Spring game full of positive, negative plays

The MSU football team’s quarterback race is getting most of the publicity, but a few other intriguing story lines emerged from the Green and White scrimmage on Saturday at Spartan Stadium.

Alex Altman

Here are three positives and three negatives stemming from the game.

The positives:

Jerel Worthy

Worthy has drawn a lot of praise this offseason from head coach Mark Dantonio. On Saturday, he justified those kind words.

Worthy, a freshman, finished with two tackles for loss, including a sack during the scrimmage. He used his quick first step and 305-pound frame to penetrate the interior of MSU’s offensive line.

If he keeps improving, he might enter the season as MSU’s starting defensive tackle alongside sophomore Oren Wilson.

Trenton Robinson

Arguably no player has impressed Dantonio as much this spring as sophomore safety Trenton Robinson, who looked like a budding star during the scrimmage.

Unlike most young safeties, Robinson has the ability to quickly decipher information and make sound decisions. He’s also a very solid tackler, finishing with eight tackles during the scrimmage.

MSU’s starting safety tandem looks set, but Robinson will certainly see a lot of playing time in nickel and dime packages.

Linebacker play

MSU is going to be extremely stout at linebacker this season. The linebackers were tenacious against the run during the spring game.

Juniors Eric Gordon and Greg Jones looked like potential All-Americans, finishing with 10 and 11 tackles, respectively. Senior Adam Decker finished with five tackles and nearly made a game-winning interception in the fourth quarter.

Collectively, this unit needs to improve in pass defense, but against the run they should be as good as it gets.

The negatives:

Drops

Although they made up for it with some impressive catches in the second half, MSU’s receivers continued to drop passes at an alarming rate.

Receivers combined to drop at least eight catchable passes.

Sophomore receiver Mark Dell dropped three, sophomore receiver Chris D. Rucker dropped two, freshman receiver B.J. Cunningham dropped one and sophomore tight end Garrett Celek dropped one.

To be fair, the slippery turf might have affected the receivers’ footing and caused drops in the aftermath of the downpour that passed over East Lansing about 20 minutes before kickoff. But there’s still plenty of cause for concern.

Secondary

Considering the experience in the secondary, the defensive backs were pretty disappointing.

Sophomore quarterbacks Keith Nichol and Kirk Cousins combined for 714 yards and eight touchdowns on 49-of-71 passing. There were no interceptions. Tackling was pretty clean, but pass coverage certainly was an issue.

Running backs

As impressive as the Spartans’ quarterbacks were, their running backs were just as disappointing.

No tailback established himself Saturday as a player that could come close to matching star running back Javon Ringer’s production in the backfield last season.

Sophomore Ashton Leggett, who emerged from spring camp as the favorite to win the starting running back position, rushed for just seven yards on 10 carries.

Sophomore Andre Anderson, who most closely resembles the Tennessee Titans-bound Ringer in terms of physical stature and running style, had the most impressive performance. He rushed for 30 yards on nine carries.