Dantonio: 'I'm very encouraged'
By Jacob Carpenter (Last updated: 08/08/08 10:38pm)Contact was the order of business Friday for the MSU football team’s first day of practice in full pads this summer. After four days of fall camp in shorts or half-pads, the team dressed for collisions Friday and ran about 35 to 40 live plays, head coach Mark Dantonio said.
“Our guys are approaching this with a lot of discipline and toughness and we try and make it as realistic as we can with refs and clocks and everything that goes along with that,” Dantonio said. “I’m very encouraged by some of the things I’ve seen out there.”
The practice was the first full-contact day at MSU for most freshmen after a summer of strength and conditioning work.
Freshman defensive end Tyler Hoover called the practice intense, fun and “spiritual.”
Highly-touted freshman wide receiver Fred Smith said he shook off the contact rust during a half-pad practice Thursday when junior safety by Roderick Jenrette crunched the rookie and said, “Welcome to the Big Ten.”
“Once you get that hit, you say, ‘It’s not that bad,’” Smith said.
Quarterback tryouts
Two unfamiliar faces participated in a center-quarterback snapping drill Friday.
Walk-on freshman Charlie Snow, a standout at Leslie High School, and freshman defensive back Mitchell White joined quarterbacks Brian Hoyer, Kirk Cousins and transfer Keith Nichol under center.
Quarterbacks coach Dave Warner spent the most time during the drill with White, a Livonia Stevenson product. Snow also practiced during passing and offensive drills and wore a red jersey with Hoyer, Cousins and Nichol.
Punter Aaron Bates has also been discussed as a possibility to back up Hoyer and Cousins.
Receiver reads
Freshman wideout Keshawn Martin, a 6-foot Inkster native, drew praise for his early performance from Dantonio and offensive coordinator Don Treadwell.
Martin and a bevy of young receivers are competiting for playing time. Senior Deon Curry and sophomore Mark Dell are sure starters, but who will play in the slot and back up the two experienced receivers is up in the air.
Freshman Fred Smith, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound Detroit Southeastern product, has the most size among those competing, but Martin, redshirt freshman B.J. Cunningham and freshman Chris D. Rucker each could see the field.
“Hopefully with there’s competition, you step up,” said Cunningham, whose height rivals Smith. “The coaches are trying to see who steps up when there’s something on the line.”
Each receiver will have one less competitor for playing time as sophomore Chris L. Rucker has been moved to cornerback full time. Rucker played the first half of last season in the secondary before an eye injury cut his season short.
Originally Published: 08/08/08 10:38pm
SportsEntertainmentIsMindControl
08/10/08 3:03pmVacuous, this doesn’t affect real lives or achieve prosperity for a faultering economy.
HAM
08/11/08 7:28amHey Dumbass,
I don’t care what you think. This news affects my life, which I think is real.
claude
08/11/08 9:59amHey “sports”, go back to Peking from whence you came and discourse in Maoism with someone who thinks it works. And, yes, I wrote “Peking” – who gives a crap what they call it? Mainstream Western European interpretation rules, despite the reversible concessions made by the current liberal, politically correct bobble-heads in today’s media.
SoCal Spartan
08/11/08 2:26pmBring on Cal, let’s serve them up in their own territory!
Go Green!
SportsMindControl
08/11/08 2:28pmOk, it affects real lives who are deluded into thinking that sports competitions have any real bearing in reality. Dantonio’s three ring circus will not achieve prosperity for our bankrupt financial system. $100 trillion of unfunded liabilities, that is the number given by the president of the Dallas Fed Bank. When we fizzle out, the first jobs to go are those steeped in fantasy: namely the entertainment industry.
Bleed Green
08/11/08 2:44pm“Stay the hell away from me, and if you try to steal from me, you’re getting a bullet in the back”
You should seriously see a counselor.
SportsMindControl
08/11/08 3:20pmKellen Davis anyone? Sports enthusiasts are all juveniles and violent criminals. I really don’t feel insulted by intellectual children. I hate Obama as much as I hate McSame. I’m not the one blowing hot sticky wads over big men “scoring” and “fumbling” and getting “touchdown(there)s”.
claude II
08/11/08 3:21pmI’m not so sure he’s left wing. To be sure this poor soul is conflicted, but his anti-Semitism (worn as a badge of honor),his obvious infatuation with boom-boom guns, his pretend homophobia (used as a mask to his real sexuality) and his crazed threats, look more far right than left. Probably depends upon the time of day what he truly believes which, in any case, is NOT what he writes.
