Members of the MSU football team watch as the offensive and defensive lines face off during practice Tuesday afternoon at the Duffy Daugherty Football Building.
With 16 players in contention for playing time along MSU’s defensive line, there probably isn’t enough room on the depth chart to list every Spartans lineman who will see the field this season.
“We’re deep,” football head coach Mark Dantonio said. “We have four sets of good defensive lineman.”
Despite the depth, the Spartans defensive line remains a question mark heading into the season. Seniors Justin Kershaw and Brandon Long will comprise half of the front four, which needs to replace three seniors — Jonal Saint-Dic, Ervin Baldwin and Ogemdi Nwagbuo — that combined for nearly 20 sacks and eight forced fumbles last season.
Trevor Anderson, a junior transfer, is a quick, stocky defensive end who will try to fill Saint-Dic’s shoes. Oren Wilson, a 6-foot-3, 288-pound sophomore, will take Nwagbuo’s spot.
“There shouldn’t be any let-off from the production of those guys last year because we have a year under our belts and everybody’s played,” senior defensive tackle Justin Kershaw said.
“I think because of all the success that Saint-Dic and (Nwagbuo) had (last year), a lot of the interior guys, they weren’t really recognized.”
Although each projected starter has game experience, only Kershaw and Anderson have made weekly impacts. Kershaw set career bests last season with 34 tackles and 1.5 sacks, while Anderson finished the 2006 season with six sacks. Each has started an entire season.
Long peaked in 2007 with 18 tackles and Wilson started one game as a freshman.
Yet, each player has had his moments to shine. Kershaw started every game last year, Anderson was voted Cincinnati’s best defensive lineman two years ago, Long started for the suspended Saint-Dic in the Champs Sports Bowl and had four tackles and Wilson recovered a fumble in the same game.
Following a summer of workouts that emphasized speed and quickness, all four projected starters have settled into their positions.
Kershaw added 20 pounds during the offseason but said he hasn’t lost quickness as a result. Long should consistently be on top of the depth chart after appearing in every game last year, starting in three.
Wilson, who beat out the larger Antonio Jeremiah for the starting spot, is secure with the second tackle position.
For Anderson, a Detroit product who followed Dantonio from Cincinnati in 2006, the return to the football field will be a homecoming three years in the making.
Anderson sat out the 2007 season after transferring, but hit the books in the meantime, piling on nearly 20 credits in a semester to make up for his “slacker” mentality in Cincinnati.
“My mom always told me, ‘If you do schoolwork like you do football, you’d be a 4.0 student,” Anderson said.
Anderson could develop into a Saint-Dic type of playmaker with his low center of gravity, MSU defensive line coach Ted Gill said.
“We’re not looking for guys who are real big,” he said. “We’re looking for guys who can run, who are strong and can change directions in this defense, and that’s what Trevor can do.”
Although Anderson and the other three projected starters were penciled in during fall camp, two linemen surprisingly popped up on the depth chart released Tuesday.
Senior Dwayne Holmes, who has played three different positions on both sides of the ball during his MSU career, and sophomore end Colin Neely were both up for starting spots at California.
In addition, 6-foot-7 freshman Tyler Hoover could vie for time on the end, while redshirt freshmen Kevin Pickelman and Ryan Wheat, and freshman Jerel Worthy, could see the field in the middle.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
“At the end position, I’ve got a total of nine guys that I’ve really got to evaluate and look at and see, and inside I probably have seven guys that I’m going to look at,” Gill said, adding that the depth chart is the best he’s had in a long time. “I could see myself playing a lot of guys.”
