Today is Tuesday, meaning MSU head coach Mark Dantonio addressed the media today in his weekly press conference, here are a few takeaways prior to Saturday's game at Rutgers.
Three key takeaways from Tuesday's football press conference
The State News football writers Nathaniel Bott and Stephen Olschanski are providing a preview of each position group for MSU football. The Spartan's special teams unit struggled at the start of the season — a lack of long return gains and giving up a small field for opposing offenses was a major weak spot. Everyone returned in the kicking department, and each member should make strides. The return game has a few minor changes but is expected to be more of a factor for 2016.
Offensive line
The Spartans have two starters listed at every position on the offensive line on this week's depth chart.
New depth chart pic.twitter.com/0FE8bA6lpb
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Tackles Jack Conklin and Kodi Kieler are both listed on the depth chart as co-starters, meaning both could return from injury this week.
"John (Lewandowski) asked me, okay, give me your offensive line depth and there's just so many different ways we can go with that. I just said list it like this," Dantonio said. "But that's a positive as well because we have probably one, two, probably three guys that can play multiple positions across the offensive line and they have experience doing it."
Young secondary
The Spartans have four true freshman in the secondary who are listed on this week's depth chart.
Josh Butler is No. 2 at the left corner spot, David Dowell is the No. 3 at the right corner spot, Grayson Miller is the No. 2 at one safety spot and Khari Willis is the No. 2 at the other safety spot.
"Josh Butler has performed very well. We've not taken the redshirt off of him yet," Dantonio said. "We'll see what happens. But he's played very well in practice, and I think he's a good player."
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"We've played Khari Willis on special teams and then he also played the entire second half, I think, of the Central Michigan game at our nickel back. And he's a very good tackler, good ball skills. He's a quick, explosive type guy. And Grayson Miller is another guy that played this past week. He's been playing in special teams for probably three weeks."
Redshirt freshmen Matt Morrissey and Jalen Watts-Jackson are the No. 3 guys behind Miller and Willis. They may not be perfect, but Dantonio believes in his young secondary and he believes they can all function within the defense.
"Can you put a guy in there, can he function?," Dantonio said. "It doesn't mean he's going to succeed all the time, but does he know the defense and can he function and make plays for you and fit in the scheme and the puzzle? And I think all six of those guys can already."
Exposure
With Rutgers and Maryland in the Big Ten the conference has a bigger presence on the East Coast. Dantonio talked about what that means to MSU and the alumni.
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"I think it gives us exposure back East. I think that's the intent of having Rutgers and Maryland in the Big Ten was to give everybody exposure," Dantonio said. "We've got a lot of alumni on the East Coast. I think that our Michigan State was very well represented last year at the Maryland game, and I'm sure that will be the case this weekend as well."
Senior defensive end Shilique Calhoun, sophomore offensive tackle Blaise Foster and sophomore defensive end Gerald Owens are all from New Jersey. A trip to Rutgers this Saturday should help with recruiting that area.
"New Jersey's a very active recruiting area. They've got good high school football in that state," Dantonio said. "We're going to go over there and recruit. And we're going to always draw somebody out of there. And we've gotten great players out of there."
