You can't teach size: Michigan State DT Jalen Sami helping lead group after transfer
EAST LANSING – Diron Reynolds arrived this winter as Michigan State football’s new defensive line coach. He liked what he saw in the returning pieces of the Spartans’ beleaguered defensive line.
Once spring practices finished, he received a gift that coach Mel Tucker said sent his coaches running through the hallways of the Duffy Daugherty Football Building.
The transfer addition of defensive tackle Jalen Sami.
“He brings a lot of a wealth and knowledge to our room,” Reynolds said Wednesday of the graduate transfer from Colorado. “Our guys are following him. He blends right in with the group.”
It was an impact addition meant to bolster the Spartans’ interior defensive line that, for much of the 2022 season, rotated only three players – Simeon Barrow, Maverick Hansen and Derrick Harmon – at tackle. He was the third transfer to join MSU at the position since last fall, joining Florida State transfer Jarrett Jackson and Liberty/Auburn transfer Dre Butler to boost depth at what historically has been one of the program’s strongest positions over the past two decades.
“They definitely welcomed me with open arms,” Sami said Wednesday after the Spartans’ sixth practice of preseason camp, their first in full pads. “It felt like family. They became my brothers within a week.”
The 6-foot-6, 330-pound Colorado Springs native played for Mel Tucker in his one season with the Buffaloes in 2019. Sami entered the transfer portal in April of this year after five seasons at his home-state school, and it took less than a month for him to decide to become a Spartan.
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The new veteran additions, sophomore Harmon said, have made the defensive tackle room a vibrant classroom that has carried over onto the field already with improved play.
“Everybody's pushing each other in that room, learning from each other,” Harmon said. “I'm learning from the older guys like Sami and JJ (Jackson), all those sixth-year guys. So everybody's learning, everybody's teaching. It's a big difference.”
Sami said he talked with former Colorado teammates Jarek Broussard and Jaren Mangham, both of whom transferred to MSU for a similar reunion with Tucker. Broussard turned pro in the winter after his fifth season of eligibility, while fellow running back and Detroit native Mangham opted to return home and play alongside his brother, sophomore safety Jaren, for his last season of college football.
Those conversations, Sami said, left a major impression about Tucker’s program as he heads into his fourth season. As did the visit he took to MSU with his mom shortly after entering the portal, with Tucker and his staff one of the first two programs to approach Sami.
“Just being able to come back here with Tuck, it felt like it was the right thing to do,” he said. “It's a good fit for me. ... And just the feeling when I came on my visit, meeting the players – the D-line, especially, the group that they have – I never had that kind of depth and competition at Colorado. So I felt like it was a better push to get me to the next level. That's always the ultimate goal, to go to the league. And then meeting coach Reynolds, his technique, his coaching style is something that I look forward to.”
Sami won the Buffaloes’ “Trench” award as their most outstanding defensive lineman in 2022 and earned All-Pac-12 honorable mention by the league’s coaches. He played 467 snaps while starting all 12 games last season at Colorado, totaling 29 tackles. That included three stops for a loss and four for no yards.
He started 32 of his 40 games at Colorado over the past four seasons, including 19 straight to end his career there, and finished with 78 tackles, 2 1/2 sacks and seven QB pressures. Sami also had 12 tackles for a loss, two pass breakups, forced two fumbles and recovered another.
“His learning curve is unbelievable,” said Reynolds, another Pac-12 transplant who spent the previous seven seasons coaching at Stanford. “He came right in, and he's learned just as fast or faster than some of the guys in the room, which is outstanding. And not only that, he's a team player.
“Adding that depth to our room and adding that girth, that body, I mean, that kind of speaks for itself.”
Hitting hard
Reynolds said he was impressed with MSU’s “chippiness” on defense on its first day of hitting in full pads.
“Guys are getting up in each other’s face, challenging them – in a good way, which is good,” Reynolds said. “Trying to be competitive, not combative. But we want to continue to stay on the edge and have that competitiveness between one another and get adjusted to the fight.”
The Spartans will hold their first scrimmage Saturday, after which defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton said Wednesday he expects to “really get the idea” of just where his players are at after a week-plus of practice.
“That first day of pads was good,” he said. “Now, it’s, 'hey, how many days in a row can we stack?'”
Hazelton explained that MSU simulates hitting during the five-day acclimatization period of camp by using the “thud” technique, which is going full speed but not tackling offensive players to the ground. NCAA rules that went into effect in 2021 limit Football Bowl Subdivision programs to only nine days in full pads and none before Day 6 of practice.
“Those no-pad days, it’s like pajamas and fit parties,” Hazelton said. “It’s not quite the same.”
Snow update
One player Hazelton said did not participate fully in practice was linebacker Darius Snow, who missed almost the entire season after suffering what Tucker recently called a “significant” right leg injury in the first half of the first game against Western Michigan last September.
“He's doing pretty good,” Hazelton said of the junior’s rehab. “He's out there, he's able to do some drills. He's not quite ready yet, but that's an injury question for the boss (Tucker). But he's out there, he's working with us, he's moving around. He's doing some little stuff. So we're excited to get him back as soon as we can.”
Former running back Harold Joiner III, who moved to safety last season, worked with the linebackers during Wednesday’s practice.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State DT Jalen Sami helping lead group after transfer
