F or a second straight week it was not the defense, but the offense that stood out in an intrasquad scrimmage for MSU football, winning 38-37 in the program’s second offense-versus-defense scrimmage of the spring.
Senior running back Nick Hill scored the game-winning touchdown late in the scrimmage to give the offense its second win of the spring. The offense also used a late touchdown to win the first jersey scrimmage a week ago.
“Our defense was playing well, but then we gave up a couple of big plays,” head coach Mark Dantonio said in a statement. “The defense had a big play itself with a pick (by sophomore linebacker Riley Bullough ) for a touchdown and another big turnover on a great interception by (senior safety Kurtis) Drummond.”
Dantonio also said he wanted to make the scrimmage as close to a real game as possible by making both sophomore quarterback Tyler O’Connor and redshirt freshman quarterback Damion Terry open to be tackled.
Junior quarterback Connor Cook led the game-winning drive, taking MSU 75 yards on 10 plays in a two-minute drill situation. Cook finished the day 24-of-38 with 361 passing yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.
Hill led the team in rushing with 64 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries as he continues to battle for the backup running position. Senior running back Jeremy Langford only had 31 yards on seven carries, but racked up 63 receiving yards and one touchdown on four receptions.
The wide receivers were impressive as well on Saturday, led by sophomore R.J. Shelton with 132 yards on four receptions. Junior wide receivers Aaron Burbridge and DeAnthony Arnett also had solid outings with 64 and 63 yards, respectively.
“As a quarterback, it’s just nice to see not just one guy making plays on the field,” Cook said. “Pretty much everyone on the entire offense is selling out and making big plays.”
Junior defensive lineman Lawrence Thomas was one of the standouts on the other side of the ball for the Spartans. Thomas, the former blue-chip recruit from Detroit in the class of 2011, recorded seven tackles and was making life easier for Drummond and the rest of the secondary.
“LT is an animal,” Drummond said. “Having him healthy makes me feel more comfortable because we have an explosive D-line. I’m really confident that offensive lines can’t really block our D-line. Having guys like LT make it a lot easier to cover (down field) because our guys up front aren’t giving quarterbacks time.”
MSU now only has four more practices left before the annual Green and White Spring Game on April 26 at Spartan Stadium. Dantonio is planning to continue to give the players “live” action and work on different game time situations in the upcoming week.
“Next week, we’re going to work on certain situations that we haven’t been able to accomplish in the spring scrimmages thus far,” Dantonio said. “We’ll get that work done on Tuesday and Thursday. We’ll go live some next week and continue the drill work.”
