Players emphasized stepping up in crunch time and the effort exerted during the offseason as keys to improving on the squad’s 7-6 record last year, a season which ended with two key wins against Purdue and Penn State and a sloppy loss to Boston College in the Champs Sports Bowl.

Here are a few additional notes from Tuesday’s press day, which was followed by day two of pad-less practice.

Learning from the best

As an MSU quarterback, Brian Hoyer waited in his seat for the opening meeting of the Manning Passing Academy, a football camp for high school athletes led by Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning, a humble champion sat down next to camp counselor Hoyer.

“He said, ‘Hey, how’s it going? I’m Peyton,’ like I didn’t know it was Peyton,” Hoyer said.

The senior quarterback from North Olmsted, Ohio, spent four days in July at the camp, located in Thibodaux, La., where he taught high schoolers the three-step drop and managed to pick the NFL golden brothers’ brains.

“The biggest thing (I learned) is watching the film,” Hoyer said. “There’s so much you can learn by watching your film of your opponent — tendencies, blitz tendencies, coverages, what corner you want to work against when there’s man-to-man.

“That’s something that, for the most part, I’m going to try to use as much as I can during this senior year.”

During a question-and-answer session with the Mannings, Hoyer picked up tips on how to practice throwing in the offseason and how often to study game film.

Hoyer was joined by other starting college quarterbacks, including Georgia’s Matthew Stafford and Purdue’s Curtis Painter, at the camp, which was started in the mid-1990s.

“To sit down and talk with two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, it was just a great opportunity to kind of just hang around those guys and see how humble they are,” Hoyer said.

An open spot up front

The fourth and final starting spot along the defensive line remains up for grabs between sophomore nose tackles Antonio Jeremiah and Oren Wilson.

“Those guys are going to be neck and neck, so I’m excited about those guys,” defensive line coach Ted Gill said. “At this level, every guy wants to start, so it will be a battle every week.”

Head coach Mark Dantonio said Jeremiah could have practiced with the first team this week but was relegated to the third-team because he was one of the only Spartans unable to pass his run test — a conditioning requirement set for players.

At times, Jeremiah has weighed close to 330 pounds, when Dantonio would like to see him below 320 pounds.

Either Jeremiah or Wilson is expected to join senior defensive tackle Justin Kershaw, senior defensive end Brandon Long and junior defensive end Trevor Anderson on the Spartans’ defensive front.

Young at heart

When Dantonio called upon each class to sing the fight song Sunday, freshmen and sophomores were a much larger group than the seniors.

MSU returns about a dozen starters and 13 seniors this year, which means less experienced upperclassmen will need to step forward and lead, Dantonio said. When the team selects its captains later this month, Dantonio expects some juniors to garner votes.

Dantonio said seniors need to not only step up on Saturday but also in the locker room and on the practice field.

“When you look back at last year, one of the things that I put down was that the coaches continue to coach, but the seniors need to coach our young players,” he said.

“It’s not a bad thing for your senior safety, Otis Wiley, to stand out there with a whistle around his shoulders and coach the young players. If he can get to that level, to coach them, if he can play at that level and be a coach on the field, then I think that’s powerful.”