It’s here! It’s here! It’s finally here! Fall Camp kicked off officially on Saturday morning. Arthur Ray was not listed on the 105 man roster, which is crap. Dantonio is excited about his young players. Specifically, Aaron Burbridge, MSU’s highest ranked recruit is reportedly qualified and showed up to camp yesterday. Most of the rest of the articles are just rehashes of the same.

On a less fortunate note, Devin Thomas has retired from the NFL. Thank you for catching passes in 2007 even when you were triple covered and Brian Hoyer didn’t give a damn he was throwing to you in triple coverage no matter what.

SCOREBOARDS!

 

Graduation Chart ( as of 8/5/2012)

* – indicates a player where pursuing a sixth year of eligibility has been discussed.

As you can see, I didn’t try to figure out who’s going to redshirt this year. Some of the positions like QB and Kicker are gimmes, everything else is up to the cosmos of college football gods. I also stayed away from 2012 NFL defections. Gholston, Bullough, Lewis and Allen are all suspect, but, it’s a fool’s errand trying to find logic in the chambers of the human heart.

President Simon kicking athletic ass and taking names

Lou Anna Simon recently agreed to become the next chairwoman of the NCAA executive committee. When I was at MSU one of my professors talked about how McPherson was a “great get” for the University and how Simon was a bit of a reach. After a few years of Simon, I couldn’t disagree more. Simon has performed not just in the scope of athletics, but managing to grow the university during one of the hardest economic times in Michigan’s history. Congrats to her on this position.

The Arthur Ray story has been one of the feel good stories of MSU football since Mark Dantonio came to Michigan State in 2006. Ray agreed to take a chance on Dantonio in January 2007, two short months after Dantonio was hired at MSU. At the time Dantonio had two strong selling points to his name, he had been the defensive coordinator of a national title Ohio State team and point two is that he wasn’t John L Smith.

Famously, Ray was diagnosed with bone cancer after he signed with Michigan State, but before his arrival on campus. Dantonio could have given Ray a medical scholarship which would have paid for his college in full, but he’d never be allowed to play football in college, anywhere, ever. Dantonio elected to leave him on football scholarship and give him a chance to heal and work his way to play football. In the meantime Dantonio and the Michigan State Athletic Department initiated the first Women’s Football clinic to raise funds for Ray’s treatment. The event has since gone on to raise thousands of dollars for various charities around town. He’s been honored, awarded, hell he might be Michigan State football’s most decorated player since Dantonio came to town. They just don’t happen to be Michigan State football awards.

 

It became apparent in recent weeks that Ray really wanted to play football, while Dantonio would love to see Ray play football, but to earn a scholarship he needed to be in the two-deeps. The writing was on the wall when Dantonio replied to a question earlier this week about Ray by saying he and I need to have a private conversation. Finally, it was announced today he’s not on the 105 man roster. He’s been given every opportunity to come back from cancer to play football so why does it feel so wrong?

First and foremost, playing football was one of the things to pull him through his fight with cancer and that’s being taken away from him now that he’s healed. More Ray:

"I've noticed how my story has evolved," Ray said. "And I'm just blessed to have the testimony to help other people out. But at the same time, I want to play football. Football is my love, football's my passion and I don't feel like my story is done. I feel like I still have a lot more to do up here."

As a fan, I find it a bit hollow to read all of these stories about how courageous and heroic Ray’s recovery has been and how much he’s looking forward to his chance to compete once he’s cancer-free. Now he’s cancer-free, but not in Big Ten football shape, and it feels unfair to yank the rug out from him now. While I suspect this decision has something to with getting more snaps for younger players, it’s hard to see how giving Ray every avenue to compete right up through a seventh year of NCAA eligibility could hurt the team at all. Just from a leadership perspective you have a player in 2013 who’s been with Dantonio since the beginning. In the meantime you use the extra scholarship to sign another Offensive Lineman who won’t contribute for 2-3 years? I’m just not seeing the immediate or long term impact of keeping him on as long as you can.

While the circumstances of Ray’s likely departure are unclear, don’t worry, Ray will come up aces out of this whole thing. After all at the age of 23, he’s kicked BONE CANCER right in the nuts, will graduate with a degree from Michigan State University in December and won the 2011 Discover Orange Bowl/Football Writers Association of America Courage Award. Did I mention he kicked a cancer with a 5 year survival rate of 60 to 70 percent right in the nuts? The man still has a hell of a future in front of him.

