ANALYSIS: Michigan State dietitian Amber Rinestine leaving Spartan football program, what it means

East Lansing, Mich. – Changeover in the Michigan State football support staff continued on Tuesday with Amber Rinestine stepping down from her position as the Spartans’ team dietitian. Rinestine worked for two seasons at Michigan State, having been hired by head coach Mel Tucker in January of 2021. 

Her departure makes the second major member of Tucker’s support staff to move on this spring. Saeed Khalif was relieved of his duties as Executive Director of Player Personnel and Recruiting in March after nearly two years in that position.

Tucker hired Mark Diethorn as the new Executive Director of Player Personnel and Recruiting on Monday. Now, Tucker has turned his administrative focus toward finding a successor to Rinestine.

It has been one heck of a ride MSU. So thankful to have been able to work with such an incredible staff.

To my incredible student-athletes past and present: you have been the best part of this experience. Be great!

Much love forever Spartan Nation! 💚🤍 pic.twitter.com/GANPIhUltc

— Amber Rinestine (@RinestineAmber) May 9, 2023

Rinestine made an immediate impact at Michigan State, with players and coaches crediting her with directing the Spartans’ hydration plan in a 38-17 upset victory against then-No. 24 Miami at sweltering Hard Rock Stadium in South Florida. But she is stepping away from the program to pursue opportunities elsewhere. Her parting of ways with Michigan State was a mutual decision, at the least, according to sources.

Last season, former Michigan State tight end Connor Heyward described Rinestine by saying, “She’s like a mom to all of us.” 

Rinestine is a 2015 graduate of Southwestern Oklahoma State University and got a master’s degree at the University of Oklahoma. 

She interned with the New York Jets and Philadelphia Eagles of the NFL, and worked as a fellow at the University of North Carolina for two years prior to coming to Michigan State. 

Rinestine had an annual salary of $75,000 at Michigan State, according to govsalaries.com. She oversaw a staff of 15 interns. 

Rinestine worked closely at Michigan State with strength coach Jason Novak. Novak met Rinestine in 2020 when both worked at the NFL Combine. Novak recommended Rinestine to Tucker when he sought to fill the position. 

COMP’S TAKE: I’m not an expert on analyzing team dietitians, but players raved about the immediate, specialized impact Rinestine made soon after joining the program during the summer and fall of 2021. 

I’m sure there are other qualified dietitians in the market, and change is constant in the world of college athletics. Michigan State will find a quality replacement. But continuity, familiarity and trust are assets for a football program, when cultivated and achieved. Her departure will leave a dent at Michigan State in those three areas for the short term, at least. But sources tell SpartanMag that Michigan State will make subtle philosophical changes with its next dietitian. One source told SpartanMag that Michigan State is looking forward to the transition, with a meal plan that makes less utilization of processed and pre-packaged items.

Mel Tucker isn’t surprised by change. He anticipates it. But at some point he needs more of his support staff members to stay embedded in East Lansing longer.

The hiring of Khalif did not turn out well for the long term, and Tucker had to take care of the situation, but not before others left the program who worked under Khalif. Now, Tucker is working to repopulate the recruiting staff and rekindle the internal energy and momentum that Spartan football enjoyed in the summer and fall of 2021. He has a vision and the energy to get it done, but big-time programs with big-time schedules can’t afford much time with lost traction. 

Tucker isn’t the first Spartan head football coach who has learned while on the job; Mark Dantonio and Nick Saban learned as they went along, too. But Tucker knows that in order to get the program’s full horsepower firing, he can’t have wheels of change spinning too often at the support levels, and he can’t be spending valuable time replacing key aides on a perpetual basis. 

That being said, Tucker also employs more staff members than any coach in Michigan State football history, as a means of modeling how some of the top programs are run. With more support members, there is going to be more changeover. Michigan State had never invested in a dietitian the way Tucker, and athletic director Alan Haller, made room to invest in Rinestine. Now, more investment needs to be made to hire someone of her quality or better, and to retain that person. Meanwhile, Michigan State, from an administrative level, needs to make sure it is arming Tucker with all of the financial support it promised him when he was hired away from the University of Colorado.