As it returns focus to the field following a week dealing with the bizarre, sordid Title IX investigation involving suspended head coach Mel Tucker, Michigan State has announced some modified roles to its Spartans’ football staff in the wake of Tucker’s indefinite suspension.
Friday, the MSU athletics department announced that TJ Hollowell has been elevated to the team’s 10th full-time assistant post moving forward and Hollowell with assist the Spartans’ defense, for which he has been an analyst the past four seasons.
The move with Hollowell also comes after MSU officials brought back former head coach Mark Dantonio in the wake of Tucker’s suspension; Dantonio will serve as “an advisor to (Harlon) Barnett and the coaching staff on gamedays and throughout the week at practice and in meetings.”
MSU officials noted in their release that with Hollowell elevated to the 10th full-time assistant coach’s position, Hollowell becomes immediately eligible to go on the road recruiting on behalf of the Spartans’ football program.
Michigan State, which had opened the season 2-0 under Tucker, jumps directly into one of the most significant tests on its schedule in its first game since the Tucker scandal erupted.
The Spartans host No. 8-ranked Washington, a preseason Pac-12 title and College Football Playoff-contender, Saturday at 5 p.m.