Judging from the reactions from former Michigan State players and media members, Willie Taggart hit a grand slam with his hire at defensive coordinator. The praise for Harlon Barnett on Friday was effusive. And non-stop.
But it wasn’t just because of how good Michigan State’s defenses have been with Barnett on staff. There was more to it than that.
“He just isn’t a coach to many of his players,” Seth Newman, the pregame host and sideline reporter for Michigan State radio broadcasts, told Warchant on Friday. “But someone that they can go to for anything. Whether it’s to talk football, family or school. You see that in all of his former players responding on Twitter. He’s a great coach, father and husband and cares about his players.”
One of those former players, former linebacker Darian Harris, had this to stay on Twitter: “Congratulations to without a doubt one of the best human beings I’ve ever met, been around and been coached by. … FSU got an extraordinary man, husband, father one heck of a Coach!”
Taggart snares Spartans' Burnett to lead FSU defense
Barnett played at Michigan State under then-defensive coordinator Nick Saban and then had a seven-year career in the NFL. His first coaching job was as a graduate assistant on Saban’s staff at LSU in 2003 (the same staff that, of course, had Jimbo Fisher as the offensive coordinator).
"He's a product of the Saban defensive back play," said SpartanMag.com publisher Jim Comparoni. "Barnett is a practitioner of all that information. He brings all of that. And then he has the personality. He's agreeable.
"He has a beautiful personality."
Barnett coached the secondary at Cincinnati for three seasons before heading back to his alma mater in 2007.
He has coached the defensive backs at Michigan State for 11 years, and he spent the last three seasons as the co-defensive coordinator. He shared the position with Mike Tressel.
Tressel was on the sidelines during the games, and Barnett was in the booth calling plays. Tressel also worked mainly with the front-seven while Barnett coached the defensive backs.
“Coach Barnett loves to play aggressive with his defensive backs and he trusts them,” Newman said. “They love to play physical, and they get a lot of turnovers as a result of that. I don’t know too much about Florida State’s defense, but I imagine they just got a lot more aggressive.”
