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Dantonio hitting recruiting trail hard
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MSU's spotty secondary in question after spring game
To sum it up, spring camp left me with a lot of unanswered and frustrating questions.
In recent years, it almost seemed as if the MSU football team was all about simply trying to outscore its opponents, since the Spartans secondary was always a hop, skip and a jump behind the opposition.
Take, oh I don’t know, the Michigan-MSU rivalry in recent history.
It almost seemed that time after time, game after game, the MSU secondary failed to deflect the football, break up a play or intercept a key pass against the Maize and Blue.
But fall’s upcoming season could mean a whole new gig for Spartans’ head coach Mark Dantonio — in his second year as MSU’s football leader.
“We’ve got depth in the defensive secondary,” Dantonio said. “We still need to play better at times where we have some guys who’ve been in game situations and we’ve had to depend on them in that situation. But we’ve got some guys who play at game speed.”
That’s all fine and good. It’s only the spring, and constant movement forward is the name of Dantonio and his staff’s game.
The only bone I have to pick?
Well, the secondary couldn’t exactly stop its own receivers (teammates) in Saturday’s intrasquad spring game — as three different quarterbacks threw for 506 yards and four touchdowns.
Not to mention three of those four being the long ball that was so infamously given up last season.
Many say the spring outing is for fans to check out the high-flying receivers in action because dozens of balls are air-mailed during the game-like situations.
But doesn’t that give the defensive backs even more incentive to show what they can do?
Are you going to see a turnaround in secondary coach Harlon Barnett’s group — a set of guys light on their feet with enough ups to slap away passes, forcing teams to run or throw short?
Or are we going to have another season of opposing teams saying, “When in doubt, throw it deep on MSU — they’ll either give up the long one or be penalized before tripping and falling.”
Only time will tell, but let’s advise against the latter for now.
Then again, senior safety Otis Wiley did snag a pass from senior quarterback Brian Hoyer in the last minute of the game.
But that play had never been practiced and was simply run for the scrimmage — without preparation or promise.
Can they really get that pumped about the interception?
Ah, the questions!
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