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Michigan State's Jordan Hall celebrates a safety against Western Michigan during the third quarter on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025, in East Lansing. Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Michigan State Showed Improvement in This Key Aspect

Originally posted on Michigan State Spartans on SI
By Jacob Cotsonika | Last updated Aug 31, 2025 6:00 AM ET

Michigan State's pass rush last season was pretty abysmal. The Spartans went six consecutive games without a sack at one point. Something about the team's ability to get to the opposing quarterback was going to have to change.

After a 23-6 victory over Western Michigan that saw the defense pitch a shutout, MSU's needed improvement in that area certainly appears to be on its way. Michigan State sacked Western Michigan quarterbacks Brady Jones and Broc Lowry a combined four times for a total of 32 yards.

"Coach (Joe) Rossi and that group did a nice job changing and mixing pressure, coverage," coach Jonathan Smith said. "Crowd helped us with the crowd noise. I thought we got around the quarterback a little bit, he had to get the ball out, and that definitely helped the secondary."

Who got to the QB

Four different Michigan State players were able to record a sack.

The first one of the season came from Anelu Lafaele, who was at Wisconsin last season and redshirted as a true freshman. He was able to get to WMU's Jones during the first quarter and actually kind of ran around him but was still able to punch the ball out and ensure a stop for MSU's defense on third-and-9.

Junior linebacker Jordan Hall was also in the backfield all game. He had 2.5 tackles for loss and a sack during the third quarter. He had one tackle for loss all season in 2024 and never got to an opposing quarterback.

During the fourth, safety Malik Spencer was credited with a sack after he forced an intentional grounding penalty and Jalen Thompson got his first of the season a couple drives later.

What was said after the game

"I think that's a pretty good start," Hall said about the pass rush. "That's something that we've been emphasizing since Rutgers of last year. We want to be able to get to the quarterback and excel and be good at it. And yeah, I think we did a pretty decent job with that today."

"I think we did a good job," said defensive tackle Alex VanSumeren. "I mean, to get to that situation, the first thing you have to do is stop the run. So that's a huge emphasis, and then we can get to the quarterback and rush the passer and it's something that we've improved definitely over the whole offseason."

"When the opportunities presented itself, I feel like we stepped up in a huge way, as far as pass rush," linebacker Wayne Matthews III, who also had a pick, said. "And like (VanSumeren) said, first, we have to stop the run to get there, and I feel like we did that today."

Need to Sustain Success

Something else that should be noted is that Michigan State's got off to a very fast start last year, too. The Spartans were able to rack up seven sacks against Florida Atlantic in Week 1 of 2024 but of course were not able to keep up that pace for very long.

It will be interesting to see how this year's MSU squad does in the pass-rushing department, especially against the ACC's Boston College next Saturday.

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