Maybe the only mistake was waiting this long to make the decision. After 25 months on crutches he should just be grateful to be walking, let alone playing one of the most physically demanding positions in football. But something doesn’t seem right about not giving him all of the chances the guy wants to see significant playing time at MSU. Still this just serves as another reminder that becoming a great football program has costs associated with it.

Off in the distance, the gears of football are beginning to turn.  It’s four weeks until MSU opens against Boise State and today marks the beginning of fall camp. The first major lever has been pulled in the 2012 Michigan State football season.

As always there will be a number of stories to follow from the preseason to the moment where toe meets leather on August 31st, but this year should be especially interesting given the youth of our offensive skill positions and the ludicrously fantastic depth on defense. Earlier this week, Michigan State released it’s first depth chart of the season, which as always is hardly worth the pixels it’s printed on because it doesn’t even account for true freshmen. Still, it’s the long, especially hot desert of an offseason so we’ll do some entirely overwrought depth chart questions, because that will be fun! Right? Guys?

MUCH DEPTH CHART HARRUMPHING!

Position Battles to Watch:

1.)Wide Receiver. If you’re reading this blog, you’re smart enough to know that you can sum up the Wide Receivers in two words: Unproven talent. Every single Wide Receiver snap is up for grabs this year. Since gladiator games are illegal in the state of Michigan I suppose we’ll have to settle for which receiver makes the biggest impression on the coaching staff through fall camp. Way Too Early Prediction: Mumphery sticks as a starter this year, he and Maxwell have had two years scout teamin’ together. That chemistry will come in handy on a team short of game experience.

2.) Nose Tackle. What’s the difference between co-starters Tyler Hoover and James Kittredge? About four inches and 40 lbs. I am skeptical of a 6’7” defensive tackle, unless he plays in an ex-NBA pickup football league. Kittredge is an unknown. He transferred from Vanderbilt in the summer of 2011 after deciding he wanted to play football in college instead of play football for Vanderbilt. There are a platoon of other half-man, half-machine 6’4 280lbs-ish guys who could slide in and take this spot.

3.) Free Safety.  This is another position where MSU has talent just pouring out of their ears. Kurtis Drummond and RJ Williamson are listed as the co-starters at the Free Safety position. Drummond played the nickel back in our 3rd and long package last year and had two picks in his limited time on the field. That’s a play to interception ratio of VERY AWESOME. Newcomer RJ Williamson is a redshirt freshmen this year and not long after National Signing Day in 2011 I recall a rival coach of his saying Williamson will play on Sundays. This all before the entry of Demetrious Cox into the fray, who Mark Dantonio said on National Signing Day in 2012 had NFL physical talent right now.

4.) Tight End. More unproven talent. Dion Sims returns from the 2011 campaign, but that’s about it. Denzel Drone has moved over from the DE position where he was really shining towards the end of 2011. Then you have a pair of true frosh Josiah Price, Evan Jones and a walk-on who showed some stuff in Spring Ball named Andrew Gleichert. Anything after Sims is pretty large-size question mark in an offense that relies heavily on pre-snap motion to mask the coming play.

A Couple More Questions

1.) What about Lawrence Thomas?

Thomas moved from linebacker to defensive end after weighing in at 292 lbs!!!! Even Courtney Upshaw was all “That dude is too big to be a Mike!”.  Thomas’ future has been on the defensive line since the minute he was a 245 lb Mike in High School. Way Too Early Prediction: Thomas continues his Journey Through The Defensive Positions and sees time as the Nose Tackle in MSU’s 3rd and Long Defense early in the season. He transitions from DE to DT throughout the year and by the bowl game is part of the regular DT rotation.

2.) A Clear Skyler over France?

In the rumblings out of Spring Ball, there was noise that Skyler Burkland was gaining ground on Dan France to become our starting Left Tackle. France is currently listed as the starter on the depth chart, however in 2011 Burkland looked very talented but raw in his limited playing time. Burkland has the most upside of any of our Offensive Line prospects playing right now.

Overall Conclusion?

Spartan Problems. We has them. The bulk of our question marks on either side of the ball are less of the John L Smith – “Which these darned kids are we gonna git to play in the secundary this yeer?” depthless issues and more of the “Which of these talented but inexperienced individuals is going to step up and fill this position of need for us?”.

Actual footage of John L Smith as the football coach.

