News and Notes From Spartan Football 04/18/10 Edition

Larry Caper didn’t have the stats from Saturday’s scrimmage as Edwin Baker, LeVeon Bell and Nick Hill. He sat out early is the reason. Make no mistake,

Larry Caper didn’t have the stats from Saturday’s scrimmage as Edwin Baker, LeVeon Bell and Nick Hill. He sat out early is the reason. Make no mistake, he is fine, and watching the RBs next Saturday at the Green and White game will be something that should have a lot of Spartans fired up.

Andrew Maxwell continues to impress. Not only is he accurate, but he is quickly understanding the nuances of the game.

With all the praise Maxwell is receiving, somehow I think Kirk Cousins’ growth has been overlooked. This year Cousins’ doesn’t just look the part. He is the part. This is his offense and he seems much more comfortable running it. He has the work ethic and has worked hard this past winter. While certainly not cocky, he is much more confident.

There are areas of concern for this team. According to Dantonio, one of them is that they have to “cut down on unforced penalties.” Unforced penalties like off sides are inexcusable. They are silent killers in a football game. As young as this team is, they will unfortunately play a part in some games this season. They are those things that you endure with young players and the more they can cut them down in 2010, the better chance the Spartans have of overachieving.

Dan Conroy is in the mix as the starting placekicker.  He is in a very close battle with Kevin Muma. They are close friends and the battle has been intense. As of now, neither have done enough to create separation on the depth chart. Conroy did do one thing yesterday that made several take notice. He nailed a 45-yard field goal right down the center of the goalposts. One of his teammates committed one of those ugly unforced penalties (false start) and he had to hit it again. He did. Nailed it right down the middle. In the midst of adversity he performed well. Certainly not a “separation” moment alone, but one, that come August, if it is tight could be.

Speaking of the kickers, yesterday Mark Dantonio seemed resolved that the battle for the place kicker and kick off duty “will probably go into August.” Make sure you read my previous notes column to see what that means.

When you have a young team full of true freshman and sophomores as well as the corresponding red shirts, events like the spring game are critical to player development. It is one thing to sit in the crowd on a recruiting visit, or to stand on the sidelines with no chance to play , but is entirely different when so many of them are needed in the two deep almost immediately.  Dantonio summed up the spring game experience for his youthful roster best, "this is a big deal."

Tyler Hoover continues to perform at a high level.  Hoover is a long, rangy defensive-end.  At 6'7", Hoover has struggled in the past to keep his pad level low; this is not uncommon for tall defensive lineman.  Hoover is no longer having to think about keeping his pads low, he is doing it instinctively. That has allowed him to “always be in the quarterback’s face,” and he is running better and playing with more power. His first step is no longer fixated on pad level; it is on using his massive frame and driving forward.

Josh Rouse has solidified himself as the #1 FB. The battle is for the second spot. There was a lot of talk late last season about moving disappointing WR Fred Smith to the FB position. He then had his off-field issues and upon being reinstated to the team has been working there. Spartan Nation was the first to report this switch, but I have been keeping an eye on him when we are at practice. There are a lot of nuances to that position that having never played it before makes the learning curve steep for Smith, but not impossible.

We wrote recently about the love Coach Dantonio had for Rouse equating himself as an offensive lineman. Smith will have to take on a block-first-toughness offensive lineman mentality to get reps in game situations. He certainly can do it; the question is whether he will do it being that it is such a difficult mental change. Asking someone to go from being a highly touted skill player to essentially a tough offensive lineman type attitude is asking a lot.

One thing that may help Smith is that his career so far has been a disappointment. Perhaps he will embrace this as an opportunity.

The right tackle spot is a lot like the kicker. Jared McGaha and J’Michael Deane have created no separation. In fact, Coach Dantonio described it as, “both have been good, both need to be better.” Both need more consistency. Here is the thing that they both need to remember. David Barrent who essentially missed the opening two thirds of spring ball recovering from back surgery is finally playing. You can see the rust, but you can also see the fast improvement. Henry Conway won’t be back until fall after missing the last half of camp with a neck injury. Prior to the injury and all last fall, Conway dominated and looked like a shoe in for the spot.

What does that mean for McGaha and Deane? They both need to know (like the kickers and incoming freshman Mike Sadler) that the longer neither separates and takes that first string spot, they allow two younger players with incredible talent to play themselves into the mix.

Remember this tidbit. If multiple players are competing for a job, the tie goes to the younger player, always will. If the younger player is already tied with the older, the younger will get the look because they have more time and upside. Deane and McGaha could really help themselves stepping up this last week.

Mark Dantonio made an interesting comment that he admitted to the press, “You guys will go off the deep end if I say this,” but he thinks there should be a real game for the spring. Obviously, not one that would count on your fall win-loss record, but according to Dantonio, “…looking for a way to make revenue let’s play somebody in the spring game. People should look at that.”

I called four division one head coaches and two athletic administrators last night and early this morning and all six loved the idea. One athletic administrator said, “Can you imagine if they sold tickets for $10 bucks and had a Grand Valley come in? That would be great for both schools. MSU would get to beat up on somebody else and GVSU would get some money.” All six people I spoke to said that you wouldn’t get a Big Ten type team or another BCS school, because you would want the revenue of a “home” game. They also said going on the road for a BCS school wouldn’t work. “If you played it so you could use any NCAA team regardless of characterization (A-AA-II or III) I think it becomes viable immediately,” was how another athletic administrator viewed it.

The transition to more three-four defenses has done some “good things” according to Dantonio. There is a transition period, but it gives the Spartan defense more things to use and causes other teams to prepare for more looks. The Spartans defense was so bad in 2009 that nearly every team the Spartans faced didn’t have to prepare for much. The Spartans lack of talent an inability to stop much meant that they had to stay in their base. In 2010 look for the Spartans to try to get back to what they did in Coach Dantonio's first two years and mix things up a lot more.