From left, freshman safeties Grayson Miller and Khari Willis
The No. 7 Spartans will be sticking with a couple of “Rangers” at their starting safety positions following the performance and growth of freshmen Grayson Miller and freshman Khari Willis.
Miller and Willis were not only on the punt block team, the “Rangers,” which helped put together the game winning return by redshirt freshmen Jalen Watts-Jackson, but they also combined for nine tackles at safety in their starting debuts.
“I was impressed with how Grayson Miller and Khari Willis played as true freshmen in that environment,” MSU head coach Mark Dantonio said. “So they are only going to continue to get more accustomed and feel better about — not as much anxiety, and they are very level-headed.”
Miller was a sparingly recruited player from Kentucky, only receiving an offer from WKU before his camp visit to MSU.
“And we looked at him at camp and after he long jumped 10-6 and vertical(ed) 37 inches and ran two 4-4s — and then went outside and caught the ball and did the drills, and he was 6'2 and a half, 205, we thought, maybe we just ought to offer him a scholarship,” Dantonio said.
Miller said his father, John, who played at MSU from 1985-1988 and was a two time All-Big Ten selection at safety, has helped prepare him for early success.
“That’s something my dad has instilled in me, I mean if you go out there and you are not giving everything you have and you are just embarrassing yourself then why are you even out there?” Miller said. “I think that is the mentality with almost everyone on this team.”
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Miller’s game, though, is his proven aptitude for obtaining knowledge. Dantonio said Miller was the valedictorian of his high school.
“He's a very quick learner and both those guys are very quick learners,” Dantonio said.
Dantonio said Willis is an excellent student as well, and as far as being able to play on the big stage, Dantonio said Willis’s experience traveling across the country for AAU basketball has kept him aggressive and unintimidated.
“I wasn’t a deer in the headlights, I mean, like I told everybody, you dream of something so many times that it feels like you’re living in it, so I was really ready for it because I had dreamed about it so many times,” Willis said.
Dantonio said both players being active at a young age is not a concern for the Spartans, but rather it is a sign of good things to come.
“Intangibly, they are both very meticulous people, and they are very tough-minded,” Dantonio said.
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