Are You Ready for the Draft? NFL? NO! Spring College Football!

Its springtime and we all know what that means. Baseball’s Opening Day? Nope. Playoff Basketball? Try Again. Playoff Hockey? One more time.

 

Spring Football? Ding Ding Ding, we have a winner!

 

Michigan State is having their springtime pigskin game this Saturday and in order to prepare accordingly, the players and coaches conducted the 3rd Annual Spring Game draft.

 

The Seniors were split into two teams, Green and White, and made picks from the remaining players. Like last year, there will be celebrity coaches at the Spring game again this year. For the Green Team the MSU Basketball teams’ seniors Travis Walton, Marquise Gray, Idong Ibok and Goran Suton, will be the honorary coaches, while the assistant coaches Mark Montgomery, Mike Garland and Dwayne Stevens will be on the White team.

 

The selection process was done by position; If the first team took a Wide Receiver, the other team had to take a player from the same position until they were all selected, then the next team “opened up” another position and the same process took place.

 

With the first overall selection the Green team, to no one’s surprise, selected Middle Linebacker Greg Jones. Jones wasn’t present at the selection, as only seniors were allowed to sit in on the draft, but has said on multiple occasions that he is very excited for the game. So look out White team.

 

There were some other surprising storylines as well.

 

Quarterback was one of the very last positions selected, with the Green Team taking Kirk Cousins very late in the draft. If it wasn’t obvious before, it is now. This race is very tight. So tight that neither team jumped at the chance to get either QB early on in the process and waited for the other team to make the first pick of the two, knowing that they would be happy with either one of MSU’s two fine young signal callers.

 

Another big surprise was Trenton Robinson. After clearing out the MLB’s after Jones’ selection, the White team made Robinson the second player chosen to start the run on DB’s. There’s been a buzz around Robinson all off season with the coaches, but with the players taking notice the expectations should weigh heavy on T-Rob’s shoulders, as he is being given a chance to make a real mark in the secondary with his high selection.

 

The biggest downer of the day had to be the continued downfall of Fred Smith. Smith was brought in as one of the first big recruits in the Dantonio era and has thus far done little in his time in East Lansing. Today, he was the 10th receiver taken in the draft, behind the likes of Chris D. Rucker and Brad Sontaag.  If that isn’t the ultimate shot in the arm who knows what is? Smith is going to need to buckle down this summer if he doesn’t want to be passed on the real depth chart by these same two receivers.

 

All in all, the draft was a fun process that kept alive one of the unique traditions in college football. Now it’s time for the real game.