EAST LANSING >> Last season was about the worst-case scenario for Michigan State‘s defensive backs. At times, seven players sat out with injuries. Even second and third stringers were getting hurt. It’s hard to sustain depth at a position with any injuries, let alone so many.

That’s why bolstering depth in the secondary was a focus of the Spartans this offseason — three additions via the transfer portal and two freshman early enrollees, along with retaining some key returners. If secondary coach Blue Adams had it his way, though, he’d keep adding.

“I can always have more. They should give me like 60,” Adams joked Thursday. “I don’t know if that’s going to happen. But no, I think numbers wise, we’re good. … We went down a whole lot last year. You know, we ran through some bodies. And we’re little dudes, and so sometimes when you play physical, sometimes that happens. You just gotta have enough depth to stick the next guy in.”

In the days of roster limits (right now 105, barring any changes to the House v. NCAA settlement), Adams and new safeties coach James Adams might have to make due with a smaller allotment of players. They’ve got 19 defensive backs to work with right now. It’s within those ranks that the Spartans will look to find impact players.

Not only does Michigan State have depth, but it has experience within that depth. There are many players who have started at some level of college football with a measure of success. That’s useful to the Spartans, if not as a potential starter in 2025 then as a backup to fill in deeper down the depth chart.

Among the returners at cornerback, only Ade Willie played more than 100 snaps (187, to be exact, graded out at 48.0 according to PFF). Chance Rucker would’ve broken triple digits had he not been injured in Week 2, out for the rest of the year. But transfer adds Malcolm Bell, NiJhay Burt and Joshua Eaton all played cornerback at smaller Group of Five and Football Championship Subdivision schools.

At Connecticut, Bell played 385 snaps and earned an overall PFF grade of 77.9. Similarly, Burt graded out at 77.7 at Eastern Illinois across a larger 675-snap sample. At Texas State, Eaton rated a modest 63.6 across 613 snaps, but earned high praise from teammates during spring ball. He’s fond of man coverage, something Michigan State deliberately recruited.

“One thing that drew me, Coach (Joe) Rossi, likes to play a lot of man on the back end,” Eaton said. “And I feel like my game is very based on man coverage. I feel like I’m good at the line of scrimmage, and they do a lot of that in this defense.”

At safety, Michigan State returns two of its most utilized players in Nikai Martinez (724 snaps) and Malik Spencer (419 snaps). Justin Denson Jr. also looked strong in 159 snaps, taking an increased role as one of the few healthy bodies late last season.

As of Jonathan Smith’s latest update Thursday, all those players are healthy heading out of spring camp. In fact, almost the whole roster is.

Only true freshman Aydan West — a defensive back, go figure — has an injury expected to last by fall camp.

Having such depth is valuable, but Michigan State will also need that bigger group to provide some impact players. The Spartans lost difference makers to the portal in cornerback Charles Brantley and multitool Dillon Tatum, who entered the portal Monday morning after spring ball.

Last year revealed how much Michigan State needs numbers in the secondary, but it also needs the kind of players who can step up and make plays with regularity. The players who can make up for deficiencies elsewhere on defense. The kind of guys that go get the ball back.

Strained by so many losses, that’s an area Michigan State struggled last season. After just 11 turnovers gained a year ago tied for 11th worst nationally and ranked second-worst in the Big Ten. In spring camp, those takeaways were emphasized through drills for the whole defense, looking for the group as a whole to take steps.

“For the corners, mainly its interceptions,” Blue Adams said. “But I think as corners, we gotta find a way to get the ball off running backs. … I think we’ve had some form of takeaway drill every day just to kind of emphasize that.”

Wherever Michigan State draws answers in the secondary, its recruiting and retention created depth for the coming season that could sustain it in difficult circumstances. It’s not a group oozing with star power, but it does have a deep group that has played a lot of football. As last year showed, that’s important.

“We got to try to try to maintain that health,” Blue Adams said.

“I mean, this is a contact sport and so being able to have guys that you can either put in there, or have guys that are tough enough to kind of go through that process of just playing a contact sport is always good.”