Senior offensive tackle Fou Fonoti takes a break during practice Aug. 9, 2013, at the practice field outside Duffy Daugherty Football Building. Fonoti and the Spartans are returning to Fonoti’s home state to take on Stanford in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day. Julia Nagy/The State News
Despite blocking for one of the nation’s most prolific running backs in Le’Veon Bell a season ago, injuries still badly decimated MSU’s offensive line.
With then-senior Fou Fonoti, who was granted a medical redshirt to return this season, and then-sophomores Skyler Burkland” and Travis Jackson missing substantial time because of injuries in 2012, the Spartans’ offense struggled to string together big plays as the unit was paced with inconsistency.
Fast forward to the present, the Spartans still are looking for consistency from the offensive line to generate points on offense.
Acting as one of the lone representatives of the offense made available to the media Tuesday, senior guard Blake Treadwell said MSU has found success this season with several different combinations of offensive linemen against Western Michigan — a trend the team hopes to maintain this week against South Florida (noon, ESPNU).
“With the competition we’ve had, you saw in the game we had different combinations than we had last and in previous years,” Treadwell said. “There’s so much competition that everybody’s level is so much higher.
“If somebody does go out, I have full confidence whoever comes in besides me or for me can get the job done.”
Although the offensive line has not lost anyone for the season, the unit has not been without injury to this point.
Sophomore guard Jack Allen missed the regular season opener with a lower-body injury and is not slated to play Saturday. Fonoti is listed as the co-starter at right tackle with redshirt freshman Jack Conklin, but Fonoti has been limited because of an undisclosed injury.
As the Spartans look to improve upon the subpar offensive output against the Broncos, which currently ranks them 91st out of 117 FBS teams, head coach Mark Dantonio said the unit is imperative to MSU accumulating more “explosive plays.”
Defined as a 20-yard pass or a 15-yard run, Dantonio said the offensive line can play a large role in turning a small gain into a potential explosive scoring play.
“If you look at us as an offense, we got the three and four yard runs; we ran for 180 yards,” Dantonio said on Tuesday. “We need to have the explosive plays there. We need to get the second level guy to break the tackle and run through the smoke, as I would say.”
Jones-ing for more
After making a splash with a two-interception game against Western Michigan last week, senior linebacker Jairus Jones has been the talk of many prominent circles in college football.
But there was a time when he thought the opportunity might never happen.
During his sophomore season, Jones tore his Achilles tendon in a spring practice, which caused him to miss the first eight games of the season. And after a long road to return, Jones injured his knee in 2012, keeping him out of action for the final six games of the regular season.
Battling through multiple setbacks, Jones said he leaned on a support system of his teammates and family to get through the struggle.
“You hit rock bottom when you get hurt the second time for a considerable amount of time,” Jones said. “Luckily I had that support system to help me out.”
After earning a spot on ESPN’s SportsCenter following his interception-turned-lateral to junior safety Kurtis Drummond, who scored on the play against the Broncos, Jones said it means everything to have the opportunity to be on the field again.
“I’m just happy I could make plays,” said Jones.
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