The gridders were back on the practice field today for the first day of spring practice. Coach Dantonio held a brief press conference where he talked about his objectives for spring ball and covered what he sees as some of the strengths and weaknesses of the team.
Division I football programs are allowed 14 spring practices and a spring game. Dantonio has the guys practicing every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for the next five weeks (save for Easter weekend which is has it’s Saturday practice moved to the following Friday). Spring practices will culminate on April 24th with the annual Spring Game at Spartan Stadium.
A couple of notes from the presser today (audio link below):
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- Dantonio said that he wants each player to focus on getting 2% better each practice. For the older players, it might take more to get that 2% improvement. But he wants players to improve schematically and in technique.
- Coach D mentioned Greg Jones’ decision to return as a big part of making up one of the strengths of the team in the linebacker corps. Jones, along with senior Eric Gordon, will make up a scary group of linebackers for the 2010 season. Dantonio also likes what he sees on the defense as a whole, returning 13 players, including 4 players in the secondary. Although I can’t help but think about the number of players we returned last year in the secondary, and we all know how well that turned out.
- Keith Nichol will switch over to primarily be a wide receiver in 2010. Dantonio says Nichol will play wide receiver about 70-80% of the time, but will still be an available option at quarterback because of his experience. Curiously, however, Dantonio said Nichol was the #1 receiver going into spring ball. I can understand if he’s bumping Mark Dell and B.J. Cunningham further down in the depth chart because of their transgressions in the Rather Hall fight, but, um, Keyshawn Martin? He was clearly the breakout player at the end of the season, no?
- Coach D calls the wide receivers / tight ends as an area of strength. With the loss of Blair White, the addition of Nichol at WR, and Dell and Cunningham striking me as “known quantities”, I’m not sure the receiving corps is any better than last year, although I’d very much like to see the tight ends get their hands on the ball a little bit more.
- As opposed to last year, it looks like we’ll have some more depth at the quarterback position in 2010. Last year was basically a two-man race going into the season, between Kirk Cousins and Nichol. This season Kirk is going to be the guy. However, in case of injury, we’ll be able to go with either Nichol, or with redshirt freshman Andrew Maxwell or possibly even freshman Joe Boisture.
- Running back also figures to be a solid group. The position has been a roller coaster ride the last seven months. We went into the 2009 season with seven possible options at the position, had Glenn Winston emerge as the primary option, then saw Winston go down with a torn ACL and eventually get kicked off the team, while Larry Caper and Edwin Baker faced some nagging injuries for a good chunk of the season. This year, a more mature duo of Caper and Baker will hopefully do a better job of holding onto the football.
- As for weaknesses, Dantonio acknowledged both the offensive and defensive lines need some rebuilding. The O-line is probably the more critical of the two, but no doubt both need some improvement. That will be a big focus, and something to look for in the Spring Game. Video of Coach D talking about the O-line from MLive:
- Finally, Coach D talked briefly about the reinstatement of Mark Dell, B.J. Cunningham, J’Michael Deane and Chris L. Rucker (man, how much I’d love to not have to use the word reinstatement any more). Dantonio said that he will continue to stand behind these players. He felt that it was important to note that guys make mistakes, but that they paid the consequences and that now it’s time to move forward.
| It’s time for young O-Linemen to step up |
Click here to download the spring practice depth chart | DepthChart – Spring Practice
Plus some get-pumped motivation from the MSU Vimeo vault -
MSUSpartans.com | 4th Quarter 2010 from MSUSpartans.com on Vimeo.
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