After a disappointing 5-6 football season that saw MSU give up 689 yards worth of penalties, the Spartans have begun taking the first step in spring practice to reduce costly mistakes.

With an emphasis on poise and self-control on the gridiron, MSU head coach Bobby Williams said the squad has responded well to the challenge of avoiding costly errors.

“There are two types of penalties,” Williams said. “There’s effort penalties that are caused by trying to do too much on the field and there are undisciplined penalties, caused by a player’s lack of concentration. We’ve put a big emphasis in these spring practices to avoid both kinds and the players have responded well.”

Of MSU’s 75 penalties last season - which were six more than its opponents - many occurred at critical moments in narrow losses to Iowa and Wisconsin.

Sophomore quarterback Jeff Smoker, who has been sharing snaps this spring with senior Ryan Van Dyke, said the offense has especially looked smoother because of their committed effort.

“In our recent scrimmages we really haven’t had many penalties on either side of the ball,” Smoker said. “We had a lot of problems this year with false starts, holding and jumping offsides. But this spring practice has been a lot different than last year’s spring practices, when we were having troubles. Hopefully it will carry on into the season.”

Smoker said MSU’s penalties last season had a lot to do with the team’s overall awareness on the field.

“A lot of it has to do with concentration,” Smoker said. “That might have been what the biggest problem was last year. But we’re doing everything we can to eliminate those types of errors in our play.”

Senior linebacker Josh Thornhill, who helped anchor the Big Ten’s No.1 pass defense this year, said the extra work on minimizing penalties has helped players stay focused on their assignments against opponents.

“We have just reinforced in practice how to react when situations come up in a game,” Thornhill said. “The guy who reacts to things like fights on the field is going to get caught. We have guys on the team that can make big plays but have tempers, but they’re doing a great job so far in not reacting to things on the field.”

Thornhill said he’s confident MSU will improve drastically and will be a different team come next season.

“We’ve been out practicing for about two weeks now and you can definitely see a difference,” he said. “With all the effort into putting a stop to all these mistakes, we should be fine come our first regular-season game.”