All was mute on the practice field inside the MSU football facility on Wednesday afternoon following the Spartans Pro Day for the NFL hopefuls, in regards to the recent arrest of Delton Williams.
Williams, the sophomore running back, was arrested and charged earlier on Monday night for brandishing a firearm after an alleged road rage incident on Shaw Lane and Red Cedar Road. He later pleaded not guilty.
This is now the third arrest in less than a year's span for the program, the former two belonging to wide receiver Macgarrett Kings Jr. He was arrested late February for drunken and disorderly conduct while resisting arrest. He was also charged for driving under the influence back in April of last year.
"You're always disappointed when you have problems," Dantonio said. "That's part of what we do here is we manage this issues. We'll take steps to do this."
With the indefinite suspension handed down to Williams, the competition for the starting job come August just became a tad easier for redshirt freshman Madre London, sophomore Gerald Holmes and incoming freshman LJ Scott, the four-star recruit out of Ohio.
Holmes finished fourth among all rushers last season with 44 yards on 15 carries. Williams garnered 316 yards rushing on 54 carries with five touchdowns, as the backup for both Jeremy Langford and Nick Hill.
Hill, who did not receive an invite to February's NFL combine at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, but finished the day with the second fastest 40-yard time (4.48), while also recording 21 bench reps, did not know much on the Williams situation, but understood hapless it was to lose him for the unseeable future.
"Coach Dantonio is going to handling it the best way he can," Hill said. "We'll see how that pans out for the rest of the year. It's unfortunate for that incident for him, but as Spartans, we always come overcome obstacles like that."
Despite not receiving a single carry last season, Hill had high praise for London when he gave his speculation on who should the majority of the carries for the campaign. He was a three-star recruit coming out of high school, rated at No. 29 among all running backs in the country.
"That's a guy who remind me of Adrian Peterson," Hill said. "You can't bring him down with one tackler, very agile, has great hands and doesn't fumble. That's one guy, in my hands, who's coming to emerge as the starting guy next year."
When asked who's going to come out on top and land the starting role at tailback next season, Dantonio was quick to defuse the question.
"We're going to figure that out this spring," he said.
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