive back transfer Tre Bell have appreciated the role Rossi is playing in binding together the defense. 

“It really does trickle down to everybody else,” Bell said. “So him being able to have the leeway as a D coordinator to run around to all the different groups and see what we're doing and, like, encourage us is actually really nice.”

This season is also the first time Rossi has coached under a defensive-centric head coach since he got his start at the Division III ranks. 

While he’s coached for plenty of offensive-minded head coaches who were successful, Rossi acknowledged there’s a different level of understanding when the head coach, Pat Fitzgerald, played and coached defense. 

“He just gets where it's coming from on defense,” Rossi said. “You know, where sometimes if a guy played receiver or things like that, was a quarterback, they maybe don't have quite the same sense. I mean, he gets it. He's been on that side of the ball. So I think it's appreciated by the guys.”

As Michigan State has undergone a season of change around Rossi, he’s noticed the vibe shift. 

He steered away from any comparisons to 2025 as things soured around MSU football, and instead pointed to a recent moment at the alumni golf outing over the summer as Fitzgerald addressed the gathered Spartans. 

“I could see within 15 seconds, they like this guy. They like his energy. And coach Fitz just brings it. It's not fake. Again, it's who he is, right? So I felt like it resonated really well with the alums, and I've kind of just felt that in the community, too.”

And what’s authentic for Fitzgerald would perhaps be a mask for Rossi, something his players would see right through. He’s got his energetic staff as the hands-on driving force as he conducts the defensive symphony in his coordinator role. 

He’ll keep on being his usual self trying to shape MSU’s defensive personnel into a hellacious unit he can be proud of. Though Rossi’s usually self, while more of a simmering intensity, can boil over too — just not for the sake of a phony performance. 

“On game day, sometimes, but usually during the week, I'm pretty like, grrrr, OK?” Rossi said, striking a grimace to go along with the growl. “So — but my point is, you just got to be yourself.”