Bonus Bits

Michigan State was ranked 13th in the first preseason coaches poll and Boise came in at 22nd. Heck does his fall camp breakdown over at The Only Colors. Little Brother Blog has a take on Dantonio’s “under-the-radar class” as noted by CBS. Banks of the Red Cedar has noticed that Dan Roushar is part alien and is not happy about it.  ISportsWeb continues breaking down the schedule in exquisite detail in part IV of their series.

 

I normally don't get all huffy about what other media sources are saying about bowl predictions in August, because honestly, everyone's throwing darts at a board right now man. That said, some of the logic in Jerry Palm's 2012 Bowl Predictions is pretty hole-y, especially as it relates to the Big Ten. He has UM in the Rose Bowl, Wisky in the Fiesta Bowl(BCS At-Large) and MSU in the Capital One Bowl playing Mark Richt and Georgia again.

You might assume that because this is Spartan blog that my issue is with the idea of UM in the Rose Bowl, but it isn't. Not totally anyway. My issue is that the loser of a conference title game rarely goes on to a BCS bowl unless they were ranked really highly (top 5 or better) at the time of their conference loss. Wisky comes into the season ranked 13th in the Coaches Poll. Which means that for Wisky to make a BCS at-large bowl after losing the conference title game means they're probably undefeated at the time of the B1G title game.

If there's a spot I put on my Michigan blinders it's here. Michigan's offense should be about the same as the last two years. Defensively, they lost three of four starters on a VERY good defensive line. Someone's going to have to step up there for the D to be as good as it was in 2011. I don't see that Michigan team beating an undefeated Wisconsin team in the Big Ten title game.

That's assuming they can break the streak against MSU first.

I wrote up the mother of all recruiting posts on this. It was like Unicorn tears describing high school defensive backs and then Windows Live Writer ate it. Bill Gates giveth and he taketh away. Enjoy your vaccinating the world and philanthropy and the best recruiting post I’ve ever written. Jerk.

Darian Hicks committed to MSU on June 20th, there was much fanfare, except for where there wasn’t. He had offers from the whole of the MAC and half of the Big Ten including Penn State, which I still can’t quite get out of my head as a prestigious offer. In my head a Penn State offer reads like this right now. Oh, I see Ohio, Buffalo, Purdue, Indiana and Penn State.

A Conversation between my brain and Walter Sobchak

“Hey man, Penn State’s a pretty good offer. They have a long history of success with integrity and shit.”

 

“Eight year olds dude.”

 

 

“Right, eight year olds, forgot about that for a minute.”

 

Hicks was rated a four star recruit by 247, three stars by Rivals and Scout. On your excit-o-meter he should rate as average to good. Hicks was a part of the great wave of commits that occurs after MSU’s camp season.

A Predictor of Future Success is YOUtube

The second video is basically the first with a lot more footage and a lot fewer yellow arrows. If you like watching football, watch the second video if you just want the Cliff Notes watch the first one.

What’s to love about this kid?

On offense, he shows a nifty little one-cut move when turning upfield. It looks like he should get tackled in a handful of these shots and he just doesn’t. He doesn’t have elite breakaway speed. But he’s plenty fast enough to get where he’s going. He’d probably be a fine slot receiver on offense if he ends up over there.

But he won’t. On defense he already shows a good knack for arriving to the receiver at the same time as the ball. He keeps the play in front of him and when his guy gets tackled he stays tackled.  Tackles very well in the open field. Towards the end of the second video one of the guys just starts going ham on throwing deep and Hicks shows good ability to get up there and knock the ball away or pick it off.

40 time.

ESPN lists him at 4.71 which…. is probably pretty accurate. He ran 7.31 in the 60m dash in 2011-2012 Indoor Track. He also posted a 24.3 in the 200 and a 21’1” in the long jump.

Prediction for 2013 and Beyond….

Hicks redshirts in 2013. Fits right in the mold of a Dantonio guy who can cover but also play well in run support, will see the field in an upperclasserly fashion. 

Impact on the remainder of the class

MSU currently has 11 commits at the time of this writing. With the late signings of Jamare Mills, Taybor Pepper and DeAnthony Arnett in 2012 the class of 2013 will be smaller. Add to that out of the 11 commits only one plays on either Offensive or Defensive Line and you have a scenario in which Hicks might be our only corner in the class of 2013.  Something tells me MSU takes one more in the secondary either a CB or S but not both.