EAST LANSING, Mich. – First-year Michigan State Secchia Family Defensive Coordinator/linebackers coach Joe Rossi met with the media on Monday afternoon to talk about his defensive philosophy, his coaching journey, and getting to know the new coaching staff.
The Spartans begin five weeks of spring practice on Tuesday, March 19.
Below are quotes from the media session:
Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers Coach Joe Rossi
On the mental expectations that he has for his players…
The biggest thing for guys, especially younger guys, but for us, we’re going to be in a situation where everyone is new to the program and is going to be able to learn from mistakes. You bring up mental health and mental toughness, a book that impacted me was Grit by Angela Duckworth and she describes grit as passion and perseverance. The people that are usually successful in life are not because of any special skill or talent, it is because they handle adversity better than others. The big thing for us is getting to be able to compete and respond. That’s the mental toughness that we are looking for, if we win the play, great response, if we lose the play, great response. Then what can we draw from that? If we make mistakes, because we are going to make mistakes, how do we respond to that mistake and how do we get better from that? From a mental standpoint, that’s really what we’re looking for.
On what drew him to MSU and/or Jonathan Smith…
Two things. Number one, I was seven years in at Minnesota and it was a great experience, P.J. (Fleck) and the staff there were really awesome and it was a tough decision to leave. It was going to be something that was going to be a great situation in my mind to make the move. Two things about Michigan State, number one, I think it can be special. They’ve been in the College Football Playoff and it has been recent and have won conference championships. So I think that is the first thing. The second thing is everything I heard about Coach Smith, we have not worked together before but everything I have heard about him from other college coaches, from NFL scouts, from people in the profession, was that you could not work for a better guy. Getting to know him through the process I felt that. It was kind of what my gut said and then being here for two and a half months it held true. I…
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