MSU Football Blog
The SN football reporters take you inside the MSU football team with news, notes, opinions and other items of interest.
Recent posts
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Coaches hit recruiting trail during bye week
While MSU football players were resting, healing and studying last week, MSU coaches were hot on the recruiting trail.
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BCS bowl scenarios
If you’re an MSU fan but a BCS hater, you might change your mind after reading this:
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Big Ten Power Rankings #7
This week’s edition of Big Ten Power Rankings according to football reporters Jacob Carpenter and Cash Kruth (last week’s rankings in parentheses):
Odds and ends
Here are three leftover bits from MSU’s season opener Saturday against Eastern Michigan:
— Junior free safety Danny Fortener, the Spartans’ third option at the position entering the year, started opposite Otis Wiley in the middle of the secondary Saturday. Fortener made six tackles, good for second on the team, in his first career start.
He was starting in place of the injured Kendell Davis-Clark, who switched to free safety before the start of the season, and Roderick Jenrette, who is on an indefinite leave of absence.
Fortener practiced with the first-team defense all week because of Davis-Clark’s injury, which forced him not to dress.
“I was confident, got good practice reps in all week and I felt good coming into the game,” said Fortener, a native of Kettering, Ohio. “I just learned the speed of the game. You’ve just got to fly around and make plays.”
— Javon Ringer’s career-high five touchdowns were one shy of tying a school record, but the senior tailback could have (and probably should have) equaled Blake Ezor’s six TDs against Northwestern in 1989.
Ringer fumbled near the goal line on the Spartans’ first drive of the game, leading to a Eastern Michigan touchback when linebacker Jermaine Jenkins fell on the ball in the end zone.
Ringer said the drop was nagging at him after the game, even with his five totes for touchdowns.
“I take pride in not fumbling the ball,” Ringer said.
With seven touchdowns this year, Ringer has surpassed his 2007 output, which was cut into drastically by Jehuu Caulcrick.
— Two departures from the 2007 Spartans football team, wide receiver Devin Thomas, a second-round draft pick of the NFL’s Washington Redskins, and offensive lineman Pete Clifford, were present for MSU’s 42-10 victory.
Thomas was able to visit East Lansing because the Redskins opened the NFL season on Thursday.
“It’s one of the things, like I told our players, you come home, you play in front of family, you play in front of friends and you play in front of teammates,” Dantonio said. “It should motivate you and touch you.”
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