Now into the second week of preseason camp, the MSU football team had transitioned from practicing in shorts to wearing pads and having two-a-day practices leading up to the first preseason jersey scrimmage on Saturday.
After the first week of camp and having analyzed the scrimmage, head coach Mark Dantonio recognized MSU’s successes — seen in senior quarterback Kirk Cousins’ performance and the progression of the youthful offensive line — but said the team not only needs to be more consistent in its game-situation performance, but also in the effort it puts forth.
A notable area of inconsistency was with the players’ conditioning, particularly with the defense, which started off the scrimmage playing very well but cooled off as time went on.
“When your conditioning goes, emotionally you go, as well — that’s what I saw,” Dantonio said. “If there’s anything that I was disappointed in, it was the conditioning aspect and the emotional aspect as the scrimmage wore on when we didn’t have success (and) how we handled ourselves.”
For the remainder of camp, Dantonio stressed the value of future scrimmages and making more practice time for longer stretches of playing live to improve conditioning.
Until the Spartans get a short break before returning to practice for a couple days prior to their first game — against Youngstown State Sept. 2 at Spartan Stadium — they’ll be sweating it out on the practice field for two-a-day sessions, film analysis and additional scrimmages.
Keeping injuries minor and at a minimum, the team has made small improvements in its first week, but if conditioning doesn’t improve, MSU won’t be able to keep up with quick and agile opponents.
“There’s no doubt that we’re playing some teams that play at a fast pace,” Cousins said.
“Northwestern and Notre Dame come to mind of how fast they get plays off, and we have to be well-conditioned and be ready to play at any tempo.”
Going deep
Despite graduating several notable seniors from last season’s Big Ten championship team, MSU has an enormous amount of depth on offense with wide receivers, running backs, centers and tight ends.
Senior wide receiver Keith Nichol said his position arguably has the most depth of any other, working to the Spartans’ advantage with the possibility of injuries constantly looming. With wide-receiver veterans like seniors B.J. Cunningham and Keshawn Martin and sophomore Bennie Fowler — along with seven freshmen — the position is stacked for the season.
“In the Big Ten Conference, somebody’s going to get hurt,” Nichol said.
“Somebody’s going to go down, and that’s the way it is. Guys need to be ready to step in, and we definitely have a lot of depth that can do that.”
Although Cousins has various options for where he can put the ball, the offensive line has grown, providing options for the tight end position.
After redshirting in 2010, sophomore tight end Dion Sims joins seniors Brian Linthicum and Garrett Celek in the fight for the starting position. At 6-foot-5 and 276 pounds, Sims already has had an impact on the Spartans during the scrimmage with three receptions for 39 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown from Cousins.
The Spartans also return junior running backs Edwin Baker and Larry Caper and sophomore running back Le’Veon Bell, while adding redshirt freshman Nick Hill, who has caught the eye of several Spartans, being what Dantonio called “an electrifying runner.”
“He’s got a burst, he’s tough, and he runs through blockers,” Dantonio said. “For his size, he’s very powerful, and he can make you miss in space. He’s very confident, as well.”
Survival of the fittest
Preseason camp can be brutal, but the Spartans have found different ways to push through training camp and break up the monotony of their days, particularly necessary with two-a-day practices.
Sunday evening, Dantonio and the seniors went to a driving range before having dinner together, and the team is planning a cornhole tournament for later this week.
Cousins said he and the offensive line also went on a buffet crawl with stops at restaurants like Old Chicago, 1938 W. Grand River Ave., in Okemos; Asian Buffet, 4920 Marsh Road, in Okemos; and Old Country Buffet, 2301 W. Grand River Ave., in Okemos; before topping off their meals with a trip to the MSU Dairy Store.
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With many options to keep the days interesting, Cousins said everyone tries to have fun with it, because although they know what to expect from camp, it doesn’t make it any easier.
“Whether it’s … having a dinner out with (Dantonio) or a skit during a team meeting at night, you’ve got to come up with something because day, after day after day, it’s like the movie ‘Groundhog Day,’” he said.
“We try to find ways to mix it up, especially the leaders on the team.”
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