Chris D. Rucker catches a pass during preseason scrimmage
Spartan nation, fire up your keyboards. We have stats, and we’re not afraid to use them!
The biggest stats from MSU’s 125-play preseason scrimmage Monday:
- Keith Nichol – 17-26 (65%), 241 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs
- Kirk Cousins – 13-30 (43%), 127 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT
After the scrimmage, coach Dantonio reiterated what he’s said all along, that this is a competition that will likely go well into September and won’t be determined in preseason camp. ”We had a couple drops, throwing to all different receivers. They’re working with the 1s, they’re working with the 2s, that type of thing. But I thought the both played well. We’re sending different pressures at them,” coach Dantonio said when talking to the media. Images after the jump!
Okay, it’s day number one, and yes, it’s way to early to call the QB race. One scrimmage is, well, one scrimmage. Two scrimmages at least starts a trend (or more controversy, if Cousins outperforms Nichol), and over a number of weeks we’ll have to wait and see how the performances evolve.
A lot of the media types said that Cousins was probably the leader going into the preseason camp, just based off of his completion percentage last year (from a pretty small sample size, mind you) and the fact that he already knew the system. But from what we’ve heard, Nichol is the more athletic quarterback, and if he can pick up the system he’s probably got a really solid chance at winning the job.
In other news coming out of the scrimmage, Dantonio made the team run 18 sideline-to-sideline “gassers” after the scrimmage. It was the first time that he has made the team run after a scrimmage since he arrived at MSU, and said that undisciplined penalties were the reason for the running. Said Dantonio,
They thought they were going in, they’d worked hard. I’ve never run them here at the end of a scrimmage since I’ve been here, and they responded. That was as impressive to me. I think that showed attitude.
Good to hear Dantonio is holding the team accountable for bad penalties. We all know this is a problem that has plagued Spartan football teams for the past decade (MSU was 4th in the conference in the most penalty yards/game in 2007, 1st in 2006, and 3rd in 2004). MSU had the 5th most penalty yards per game last season, so clearly plenty of room for improvement.
A few other items of interest:
- Freshman did take part in the all-team scrimmage on Monday, but in a limited role. The freshman had their own scrimmage earlier in the day.
- Center Joel Nitchman is injured, and true freshman Nate Klatt has been getting some time snapping the ball behind Ethan Ruhland and John Stipek. Of all the positions on the team, lineman rarely get the opportunity to get significant time early on, but Dantonio said that Klatt may get a chance to compete for the #2 spot if he keeps progressing. I’m not sure if this is more a testament to lack of depth at the center position than anything else.
- Running back Glenn Winston passed his conditioning test, one of the first steps in the “work he needs to do” to fully regain his status with the team after being released from jail just about a week ago.
- A clear front-runner is yet to emerge in the running back competition. Ashton Leggett ran for 91 yards on 10 carries, but one of those was a 63 yard jaunt. Take that out of the equation, and the average YPC for the running backs drops to under three.
- Despite lackluster running back performance, the offense won the scrimmage 73-61 (NCAA ’10 Spring Game scoring FTW!) and keep the green practice jerseys as a sign of the victory
Update 8/19: So apparently both the team scrimmage and the freshman scrimmage were held on Monday, not on Tuesday. I’ve made the change above.
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