Jones picked first in spring draft

In the third annual MSU spring football draft, junior linebacker Greg Jones was selected by the Green team as the first overall pick.

While that wasn’t a surprise, as Jones is arguably the best player on the team, the shock came from the quarterback position, which wasn’t picked until the 17th of 20 total rounds.

The Green team chose sophomore Kirk Cousins ahead of fellow sophomore Keith Nichol.

This reaffirmed what MSU head coach Mark Dantonio has been saying all spring — both quarterbacks are capable of leading the team.

“It’s not a surprise because they are both young players and they both had good performances this spring,” Dantonio said. “They’ve both made plays and are good players, they both have leadership and they both have toughness. That’s why I can sit here and say it’s not a done deal.”

The Green and White teams were selected by the MSU football team’s seniors, who were divided into two teams by the coaches. The teams are picked on a positional basis, instead of selecting single players overall.

This way both teams were ensured to have all positions covered.

The basic strategy was to pick the positions where there was the most separation between the starter and a backup player.

Again, this is why the quarterbacks were taken at the end of the draft.

But an area of concern might be that almost all of the defensive positions were picked before the offensive ones.

Could this be a sign that the team is lacking depth at defense, or is the defense just that far ahead of the offense?

Another surprise of the draft was that freshman Caulton Ray was the first running back selected. He has flown under the radar this spring, but clearly the players think highly of him.The White team followed that pick with sophomore running back Ashton Leggett, then the Green team took sophomore running back Andre Anderson.

Senior running back A.J. Jimmerson was on the White team’s selection committee, so it’s hard to judge where he stands at this point.

The wide receiver selections were also interesting.

Senior Blair White was on Green team’s selection committee, so the White team opted to take sophomore Keshawn Martin with its first pick. The Green team then selected junior Mark Dell next.White is regarded as the best receiver on the team, but Dell was thought of by many as a close second. Now Martin may have climbed up on that list.

While there were a few surprises in the draft, Dantonio said he was pleased with how everything played out and is expecting to see an evenly matched game Saturday afternoon.

“The majority of the No. 1 offense are on the Green team, while the No. 1 defensive linemen are on the White team,” Dantonio said. “So it looks pretty balanced when you look at it and evaluate it as a coach. It ought to be a good game.”