Michigan State Spartans Roster 2019 Spartans Roster

Head Coach: Mark Dantonio        2017 Salary: $4,390,492        Offensive Coordinator: Jim Bollman/Dave Warner       Defensive Coordinator: Mike Tressel         

Stadium: Spartan Stadium       Surface: Grass        City: East Lansing        State: Michigan

Michigan State finds themselves positioned at the 11-spot in the College Football Top 25 Rankings. Climbing up four spots from last year, the roster combinations that the team features this year includes little turnover. The dark days of rebuilding and touching the surface with new talents are over and the team is poised to succeed. The program finished 10-3 last season, hardly a far cry for help for a team that was reworking new talents into their system. This year, the team is looking to find balance on both sides of the ball to write the storylines for their 2018 contests.

The offense remains tactical in their build. Returning Brian Lewerke at quarterback places the team in a good spot. He allows the offense to run within the flow of the game, taking the reigns if he feels his team is steering in the wrong direction. Maturing this talent as his begins his junior season places a lot of expectations on his shoulders. He can turn to LJ Scott to again shoulder a large portion of the load. Scott becomes one of the Big Ten's best rushers with key departures at Penn State and Northwestern. Beyond these two at the quarterback and running back positions, the younger, developing players can be found. Fostering the build-up of these players, Lewerke and Scott will transition into deeper leadership roles as they reach the tail-end of their careers at Michigan State. The offensive line returns a majority of their starters, which is important for teaching the new generation and staying high on this season's prospect of success. The defense also works to return a bulk of their starters. When scaling across the conference, few teams returned as many starters on the defensive side as Michigan State did. While return is a welcomed stance, they still need to perform at a higher level. Secondary inconsistencies led for the team to get burned within contests that were close. Upfront, the team is stout and strong. They get to implement new schemes to work through with younger talents, which only strengthens the defense. The biggest area of improvement for the team will be targeting mismatches. Their player pool is talented, but they have to place their guys in the correct situations. Too many positional mix-ups left gaps within the defense, offensive line, and other key areas. Sewing up these mistakes will help lead to a productive campaign for the team in 2018.