EAST LANSING >> It may be 30 degrees outside, but few would have guessed that by looking at the Michigan State football team’s offensive line Tuesday morning.

After a brief indoor warmup to start the 10th practice of spring ball, the unit moved like a thundering herd to the outdoor practice field. There’s no place the linemen would rather be, nor offensive line coach Jim Michalczik, who wore shorts despite the chilly air.

“They can’t complain about it being cold, so I figure, if I’m wearing shorts,” Michalczik said with a smile.

Fair enough, though this group didn’t seem to have many complaints about the weather this spring anyway. The hardy group has had more to worry about than comfort. After a down year in 2024, the unit wants to shore up its play this season. Vital to so many areas Michigan State needs to grow, those who toil in football’s trenches take on even more importance.

From a season-wide perspective, the offensive line stumbled through last year. The unit failed to protect quarterback Aidan Chiles, who was sacked 30 times and hurried to throw on many others from unblocked pass rushers. In the ground game, Michigan State finished with just 115.3 rushing yards per game (fourth worst in the Big Ten) while averaging 3.51 yards per attempt (third worst in the Big Ten). Name an area Michigan State needs to improve offensively, it starts at the offensive line.

Michigan State’s linemen understand that. Better yet, they embrace it.

“We are nowhere near where we need to be,” tackle Stanton Ramil said. “And I don’t think the attitude is ever going to be we’re happy with where we’re at. So every day, it’s a constant grind to become better.”

Jonathan Smith’s second year in East Lansing brings back a crop of returning offensive linemen, as well as a lot of help from the transfer portal. Michigan State made four adds — a quarter of its entire portal haul — on the line. In spring camp, Wake Forest standout Matt Gulbin is playing center, Football Championship Subdivision All-American Conner Moore (Montana State) is at right tackle, Western Carolina product Caleb Carter and Oregon State expat Luka Vincic are both playing guard. They join a room returning two starting tackles in Ramil and Ashton Lepo, with a number of backups taking offseason steps as well.

Michigan State didn’t just try to bulk up on linemen in the portal. Michalczik said the program prioritized background as much as talent. Not only recruiting good linemen, but also ones who fit the offensive line’s culture. Like, for instance, guys who would rather drill in the biting Michigan cold than work in a heated facility.

“It’s kind of like somebody hiring somebody, you’re trying to find somebody that has the qualifications — obviously in my position, size, athleticism, competitiveness,” Michalczik said. “And then as much as we could, we tried to find out background. Is there anybody on the staff we know? Can we find out more about this kid? Will he be a good fit? Will he make people around him better? And so I think all those things, I’m real happy with the guys that we have here that came in mid-year, and I’m kind of looking forward to seeing where we can go with it.”

One of those connections came with Gulbin, who said the portal was “really stressful” after leaving a Wake Forest program he really liked. A distant relative of George Perles and a former recruiting target of the Mark Dantonio era, Gulbin understands how much of next year’s success might depend on the offensive line to grow. He’ll play as big a role as anyone in that growth as the center, a position he repped at Wake Forest.

“Everything kind of runs through us,” Gulbin said. “It’s huge. We have a lot of playmakers on the team from last year — Aidan, wide receivers — and we brought in guys from the portal. But none of that matters if we can’t do our job and go out and execute.”

In the eyes of Ramil, this spring’s execution is a whole lot sharper than a year ago. In the second year of Smith’s program, the details are cleaner and the drills are more physical. On a more personal level, after coming back from a knee injury himself last spring, he feels he can get down to the fundamentals more this offseason.

“Obviously we have to take big steps from last year,” Ramil said. “We’ve really been working on that and just small things, like who our combos are going to. That’s all getting cleaned up right now … where we really get to focus on a technique, focus on moving people.”

That could be said of the entire offensive line, from returners to transfers. Last year’s line didn’t have a whole lot of time to get acclimated to Smith and Michalczik’s coaching before being thrust into the trenches. This spring gives time to focus on the details.

“We had a lot of guys that came in, and some of them had to play right away,” Michalczik said. “They were kind of thrown out there and just kind of doing it. Now they’re kind of ‘OK, now I understand it.’”

It’s still too early to pick starters, Michalczik emphasized, but Michigan State likes its offensive line room a lot. There’s depth to move players around and try different ideas it couldn’t have a year ago. That’s a part of its growth, too, from a sheer numbers perspective.

Regardless of which five linemen start, the unit as a whole understands what’s at stake.

“I think we have high expectations all the time,” Michalczik added. “We have high goals, a high standard we want to be at. … We have a vision of where we want to be, and we’re not there. And so we’re going to work our butts off till we get there.”