The MSU football team will conclude spring practice at 1 p.m. Saturday with an open-to-the-public practice at Spartan Stadium.
However, one thing that won’t conclude is the quarterback controversy that has engulfed the team during the spring.
Announcing before spring practice that the starting quarterback job was open between senior Ryan Van Dyke and sophomore Jeff Smoker, head coach Bobby Williams said no clear-cut winner has emerged, meaning the uncertainty will linger into the fall.
“I’m not going to be able to name a quarterback coming out of the spring because we haven’t had a full team situation with guys being out and things like that,” he said. “Plus, the race is too close to say, ‘hey, this is going to be the guy,’ so I want to take this thing into the fall and see what happens when we come back.”
Williams said he has been pleased with the play of both Smoker and Van Dyke this spring and feels the team is in a good situation with both quarterbacks playing so well.
“I thought that maybe someone at the beginning would step forward, but the competitive edge came out in both of them and that’s nice to see,” he said. “Eventually we’re going to have to say this is the guy and we’re going to go with it, but you’ve got another guy that’s got the talent and experience, which is good.”
As for Saturday’s practice, it will be a deviation from past years, when the team has had its traditional Green and White game.
Because of only nine linemen being on the roster, the team won’t have a game or a scrimmage, just a normal practice.
Williams said Saturday will be an opportunity for some of the younger players to play in front of a crowd and to work on correcting mistakes that plagued the team last year.
“We’ve taken the areas where we had some problems last year (and) we’ve really tried to work on them this spring,” he said.
“Our depth, all three phases (of the game), getting away from penalties, things that were a problem for us last year. We’ve taken a look at those things and really tried to create some situations that we were really limited in last fall and really making a special emphasis on them this spring.”
Senior tight end Chris Baker said correcting mistakes will be an important focal point Saturday as the team heads into the summer and fall.
“We put a lot of new stuff on offense and I’m pretty sure our defense is doing the same thing, so just go out and cap it all off and keep building toward the season more than anything,” he said.
Van Dyke said the whole team has competed hard during spring practice and everything surrounding the team is on the upswing headed into Saturday’s final practice.
“I just hope we give a good show to the fans that come and end spring ball on a positive note,” he said.
One area of improvement Williams will be looking for Saturday and for the remainder of the off-season is in the play of the special teams unit. He said while he will focus on all aspects of the unit, he will particularly be watching the return game.
“That’s something huge,” he said. “We really didn’t have a threat last year in our return game and that’s something we’ve really tried to emphasize with kickoff returns and punt returns. We want to continue to develop that and we’re going to take a real good look at that on Saturday.”