HAM
08/11/08 3:25pmI honestly don’t care enough of your views to let them even give them an objective opinion. You’re definitely right though, sports are here to entertain us – get over it. What are you doing to make America better and out of debt?? You’re writing on a university news article that sports are only here to distract us from our terrible lives.
You are just as worthless as the opinion you have on sports. Congratulations.
johnhannah
08/11/08 3:26pmPoor, poor SportsMindControl! Did your mommy spank you? No one has had to endure the unspeakable horrors and life-long humiliations that you have endured. Poor, poor, SportsMindControl! You are simply misunderstood.
… Get a job, you liberal parasite!
HAM
08/11/08 3:27pmI actually see him more as the nerd in high school that got picked on by the jocks. I didn’t particularly masturbate when the Patriots lost their perfect season super bowl. But I did rejoice at the skilled match of strategy and athleticism that was displayed during the contest.
cdarrow
08/11/08 3:30pmIsn’t it illegal to publish threats in a newspaper?
Even poor SportsMindControl’s sponsor (MoveOn.org) hesitates to cross that line. What a sad, sad, little man!
SportsMindControl
08/11/08 3:32pmIt’s illegal to steal from me. My promise is incumbent on somebody trying to harm me. If no one harms me, then nothing occurs, therefore my warning is not illegal.
MAH
08/11/08 3:35pmNever made a team (probably was afraid to try out), picked on by the jocks, made fun of by the girls, ridiculed by his teachers, his father didn’t have him bar-mitzva’d until he was twenty-two …
That would be his excuse for his silly bravado and his coarse language.
hermann
08/11/08 3:37pmSome of his BEST friend are …
Ever hear that tripe before?
Arabs – figures!
grammar police
08/11/08 3:38pm“genociding” is not a word!
sfreud
08/11/08 3:51pmSports
You wrote “I hate Obama as much as I hate McSame”. You needn’t have advised us. It is abundantly clear through your little-boy rantings that you hate everyone. Most notably so, yourself, else you would not open yourself to replies in public that show only the utter revulsion people have for your bed-wetting. It must be hard to read (if you can indeed, read)that society believes you are a pathetic, whining failure.
SMC
08/11/08 4:04pmI thought fags were afraid of guns. SportsMind LOVES guns! Get it?
sam
08/11/08 4:07pmOK you guys, now stop it!
His mommy picked him up from day care at 3:33
SportsMindControl
08/11/08 4:25pmThis is really fascinating. I attack sports enthusiasts as having a latent homosexual fantasy due to the unbridled excitement from big men slamming into each other, putting hands near crotches prior to the exchange of an oblong ball, and “scoring”. What occurs is the enthusiasts get really REALLY defensive from the insecurity at having been “found out.” Instead of attacking the argument, they attack the person.
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SportsMindControl
08/11/08 4:44pmKELLEN DAVIS KELLEN DAVIS KELLEN DAVIS! That is the product of the entertainment sports industry, we teach kids that if they are big sports stars they get away with attempted murder with only a misdemeanor. KELLEN DAVIS KELLEN DAVIS KELLEN DAVIS!
Onlooker.
08/11/08 7:07pmWait, didn’t this start as just a sports column about our Universities coach?
Go whine in on a Genocide Message Board, or Write a Senator….. Better yet, I know of a few doctors… ooops, I mean friends.. that can help you out
SportsMindControl
08/11/08 7:57pmThat’s great, maybe they can chop off your kid’s foreskin and use it as currency. They aren’t touching my family.
(self)Control over what I watch
08/11/08 8:57pmPlease show everyone the way to the promise land SMC…. you loser! Do you sit around the house all day and worry? I’m sure you are entertained somehow, therefore you are just acting like a pompus ass and bashing something others enjoy. There is nothing wrong with football or any other sport. You know what else? It’s okay to hug a guy…… it does not make you gay. The people who worry me are those who are so worried about “looking gay” that they avoid human contact. THAT, my friend is a scary scenario.
Unless you have a solution to the problems in this country/world, I don’t want to hear about it. NO ONE CARES WHAT YOU THINK!!
Harry
08/11/08 10:10pmHey… How bout we discuss the article?