Michigan State Releases Details of Today's First Football Scrimmage

Offense Wins First Preseason Jersey Scrimmage, 67-63

Time elapsed 2:20 (149 total plays)

Stat Leaders

Rushing: Nick Hill 14-72; Le’Veon Bell 14-46 including a 1-yard TD run; Larry Caper 13-34 including a 3-yard TD run; Edwin Baker saw limited action but scored on a 1-yard TD run.

Passing: Kirk Cousins 17-of-28 for 216 yards, 2 TDs (11 yards to Keshawn Martin and 10 yards to Dion Sims) and one interception; Andrew Maxwell 18-of-22 for 159 yards including a 10-yard TD toss to Bennie Fowler.

Receiving: Bennie Fowler 6-58; B.J. Cunningham 5-55; Keshawn Martin 3-53; Dion Sims 3-29.

Defense (solos-assists-total): Isaiah Lewis 4-4-8; Trenton Robinson 3-2-5 and one interception; Max Bullough 1-4-5 and one fumble recovery; William Gholston 2-2-4 including 2.5 sacks (19 yards) and one forced fumble.

Mark Dantonio post-scrimmage quotes:

“It’s tough to evaluate things overall because we haven’t watched the film yet, but we did some very good things. We could have a very good football team, but when things get tough, we have to be able to reach down and find our identity.

“As a head coach, you really try to remain neutral, hoping that both sides play well. The biggest things I’d like to see are more emotion and more intensity. We went for awhile today (2:20), but we have to display more emotion and intensity. We’ll have a good football team; I don’t worry about that, but how good can we be? To reach our full potential, we must consistently play at a high level. The season opener is still almost three weeks away, and sometimes, a team finds its identity as it moves through the season.

“Everybody got a chance to play and that’s the main thing we wanted to do today. The ones, twos and threes all got reps, so now we can evaluate everybody. We tried to put those different units in tough situations and see who could block, tackle, and make a play.

“The expectations of our football team are very high, so the expectations of its head coach internally are going to be very high. After eight practices, there’s plenty of room for improvement.”