Dantonio looking to keep offense balanced
Senior quarterback Brian Hoyer hands off the ball Sept. 20 at Spartan Stadium where the Spartans defeated Notre Dame 23-7.
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Thanks in large part to the success of senior running back Javon Ringer, the Spartans’ passing game has been almost nonexistent this season.
That changed during MSU’s 42-29 win over Indiana on Saturday, when senior quarterback Brian Hoyer came through with his best game of the season.
Hoyer threw two touchdown passes — his first since the season opener — and completed 14-of-26 passes despite numerous drops by his wide receivers. The senior captain also added a rushing touchdown on a quarterback sneak and played a mistake-free game, holding onto the football and throwing no interceptions.
MSU head coach Mark Dantonio said he hopes to see continued success in the passing game, but emphasized success must come from the running game first.
“I think the pass game is always going to open up when you can run the football, that goes for everybody,” Dantonio said.
Video: Dantonio press ...
“When you’re one-dimensional in any way you’re going to have problems at some point, so we need to continue to stay balanced.”
Position of strength
Before the season even started, it looked as though the safety position would be an area of concern for MSU.
After junior Roderick Jenrette, who was slated as the starter at free safety, left the team in August for personal reasons, senior Kendell Davis-Clark moved from cornerback to safety.
After Davis-Clark suffered a shoulder injury in the season opener, junior Danny Fortener negated all concerns, thriving in the starting role by ranking second on the team with 29 tackles.
As of Tuesday, Davis-Clark was listed on the depth chart as the No. 2 free safety. Although Dantonio hasn’t said what will happen when Davis-Clark is fully healthy, he did say having a defensive back who can play safety and cornerback is a “luxury.”
“When things happen, sometimes you start to look at a position and say, ‘Hey, we need to move this guy, we need to move that guy,’ and it becomes a little bit of an area of concern,” Dantonio said of what happened when Jenrette initially left.
“We’ve addressed that area by moving Kendell in there, Fortener’s gotten a lot of reps and played very well, Otis (Wiley) has obviously played very well, for the most part of the season, so it now becomes a position of strength.”
Expanding his role
Quietly, freshman wide receiver Keshawn Martin led the Spartans with three receptions against Indiana. Dantonio said if the freshman continues his progress, his role on the team could expand.
“He caught some balls this past week, which shows me he has some ability, he definitely has ability down the field,” Dantonio said.
“We’ll definitely look to expand his role, as well as continue (the rest of the receivers).”
Commentary
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Irish Spartan
(10/01/08 7:24am)Report
Our secondary is horrible. When will this be addressed by an MSU team? How many late leads have we given up over the year because of long passing plays? Otis Wiley played aweful against Indiana. He should be ashamed. If you are not terrified about Northwestern throwing the ball all over us, you need to pay more attention. First thing is first though: let’s actually try to beat Iowa instead of blowing the game like last year. We start 4-1 every year so do not get excited yet.
Lee
(10/01/08 8:39am)Report
I agree, 100%. The 2007 Iowa game was embarrassing. It was as if the team went on a mental vacation in the second half. What a waste. It could be said, though, that we only won the 2007 Penn State game because of the “must win” nature of it and without losing to Iowa earlier we may have just dropped that (more impressive) game.
Also agreed about the secondary! It seems like teams can get whatever kind of yardage they want on us through the air in the 3rd and 4th quarters. If it weren’t for Indiana’s penalties they were about to have a breakout game against our secondary. Our corners and safeties need to pay more attention to the receivers’ routes and the quarterback’s poise.
Last year’s game with Northwestern was a shootout that saw us lose in OT when we couldn’t match their CONSTANT scoring. It was a game where both defenses were largely ineffective and you had to score on every drive just to stay in the game. The Wildcats’ defense is much improved this year, though, so the heat will be on our secondary to keep our record alive.
Like Irish Spartan said, 4-1 is old news at MSU. Is it too much to ask to see 10 wins once a decade???
ChefKosmo
(10/01/08 1:56pm)Report
Well, I see there are two people that have no idea what they are talkign about regarding our secondary. Honestly our secondary is somewhat a position of strength. We are young, we lost two starters in Jenrette and KDC and we are playing tight coverage with Rucker and Weaver. It’s a high risk/high reward secondary, usually the good ones are. Just lookign at the improvement that this secondary has made in under two year with Coach D has me impressed. We are playing teh WR’s on their hips and we are lookign back for the ball. Maybe you’d be happier with our cornes playing 10-15 yards off the reciever the way it did during JLS….
MSU CHICAGO
(10/01/08 3:30pm)Report
Otis Wiley had a bad game, big deal, it happens. He is playing outstanding ball so far. The rest of the secondary makes me nervous. As long as they play well when they have to we will be fine. Lets get after Iowa and NU. Come home 6-1 and lay it on Ohio State. I cant wait to whoop up on Rich Rodriquez too.
Mike Kaminski
(10/02/08 8:33pm)Report
MSU IS A GOOD TEAM AND WE WILL BIG GAMES THIS YEAR
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