New head football coach Pat Fitzgerald is bringing on the first new name to his coaching staff from outside the existing crew. And it is a name that means a lot to Spartan Nation. Max Bullough was hired by MSU to be the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. Max, who was a linebacker at MSU from 2010-13 under Mark Dantonio brings a great pedigree to East Lansing; he was a two-time captain, a two-time All-American, and played in the NFL for three seasons with the Houston Texans.
Bullough, whose family name is synonymous with Spartan Football as a 3rd generation star, has been climbing the coaching ranks since he officially wrapped up his playing career in 2018. He worked as a graduate assistant at the University of Cincinnati in 2019 and then held the same position at Alabama from 2020-22 where he got to be on the 2020 national championship team.
Advertisement
In 2023, Bullough came back to the Midwest and served as a graduate assistant at Notre Dame for one season before becoming the linebackers coach for the Irish in 2024. In his first season in South Bend, ND made it all the way to the National Championship Game.
Speaking of big games and Max Bullough, many of you certainly remember that after the 2013 Big Ten Championship, a team on which he was a captain, it was announced that Max was being suspended from the team and would not join them in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. Unfortunate as his Spartan career came to an end, I think the fact that he is coming back here is huge. Perhaps he feels he has unfinished business and he wants to finish what he did not get to finish his first time here. He has been on teams playing in the final game in his last two stops. Hopefully he makes it three in a row.
With Bullough’s addition, which has not been officially announced by MSU as of this writing, Joe Rossi will be adding “co” to his job title and will also be tabbed as the safeties coach. We will have to wait and see how this impacts incumbent safeties coach James Adams who had previously been announced as being retained by Fitzgerald. If this does become official, it is nothing short of a great addition to the MSU coaching staff.
