Senior offensive linemen Pete Clifford and Mike Gyetvai try to protect senior running back Jehuu Caulcrick from Notre Dame tacklers. Saturday’s game was the first Gyetvai was able to play in this season after recovering from a shoulder injury.
Senior offensive lineman Mike Gyetvai had never played guard until last week but that didn’t stop him from doing what head coach Mark Dantonio called “a tremendous job” against Notre Dame.
“I think he’s a very good offensive lineman wherever he plays,” Dantonio said Monday at his press conference.
Gyetvai was out nursing a shoulder injury for the first three games of the season.
“I was very happy for him, he’s endured as well,” Dantonio said.
“This was on his time frame and he stepped in. He was going to play sparingly on Saturday but he stepped in and played the entire game.”
The depth chart has been shaken up this week, but Dantonio gave no indicator of how much bearing it holds for MSU’s upcoming game at Wisconsin.
Sophomore cornerback Ross Weaver, offensive linemen senior Kenny Shane and junior Roland Martin have all been left off the chart with injuries.
Shane left the field with four minutes remaining in the second quarter on Saturday and never returned.
Dantonio downplayed the significance of Shane’s absence from the chart, cracking a smile and saying “maybe it was a misprint.”
“I didn’t know he wasn’t on the depth chart,” Dantonio said at his Monday press conference.
“I don’t like to talk about the depth chart.”
Junior offensive lineman Mike Bacon is listed to start in Shane’s place, Gyetvai is listed as Martin’s replacement and sophomore T.J. Williams is on the chart as a second-string cornerback.
Williams, who until now was primarily a wide receiver, took some snaps as a cornerback against Notre Dame.
Whether or not being placed as a backup on the depth chart will mean he’ll be playing more defense is up in the air, Dantonio said.
“Not necessarily,” he said. “I didn’t see the depth chart before it came out.”
When asked who puts the charts together, Dantonio responded, “Confusing, isn’t it?”
Sir D got decked
If you thought junior quarterback Brian Hoyer fumbled before throwing a touchdown pass to senior tight end Kellen Davis on Saturday at Notre Dame, you’re not alone.
That trick play has fooled the Spartan defense “100 percent” of the time in practice, Hoyer said.
“We always get (senior linebacker) Sir Darean Adams on it,” he said.
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“He always bites on it, and it’s the same play and the O-line yells fumble, and you would think they would know but we always get Sir D on that play. So I was confident running it.”
Hoyer’s “fumblerooski” against Notre Dame was so convincing that Adams thought it was time for the defense to run back out on the field and play.
“He came up to me and told me ‘I was going to run and get my helmet, I didn’t know what the heck was going on,’” Hoyer said.
“He was like, ‘Next time you run that play, you’ve got to tell the defense.’”
The play has been around for a while, and the Spartans have run it in practice for the past couple of years, Hoyer said.
Former MSU quarterback Drew Stanton ran the play for about a 20-yard gain in the past, but when it’s a run on fourth down with two yards to go, it’s more noticeable, Hoyer said.
“At least mine went for a touchdown,” he joked.
