Michigan State Football offers Karsten Busch

Michigan State’s defense under Joe Rossi loves its linebackers. So far in the 2024 season, the standout defensive players have been the linebackers. Jordan Turner, Cal Haladay, Wayne Matthews III: they were all exceptional.

Rossi has brought in two linebackers in the class of 2025, Di’Mari Malone and DJ White, and he’s looking to carry that momentum into the class of 2026. The Spartans have offered a bevy of linebackers so far and the most recent is Karsten Busch from St .Xavier.

Busch is 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds. He has a frame ready for Major Division I college football. In Rossi’s defense, he has the size to set up more and play rush end for Chad Wilt. We’ve seen this with several targets who play linebacker at the high school level but could be used as a rush end by Rossi.

Like every coach, Rossi has a prototypical linebacker. Its scale varies. He already said this in August:

“Tall, athletic and smart. That’s what we’re looking for and that’s a sliding scale, okay. And what I mean by that is if a guy is 6 feet tall and walks 15 feet, that’s cool. But if you want that, a low 4.8, you better be 6 feet tall. So my point is, it slides, but the ideal, if I only give you three, it’s length, it’s athleticism. , and it’s intelligence not necessarily in that order.”