"I think that, when I always look at things, what do we have to do in this situation to be successful?," Johnson said. "Sometimes that game might lend itself to throwing the ball a lot more, and another game might lend itself to running the ball a little bit more. And I'm unafraid to do either one of them, in what we have to do."

The biggest question surrounding the offense is who will be under center come Oct. 24 against Rutgers. It appears to be a three-way battle between redshirt junior Rocky Lombardi, sophomore Theo Day and redshirt freshman Payton Thorne. Lombardi may have the upper hand due to his experience, but Johnson said all three have been getting equal reps in practice.

"I guess at this point I've seen some good things, but then I've also seen some inconsistent things," Johnson said. "I guess the biggest decider for me right (now), we've been kind of running around in just our helmets, but obviously we've just been out there in two days in pads, and so now it starts to come to be a little bit more. So we're still in that process. I think I'll have a better take of where we're at probably in another week or two, just because it's more real when we have pads on, everything is so much more real."

Johnson described the quarterback battle as "very competitive" and speculated that the competition could last into the season. If Lombardi is named the starter, his margin for error might be thin. The Spartans are still trying to figure out what they have in Day, and Thorne could have the highest ceiling out of the three.

"When you get into that position, that gets hard too," Johnson said of the QB battle. "When you get into that role at times, there's positives and negatives to that, so if we have to go that route, we could, but I'm hoping here in the next three weeks that through a bunch more practices that we have coming up that things can kind of present a pretty clear picture. So that's my goal. But I'm not afraid and I'm not unwilling to do that if that's what we need to do. I'd prefer not to, but if we have to get there because it's not a clear picture, we will."

A critical factor that will go into MSU's success this season will be the health of the offensive line. It's a group that has struggled to stay healthy and put a consistent unit on the field the past couple of seasons and changing that narrative will go a long way in establishing a solid run game and making whoever is at quarterback feel more comfortable.

"They're willing and they're not afraid to be physical," Johnson said of the offensive line. "And so we're trying to juggle the pieces and get it all put into place. But, you know, I think it's, a bunch of guys that are willing to work hard right now and I do know they had had some injury situations in the past. And that is hard at the offensive line. You try to establish that consistency and it's a challenge when you have those guys in and out but we're really trying to develop the entire roster and I think we're making progress."

Trying to avoid another injury plagued season, senior center Matt Allen said the entire offensive line is taking the necessary measures to try and stay healthy.

"I think everybody's ready to go," Allen said. "They've been really smart with just stretching before practice, stretching after practice. And then when we're lifting, we're stretching before and then stretching after. We're just doing a lot of smart things to try and keep us all on the field."

As for the skill positions, Johnson mentioned wide receivers Jalen Nailor, Tre Mosley and Jayden Reed along with RB Elijah Collins as guys who have stood out so far. Johnson is a huge advocate of utilizing the tight end position and has senior Matt Dotson and redshirt sophomore Trenton Gillison as his top returners. Dotson struggled with drops and injuries last season, while Gillison showed his value in the passing game against Wake Forest in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl last December.

"I kind of say they're the MVP because they have to do an awful lot for us," Johnson said of the tight end spot. "They've got to run, they've got to be able to pass protect, they've got to run routes. They have to do a little bit everything. We've been moving them all over and trying to experiment with them and again, I think there's some young guys and we tried to look at a couple of wildcards there to help us, but I do like some of the things I'm seeing."

Decisions still need to be made over the next month, and there has been talk of a couple scrimmages taking place before the regular season gets underway. The Spartans have the weapons in place to make some noise on offense this season, but their success will ultimately come down to health and execution.