For the past few years, Michigan State football has looked completely different than the team that we saw in the final two years under Mark Dantonio.
Unlike those 2018 and 2019 teams, the program under Mel Tucker hasn’t been quite as offensively inept — although some would argue that in 2022 — and the defense hasn’t been nearly as dominant. Those 2018 and 2019 teams under Dantonio had some of the best defenses in the country.
The secondary may not have been as effective as the run defense, but the Spartans’ defensive backfield was still really solid.