After dual-sporting as freshmen, Michigan State's Keon Coleman and Maliq Carr have high expectations for 2022
Freshman year at a new college or university provides challenges in a number of different areas. In most cases, students are away from home for the first times in their lives. They have to get used to new schedules, new routines, tougher course regimens…you get the gist.
For college athletes, the transition from high school to college can be even more difficult that first year. All of a sudden, you aren’t the best athlete in the school anymore, and that raw athleticism isn’t enough to guarantee you a spot on the field or court when the season comes around.
Michigan State freshman Keon Coleman and Maliq Carr faced those challenges this year in East Lansing, and yet embraced the obstacles in two different sports for the Spartans – playing football under Mel Tucker in the fall, and transitioning to basketball in winter for Tom Izzo.
“To start off, we took like a week off, watching practices and all that,” Carr said, speaking on the transition from football to basketball. “Football, we still practiced in the morning, we lift in the morning, so I was coming to some of the lifts, some of the meetings, just making sure I don’t ever lose a step when I come back. And basketball was always in the afternoon.”
Both freshman acknowledged that it helped to have a teammate who was going through the same process of playing two sports. Coleman and Carr have bonded over the shared experience.
“It’s a good experience, knowing somebody else can relate to having to do both, taking care of your body that much and stuff like that,” Coleman said. “It helps when you have somebody else that’s doing what you’re doing.”
“We talked about how it was crazy that we were actually doing it,” Carr added. “People always say you can’t do that stuff, and I mean us, we were just so used to it that it was like nature to us. So, we were just always hanging out, talking, playing games, whatever. But, Keon – that’s my guy.”
Coleman was a standout high school basketball player in Louisiana, averaging 33.5 points per game as a senior and being named first team All-State. This came after averaging 26 and 23.1 points per game as a junior and sophomore, respectively.
But even with credentials like that, Coleman barely saw floor until the ends of games, when the outcome had already been decided. The highlight of his basketball season came against rival Michigan, when the freshman entered the game late and immediately drove to the basket to score against the Wolverines, putting the finishing touches on a big victory over their rivals.
“It was fun. We had a good game plan going in, we practiced well, competed well and we were ready to go out there,” Coleman said. “And, like I told them, if we handle business, I’m going to get on the court and we’re going to have some more fun at the end.”
It’s safe to say that Carr enjoyed the experience as well.
“That was crazy. That was a crazy game,” he said. “Just to say you were part of that rivalry and, personally, I’ve never lost to them so I feel good about that. Trying to make it 3-0 [this fall] and call it a day.”
Coleman also got a chance to play meaningful minutes in a road game at Iowa later in the season, though both guys were mostly held to mop-up duty. Still, that didn’t negatively affect their attitudes towards basketball.
“It was exactly like I imagined,” Coleman said. “It was full of fun, learning new things that I didn’t know back in high school, getting to play against some of the best guys in the country and just competing and learning from Coach Izzo and the rest of the coaches on the staff.
“I wouldn’t mind being a part of the team again next year.”
Carr grew up in a basketball home. His father, Cornell Mann, is an assistant coach at Missouri. Former Michigan State assistant coach Dwayne Stephens, who just took the head coaching job at Western Michigan, is Carr’s cousin.
“I’ve been around that more than I’ve been around football, personally,” Carr said. “So, for me to go over there just felt natural for me.”
After graduating high school, Carr had a desire to play both sports when he accepted a football scholarship from Purdue. After arriving in West Lafayette however, he learned that he would not be on the basketball team.
“The plan was always to play basketball and football in college, and there was just a promise that wasn’t kept,” Carr said. “It’s nothing personal. I still have love for the football team there at Purdue.”
After redshirting with the Boilermakers, Carr transferred to Michigan State. In addition to adding basketball to his schedule, Carr made a switch from wide receiver to tight end under Tucker on the football field.
“The switch from wide receiver to tight end, I was always going to make the transition, I just felt like I needed some receiver coaching as I came into college. Because, I didn’t know how to run routes very well, and I think I’ve improved in that a lot in the last year and a half.”
