Michigan State football struggled to get sacks in 2024. The Spartans added transfer DEs, including David Santiago from Air Force, to fix it.
EAST LANSING — David Santiago would stop what he was doing to stand at attention at a moment’s notice.
Even if it was during the middle of football practice – the standard procedure at his previous school: Air Force.
“During practice in the afternoons, they’d stop for ‘Retreat’ and they’d take down the flag and they’d play the national anthem,” the former cadet recalled. “So we’d always stand there at attention. That was something different.”
Santiago left the rigors of military life after two seasons to take flight with Michigan State football in January, one of four transfer defensive ends added in the offseason. And the Spartans hope the discipline and lessons the sophomore edge rusher absorbed at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, will boost their pass rush and increase sack totals.
Without the stopping and starting.
Joe Rossi’s defense feasted on opposing quarterbacks early last season before starving as the competition level increased. MSU finished tied for 111th in the Football Bowl Subdivision with 19 sacks in going 5-7 and missing a bowl for the third straight season in the debut of Rossi and coach Jonathan Smith. Of those sacks, 15 came in the first four games, with a drought of more than six games and nearly 386 minutes of football without one.
“Obviously, you’re not gonna be successful with that kind of production,” Santiago said after practice Thursday, Aug. 15. “That was our message – just harassing the quarterback mentally and physically, getting hits on them. … Just doing your job and making the play.”
The Spartans got 8½ of their sacks from defensive ends, but they lost starter Khris Bogle (a team-high four sacks in 2024) to graduation and Anthony Jones (two) and Ken Talley (1½) to transfer. Quindarius Dunnigan, who had all of one, is the only returning defensive end with a sack from last season and one of just four Spartans returning from last season with a sack (1½ for Alex VanSumeren, one for Ben Roberts and half a sack for Jalen Satchell – all defensive tackles).
Dunnigan and junior Jalen Thompson are the only defensive ends back with experience for MSU, and each had 17 tackles last season. Thompson didn’t have a sack last season, though he had two in 2023 as a true freshman.
“We all felt like that was somewhere we needed to pick up,” Thompson said during camp. “And as a defense, we’ve been honed in to that and focusing on how we can get it better.”
The Spartans brought in four transfers at rush end in Santiago and Anelu Lafaele in the winter and continued to restock by adding Isaac Smith and Cam Williams after spring practice. That comes after getting Dunningan as a transfer from Middle Tennessee State and Tyler Gillison from Cincinnati before last season. Gillison missed all of 2024 with an unspecified injury.
Heading into MSU’s second and final preseason scrimmage Saturday, Aug. 16, defensive ends coach Chad Wilt likened his new rush ends Thursday to having an expansive toolbox. He has a little more than two weeks to learn to best use them ahead of the Aug. 29 season opener against Western Michigan at Spartan Stadium (7 p.m., FS1).
His thoughts on the group:
● On North Carolina native Santiago (3½ sacks among 38 tackles in 10 games at Air Force in 2024): “Has some physicality. … I think David reported here at 220 (pounds), he’s 255 now,” Wilt said.
● On Smith (3½ sacks among 31 tackles as a linebacker at Texas Tech) and Williams (21 tackles and a sack in 12 games as a linebacker at Georgia State): “Isaac Smith and Cam are big sledgehammers. … Both just big, strong, rugged dudes.”
● On Lafaele (redshirted at Wisconsin): “He’s a skillsaw. … This kid’s got juice. He’s got juice-juice. I’m excited to watch him.”
● On Gillison (15 tackles in 10 games at Cincinnati in 2023): “Gilly is a little bit your multipurpose tool – has a little bit of physicality, has a little bit of power to him, but has a little bit of speed, quickness and agility to him, too. … He’s just that Leatherman tool that has a little saw, a little knife, a little screwdriver. Kind of a jack-of-all-trades who can do a little bit of everything.”
The scrimmage will be vital to identifying who likely will line up opposite Thompson and Dunnigan. MSU also has young players – namely, true freshman Cal Thrush and redshirt freshman Kekai Burnett – pushing to join the mix.
“Really right now, it’s challenging those guys to separate themselves within the room. How are we separating ourselves, and how are you separating yourself to earn a job?” Wilt said. “I think the biggest thing for a lot of those guys and the team, so many guys have shown flashes of why they’re here. Now, let’s go be consistent in the performance of details and doing your job to go earn the job.”
Santiago and the other new arrivals have heard plenty about last year’s dearth of sacks and that long stretch without one. And they are eager to get the Spartans back into pressure mode.
“I think the expectation is there, bringing in four guys so that won’t happen,” he said. “The expectation there and the preparation is there. And (on Aug. 29), it’ll be time to perform.”
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football hoping David Santiago can boost sack totals
Category: General Sports
