New MSU assistant Snyder called a great recruiter

UPDATE: Snyder has been officially hired at Michigan State

As a guy who for three years – and one national championship – worked with Mark Dantonio, Jim Bollman and Mark Snyder on the same Ohio State staff, Jim Heacock has an idea of how things will go for Snyder at Michigan State.

"Those guys are very similar, they're all about the team, they're not interested in themselves -- when we were together in that room, everyone had the same goals and there were no egos," said the retired Heacock. "Mark (Snyder) is a good friend and I'm really happy for him, I think he'll really enjoy coaching on that staff. I know Jim (Bollman) loves working there and Mark Dantonio is a great guy to work for. From everything I've heard, Mark is extremely happy to be going there."

The addition of Snyder as an MSU defensive assistant, reported Thursday by FoxSports.com and SportsIllustrated.com, has not yet been announced officially by MSU. Reached on his cell phone, Snyder said he was on a plane about to take off and couldn't talk. An MSU spokesman said no hiring announcement was expected Thursday.

Snyder tipped off the Internet, though, when he followed MSU's official football Twitter account earlier this week – likewise, MSU director of football operations Tim Allen and MSU trustee Brian Mosallam are following him. In the case of Bollman two years ago, word of the hire leaked out a few days before MSU was done with the vetting process.

Also like Bollman, the 50-year-old Snyder has a long history with Dantonio, coaching linebackers for the Buckeyes from 2001-03 while Dantonio coordinated the defense. Heacock coached defensive line for those teams and Bollman was offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, all working for Jim Tressel and winning the 2002 national title.

If the Snyder hire works out for MSU's defense like the Bollman hire did for MSU's offense, the Spartans will benefit. Snyder, described as personable and effective on the recruiting trail by those who know him, has been a head coach and a defensive coordinator.

He was fired in November by Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin after three seasons of coordinating a poor Aggies defense. Sumlin reportedly tried to hire Pat Narduzzi away from MSU when he got the Texas A&M job in late 2011, then hired Snyder, who had resigned after five seasons as head coach at Marshall.

"We've all been through the good and the bad," Heacock said of Snyder's stint at Texas A&M. "I really don't know what happened there, but it's not gonna slow him down by any means. He's gonna go out and coach like he coaches, recruit like he recruits."

Brent Zwerneman, who covers Texas A&M for the Houston Chronicle, said previous Aggies coach Mike Sherman recruited more top offensive players than defensive players, part of the reason Texas A&M could not support a high-powered offense with a solid defense.

He also said he thinks "it was tough" for Sumlin to fire Snyder, but Snyder didn't produce and was the scapegoat of the fans – like Bollman late in his tenure at OSU – and Snyder told Zwerneman before he was fired: "It's a results-driven business."

As a coach, Zwerneman said Snyder was "very charismatic," and he was a closer for recruits as a coordinator.

"He has the type of dynamic personality for that, he'll be an asset for Michigan State," Zwerneman said of Snyder returning to the trail more often as a position coach.

Tim May, longtime Ohio State beat writer for the Columbus Dispatch, said Snyder was known as an "excellent recruiter" while he was with the Buckeyes. Tressel promoted Snyder to defensive coordinator in 2004 when Dantonio left to become head coach at Cincinnati, then Snyder took the Marshall job after a season – despite reported overtures from Les Miles to become LSU's defensive coordinator.

"He's very personable and he enjoys recruiting, going into the schools, going into the homes," Heacock said of Snyder. "He's very relaxed but he has a lot of energy and the players really relate to him. He's a great recruiter."

Snyder will take the spot vacated by Narduzzi, who left MSU to become head coach at Pittsburgh. He'll join a staff with new co-coordinators in Harlon Barnett and Mike Tressel, and defensive line coach Ron Burton.

Dantonio said Monday the new coach would be a "front-seven" coach and will also coach special teams, which was previously one of Mike Tressel's duties. The new coach, Dantonio said, will have "the ability to coach the linebackers, and flipping (to) coach defensive ends at times or defensive tackles."

"That's what Pat used to do," Dantonio said. "He used to take the linebackers and meet with (the middle) linebackers or then maybe meet with the defensive ends every now and then. This will be a process. This will be a process as we move forward in terms of how we get to where we want to be. We don't want to lose anything in this transition. Obviously we lose something, but we don't want to lose a lot in terms of how we do things."

Contact Joe Rexrode: jrexrode@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @joerexrode. Check out his MSU blog at freep.com/heyjoe.