Spring practice kicked off amid much fanfare for the Spartan football team on Tuesday.
After a Rose Bowl win on Jan. 1 to end the 2013 season as the No. 3 team in the nation, expectations are high for the Spartans, and head coach Mark Dantonio doesn’t anticipate last year’s momentum to stop anytime soon.
Dantonio said at a press conference on Monday that MSU’s goals are the same and that he expects the team to get better every day.
“Get 3 percent better every spring practice, and it starts with practice number one,” Dantonio said. “We have 15 practices, 15 opportunities to get 3 percent better.”
Since the end of last season, soon-to-be-junior Connor Cook has secured his spot as the starting quarterback after he initially fought for the position between three of his teammates.
“Last year, my main focus was trying to win out the job, and now that I’m (the) quarterback I’ve established myself as a good player on the team and as a leader,” Cook said at the same press conference.
The practice started with position groups stretching and getting ready for their first practice.
The atmosphere was light, but energetic and focused on bringing back the talent and hard work they put into the team throughout the last year.
Although he is losing three key offensive line players, Dantonio is looking to fill the positions with athletes that will be able to bring the same strength and experience as past players.
“We are going to lose some of those guys and it’s going to be important that younger players make that,” Dantonio said. “I think (sophomore) Kodi Kieler is a guy that has had an outstanding fourth-quarter (training) program. ... I think he’s sort of set to play a little bit.”
MSU will be bolstered across the board by a strong crop of new recruits the team gained in February.
ESPN ranked the incoming Spartan recruiting class No. 29 in the nation, fourth best in the Big Ten behind Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State. Rivals.com ranked MSU even higher, coming in at No. 26.
All but two of the new recruits are expected to join the Spartans for practice in the fall.
After a long stretching time Tuesday, the team huddled in the middle for Dantonio’s pre-practice talk and directions on what to do.
Soon after, they split and began game drills. The difference between this year and last, Cook said, is the pressure of the coaches.
“I would really just say the main difference is how hard the coaches are pushing you us. I think this is the hardest off?season program I’ve been around, and this is my third year,” he said. “Having the year that we had and the success that we had, I think the coaches did a great job of not letting us look back and relish that stuff ... really ever since we had two weeks off.”
Dantonio and the other coaches said they are pressuring the team so they continue to want to win each and every game, and more championships in the future.
“Understand where we came from and never forget that and take one step at a time to elevate our play, establish our leadership, establish who we are again, and sort of do it the old?fashioned?way and that’s what we have done here,” Dantonio said.
