“Me and (sixth-year linebacker Jon) Reschke — I’ll go in my room, he’ll sit in the living room and play Fortnite with whoever else is on,” Bachie said after practice on Thursday. “That’s how it’s gonna go.”

Over the course of preseason camp, the Spartans accumulated more than 400 plays within Spartan Stadium during three scrimmages, according to Dantonio. 

“I thought we had a very, very good camp,” Dantonio said. “We've got a good foundation of playing live football, where our coaches step back and allow our players to play, which I think is as close as we can get to the game situations.”

But after you play the first scrimmage and you get into the dog days of August, the team can start to feel the fatigue, Dantonio said. That’s when the true test begins.

“It's always exciting to go to camp and then you hit those 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 days and it starts to become a grind,” Dantonio said. “Just when you can't take it anymore, you move to the next thing. It's game week coming on Saturday and I'm sure we'll all be excited next Friday night.”

Bachie said the rest is what you look forward to when you’re nearing the end of preseason camp and finally reach the end of the last practice.

“You don’t tell anyone that, but you know (the) dog days of camp (are) kicking in and you’re just saying, ‘Alright we got a couple more days, here we go, we gotta bring it today, we gotta bring it today,’” Bachie said. “And now you get to this point finally and you get to relax for a couple days. And I’m not gonna be too relaxed though. We got Utah State in a couple days.” 

Redshirt junior quarterback Brian Lewerke said the team is “100 percent” ready for MSU’s first game of the season against the Aggies next Friday. 

Like Bachie, Lewerke said he’ll enjoy the brief two-day relaxation before Sunday’s preparation for the game. 

He's excited to see how the 2018 season will take shape.

“I feel very comfortable with this team,” Lewerke said. “I think we have great chemistry. It’s been on display for a while now. And I’m just excited to see what we can do.”

Position battles taking shape

Junior cornerback Josh Butler is looking like the starter opposite junior cornerback Justin Layne against Utah State, replacing injured sophomore cornerback Josiah Scott, Dantonio said Thursday. Butler started four games in 2017.

“Yeah, Josh is the guy right now,” Dantonio said. “Probably sitting as the starter.”

Dantonio also said sophomore defensive end Jacub Panasiuk is in the lead to start opposite junior defensive end Kenny Willekes, with redshirt senior defensive end Dillon Alexander and Scott still “in that rehab mode.” Panasiuk recorded 15 tackles and one sack in 12 games last season. 

As for the open strong-side linebacker spot, Dantonio didn’t confirm any particular starter or if anybody is in the lead to take the spot.

“We’ve got a lot of ways that we can go with the linebackers,” Dantonio said. “I think it’s still in the air where our 'money' linebacker is, but star is Andrew (Dowell) and Joe Bachie is our Mike. But we’ll play other players, too.”

Redshirt junior center Tyler Higby is still the No. 1 center as of an Aug. 14 practice, Dantonio said. However, he said sophomore center Matt Allen “has been pushing.” 

Dantonio declines to comment on Urban Meyer 

Dantonio declined to comment on the three-game suspension of Ohio State coach Urban Meyer Wednesday, who was embroiled in a scandal involving whether he knew of domestic violence allegations against a former assistant coach.

“I’m not here to comment on anybody else’s program,” Dantonio said. “We’re just gonna focus on ourselves.”