WATCH: Michigan State WR Alante Brown Talks Spring Ball, More
In this story:
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State wide receiver Alante Brown's 2024 season was not ideal.
Right off the bat, the veteran suffered a serious upper-body injury in the Spartans' season opener, which had him miss six games before returning to the field against Michigan. He ended up redshirting.
With him, Nick Marsh, Crishon McCray, Omari Kelly, Evan Boyd and tight end Jack Velling surrounding quarterback Aidan Chiles, Michigan State's passing game could make a drastic leap from last season.
Brown addressed the media after the Spartans' spring practice on Thursday. You can watch below:
Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith also spoke to reporters on Thursday. Below is a partial transcript from his availability:
Smith: "Finished Practice 8. Feel good with what the first eight practices have looked like. Not perfect, but a lot of guys getting reps. You can see steady improvement. The install is getting to the point where it's about peaked.
"We're not going to double up the second half of the spring, so the more reps and the same stuff in the back-half of the spring. And looking for that steady improvement. I think the energy, enthusiasm for eight days has been there. And so, kind of like a lot of what I've seen so far."
Q: How do you monitor installation with the transfer portal in mind?
Smith: "Yeah, it's not a huge consideration in my mind. I mean, I think, again, we're invested in these guys. We're not going to hold things until by chance we lose a guy or two. We understand the landscape and guys are going to have opportunities here for us the last two weeks of April.
"But we feel pretty good in regards to what we're putting in and doing, and we want to get better at those schemes, and so, yeah, we want reps out in April, re-digest it through the summer and August."
Q: Brian Lindgren said you're ahead on offense compared to where you were last year, would you agree with that?
Smith: "Yeah, I think we're ahead just because we do got a majority of guys going into Year 2. Some of the guys that we added came here in January and dove right into it, and again, yeah, they're getting more reps, but I think the competition at the receiver position is healthy and we've got some additions there that have shown they can help us.
"Offensive line, competition. We're healthier there, I think we're stronger there and we got more competition at the line."
Be sure to follow along with all our content when you follow the official Spartan Nation page on Facebook, Spartan Nation, WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE, and feel free to share your thoughts when you join our community group, Go Green Go White, as well WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE.
