Michigan State co-special teams coordinator/rush ends coach Chad Wilt has held a lot of titles over his more than 20-year coaching career.
In the early 2000s, Wilt was the defensive line coach/special teams coordinator during his tenures at Central Connecticut State, Liberty and Virginia. In the 2010s, Wilt was the defensive line coach at Richmond, Ball State, Maryland, Army, Cincinnati, and Minnesota. Most recently, Wilt was the co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach at Indiana.
Through all of these stops and titles, however, Coach Wilt views that his job has always been fundamentally the same. At his core, Wilt views himself as an educator of young men.
"Coaches are just teachers nowadays," Wilt said to members of the media this week. "We're just looking for unique ways to teach... Our meeting rooms, they are all just classrooms. Let's teach. Let's be interactive. Let's show things."
As Wilt went into more detail about this teaching philosophy, he got a certain sparkle in his eyes. Wilt is a high-energy guy. He likes to do things differently, and he likes to make things fun. He told a lengthy anecdote where he compared a pass rush to a boa constrictor. If he were a professor, he is likely to be the kind of professor whose classes always had a waiting list.
"We were all able to create our own classrooms," Wilt said about his first few days on campus. "They used to have desks and chairs and long tables, and I said 'I want that out of here.' (Now) we've got these kind-of old-school chairs with a folding arm but it's on wheels."
In the space created by removing tables and traditional chairs, Wilt brought in pop-up bags and hand shields in an attempt to create a more dynamic and interactive teaching environment. One media member even commented that is sounds like a Montessori approach to coaching. Wilt agreed.
"I can sit here and show you on film," Wilt said. "I can draw it on the board. But sometimes the best way to do things stand up and do it... (When you do that) you're changing the flow of the meeting. You're changing the routine of the meeting and the attention spans and all sudden you're creating this up and down, move around, right? Let's talk. Let's engage."
The exciting, interactive way that Wilt runs his position group meetings is not confined just to the area of tactical instruction. He also brings this fresh approach to the way in which he interacts with his players as individuals.
"These young men today, they don't want anything different than it was 30 or 50 years ago," Wilt said. "They still want the same things. How we get there, though, I think is different."
Wilt went on to explain that coaches used to act more as dictators. What they said was the law and it was often their way or the highway. Now, Wilt commented that it is important to have "a little bit of democracy" built into the process. That said, the important elements of the old style of coaching still remain.
"I can still hold them accountable the same way," Wilt said. The reason why has to do with a word that came up almost half-a-dozen times during the 20-minute session. That word is "ownership."
"I always want them to have ownership," Wilt said. "So I actually asked them. We did this before we started spring ball. 'What do you want your identity to be?' I can tell them. But it's way easier when they tell me this is what they want to be. When they're living up to that. Hey, great job. Or (I can tell them) what I see on film is not what you said you wanted your identity to be."
The concept of ownership is not just confined to the rush end position or even the defense. According to Wilt, this attitude is actively reinforced from the top of the organization.
"The transition (to Michigan State) has been phenomenal because of Coach Smith," Wilt said. "It starts right there. His leadership, his direction, his vision for the program, his ability to give us autonomy, and for us as coaches to be able to install and teach the way you want to has been invigorating."
It also helps that Wilt has previous experience working with new Spartan defensive coordinator Joe Rossi from their time at Minnesota (2020-21).
"They've done some new things and some different things but 90% of it, oh yeah, this is what we did previously," Wilt said. "That allowed me to go and ask 'how can I teach it better?' Now (I am ready) to really dive into the details and fundamentals."
In his new role with the Spartans, Wilt gets to focus exclusively on the rush ends (in addition to coordinating special teams). With this division of labor, he mentioned that he has more time for one-on-one instruction with a smaller group of players.
Based on some of Wilt's other comments, more individual coaching may be required due to the increased complexity that the new Joe Rossi scheme may require.
"The jobs that they're going to be asked to do are very different," Wilt said. "It's a hybrid outside backer/ d-end job. Sometimes they're going to have defensive-end jobs, (they'll) play over the tight end, or play the C-gap and be strong and sturdy. Sometimes it might be you're gonna be over this tight end, man-to-man (in pass defense.)"
This scheme has the potential to make Michigan State's defense more flexible and unpredictable and therefore more dangerous. From the view point of the players, achieving this broad ranges of skills is also likely to help players be more attractive at the next level.
"They get to put on film for whatever scheme or system (a potential NFL team might run)," Wilt said. "'Hey, this 3-4 defense wants to look at me. This 4-3 defense wants to look at me.' Those people that are evaluating them see evidence and proof he can do that job."
Wilt went on to explain that, ultimately, his primary goal is to put players in a position to succeed. He mentioned that he learned this valuable lesson when he was on staff of Coach Al Groh at the University of Virginia who came from the Bill Belichick and Bill Parcells coaching tree.
"He (Groh) used to talk about think players first, plays second," he said. "What do your players do well, and then put them in position to do what they do well. Then we will build the schemes around them the way that we need to."
This philosophy applies to coaching his own players, but also in scouting opposing players.
"Who are the guys that we got to stop?" Wilt explained. "Now let's think about how we got to stop them. Think players first, plays second."
At the very end of his session with the media, Wilt was asked to evaluate the current status of the retooled version of the Michigan State Spartans. He decided to use a example from civil engineering that drew some laughs from the audience.
"We were on the gravel road full of potholes," he joked. "It's bumpy. It ain't smooth. There's a lot of work to do to get this thing running. Well, I think we're on that process that we've moved on to a good Michigan road.
"There are points where you see the smoothness. Now there's still some potholes. There's still some bumps in the road... But, now there's some progress being made here in this thing and and you can see that. You can see it the guys that they are getting more confident. You can see them playing a little faster and a little freer."
The Michigan State Spartans are still under construction. By the time fall rolls around and the orange barrels are finally placed back into storage, it remains to be seen how smooth the path will be in the 2024 season.
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