The White team came into Saturday's Green-White intrasquad game beaming with confidence.
The players boasted, "Our team is stacked! The White team is stacked!"
No. 1 quarterback Brian Hoyer was supposed to lead the White team to an easy victory, while the Green team was supposed to struggle to move the ball with redshirt freshman Connor Dixon as its head signal-caller.
Perhaps the White squad was a little too confident.
Dixon proved to have the better afternoon, outplaying Hoyer as the White team defeated the Green, 21-8, at Spartan Stadium.
Hoyer, despite a rough afternoon (12-of-31, 168 yards) is still the unquestionable starting quarterback for MSU once the 2007 season officially commences Sept. 1 against Alabama-Birmingham.
But the backup quarterback position, once a question mark, now appears to be a bit less clouded. Dixon completed 10-of-12 pass attempts for 105 yards and one touchdown.
"Connor played well today," MSU head coach Mark Dantonio said. "So much of the quarterback position is game management. He handled the offense, he was good in the huddle and he made some plays out there."
Dixon benefited from having some of MSU's best skilled position players on his side, as well as a solid offensive line.
Junior running back Javon Ringer carried the ball 10 times for 60 yards, and the Green team pounded out 149 rushing yards as a whole.
"With the offensive line I had in front of me, it was easy," Ringer said.
The Green team opened the scoring with 8:46 remaining in the second quarter.
Dixon took a snap 5 yards from the goal line, faked a handoff to Ringer, then lofted a pass to Kellen Davis, who was wide open in the back of the end zone for the score.
The senior tight end's touchdown grab gave the Green team a 7-0 lead.
Goal line plunges in the second half by running backs A.J. Jimmerson and Brett Kahn pushed the Green lead to 21-0. Only a Hoyer touchdown pass to senior wideout Terry Love with 1:07 remaining in the fourth quarter prevented the White team from being shut out. The ensuing two-point conversion was successful, but it was too little, too late.
Though the White team came out on the losing end, safeties Nehemiah Warrick and Otis Wiley made sure to leave enough bruises on their Green opponents to last until fall camp resumes.
Wiley, a junior, registered a game-high eight tackles. Warrick, a senior, had seven.
"It was hard-hitting," Wiley said. "Just good effort and toughness."
The scrimmage marked the last of 15 spring practices for the Spartans and brought an end to the first spring season under newly appointed head coach Dantonio.
"We accomplished what we wanted," Dantonio said. "There are no injuries, and we're ready to move forward.
"Now we need to add 25 guys — our new freshmen."
With the win, the White team earned a steak dinner.
"Medium-rare, with ranch," Ringer said. "I can't wait. I can't wait for that steak."
Special headwear
To honor the victims of the shooting massacre at Virginia Tech, MSU players all wore "VT" logos on the back of their helmets.
In tribute to former Spartan and All-American George Webster, who died of heart failure Thursday, the players placed a black strip of tape across the Spartan logo on the right side of their helmets.
"This was an appropriate way to honor this fallen Spartan," Dantonio said.
Big crowd
An estimated 25,000 people attended Saturday's game.
"It shows me that football is very important at Michigan State," Dantonio said.
