Typically, early in preseason camp, defenses tend to be ahead of offenses in terms of readiness and preparation before the offense has time to work out the kinks.
Such was the case on Saturday at MSU’s first jersey scrimmage, as the defense took home a 28-22 victory using a modified scoring system. The situational scrimmage was closed to both the media and public.
In quotes released by the MSU athletics department, Dantonio praised the defensive effort while expressing less satisfaction with the offense.
“I thought the defense played well. They applied pressure (on the quarterbacks) and tackled pretty well,” Dantonio said in the release.
“Offensively, we did some good things and had some big plays, but you can’t beat yourself. We simply had too many unforced penalties, negative plays and a turnover. Offensively, we’ve got to clean some things up.”
Judging simply from statistics, the quarterbacks appeared to have a solid day through the air on Saturday.
Senior Andrew Maxwell threw for a team-high 171 yards on 13-of-21 passing including a 19-yard score to sophomore wide receiver Macgarrett Kings Jr. Maxwell’s main challenger this fall, sophomore Connor Cook, went 13-for-18 for 133 yards, redshirt freshman Tyler O’Connor went seven-for-nine for 74 yards and freshman Damion Terry completed four-of-seven passes for 101 yards and a touchdown.
On the defensive side, junior defensive end Marcus Rush and junior linebacker Taiwan Jones had standout days. Rush registered six stops including two sacks, while Jones finished with a pair of tackles for loss, a sack and a fumble recovery he took 14 yards to the house.
Freshman kicker Michael Geiger continued to make his case for replacing the graduated Dan Conroy by making seven-of-eight field goals in the scrimmage, which included two from 48 yards out.
“Without watching the video, you’ve got to look at Michael Geiger as the bright spot of the scrimmage,” Dantonio said in the release. “Right now, he’s in the lead for that position.”
On the ground, freshman Gerald Holmes was the most efficient runner, gaining 55 yards on seven carries, albeit mostly against the freshman defense. Fellow freshman running back Delton Williams also carried the ball more than seven times, but MSU did not provide his statistics.
Juniors Nick Hill and Jeremy Langford each rushed for touchdowns while contributing 24 and 31 yards, respectively. Redshirt freshman running back Riley Bullough did not play in the scrimmage because of an injury.
Dantonio singled out the backfield after practice on Friday as a group he was going to watch carefully in the scrimmage.
“I want to see the tailback situation, who’s running well, you know, breaking tackles, being able to run through smoke,” Dantonio said.
“… We want to make sure everybody has an opportunity to show themselves. So it’s going to be important that everybody gets some reps.”
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