Like it helped to have a teammate who understood the challenges of playing two sports in Coleman, Carr also said that having a tight end coach in Ted Gilmore, who has also coached wide receivers, helped him make the positional switch with the Spartans this season.
“It’s helped a lot, because he understands sometimes where I’m coming from, where other people in the room sometimes don’t, just because they haven’t played the position,” Carr said. It’s great to have somebody who understands you, when you’re misunderstood.”
Like in basketball, both athletes had to earn their way on to the football field last fall. Coleman and Carr spent their fair share of time on the sideline, before roles began opening for both towards the end of Michigan State’s season.
“I knew, coming in, I had a lot to learn about route running, technique and fundamentals,” Coleman said. “I knew that I had to learn a different style of playbook than I did in high school, so I just tried to come in with an open mind and get as good as a freshman as I could get so I could maybe get on the field.”
The freshman played in ten games for the Spartans, recording seven catches for 50 yards, including MSU’s lone touchdown in a 56-7 loss at Ohio State.
“It showed that I made a lot of progression from when I first got here, and through that progression my coaches started to trust me more, knowing the playbook, the mental side of things and they trusted my physical abilities to put me out there and make a play,” Coleman said. “It boosted my confidence a lot going into the bowl game and the end of the year.”
Carr, meanwhile, played in 12 football games last season, and got to showcase his talents as a pass catcher late in the season. He finished with eight catches for 135 yards as a redshirt freshman.
“It was really fun,” he said. “It was like, you’re learning as everything goes. Like, everyone else already knows pretty much what to do, and I can see my ceiling is nowhere near where a lot of people are, in my opinion. I can just continue to grow, all the way up, until my career is over.”
When basketball season ended just a little less than a month ago, both Coleman and Carr immediately joined their football teammates in spring practice, not wanting to fall behind.
“If it wasn’t me physically getting here, [it was] the mental side, getting the mental reps,” Coleman said. “We put in new things in the playbook, so learning those things and just watching practice. Just being around the culture. I missed the guys.”
Carr said that playing basketball had benefits for football, including hand-eye coordination, footwork and, most importantly, conditioning. He’s not concerned that the toll of playing two sports will wear down his body.
“I know I’ve slimmed up a little bit and it helped a lot to me,” Carr said. “A lot of it is just maintenance. Personally, I’m used to it. I’ve been doing it my whole life. In high school, it was track too, so I mean, I’m pretty good with it.”
As far as his future as a dual-athlete, Carr has high expectations for football this season, and if his goals become reality in that sport, basketball may be off the table next winter.
“Hopefully, in my mind, just have a great year this year and into the draft,” Carr said. “If not, yeah I’ll come back and play basketball. Because, why not?”
Michigan State’s tight end room is in good shape with Carr, returning senior Tyler Hunt and others, but there’s a starting job up for grabs with the departure of Connor Heyward.
“Connor did a great job last year, switching to tight end from running back, and I think it was great for him to have the pro day here too, to show off what he can still do in the backfield,” Carr said. “And, now it’s my time to take over that role, me and T. Hunt.”
The soon-to-be redshirt sophomore then double down on his confidence at 2022 will be a successful football season for him.
“I’m going to do a little bit better than Connor,” Carr said with a smile. “All love, but a little bit. I’ve got a little more time, I’ve got a little more experience than one year.”
As for Coleman, there’s also an expectation for him to earn more playing time on the football field this fall. With Jalen Nailor declaring for the NFL Draft, there’s a spot on the field left open alongside veteran returnees Jayden Reed and Tre Mosley.
“The position is wide open so, hopefully, we’re going to go get that position and be out there starting with Jayden and Tre out there, and just making plays,” Coleman said, who noted he learned a lot from Reed and Nailor a season ago.
“You’ve got to put in the work off the field, off the practice field. They put in a lot of work outside of just practice to perfect their craft and get good at what they were doing last year. So, just taking that into my game and get in the film room more, watching more film, studying, so I can dominate when I get out there.”
In the way they conducted themselves both on the football field and basketball court this past year, Coleman and Carr made the extraordinary look ordinary. Time will tell if they will be rewarded with extraordinary results on the football field this coming fall.
