The next installment of the 2012 Assume the Position series. So far we’ve done our visit with the Special Teams.

First, a limerick!

There once was a Captain named Kirk.
He made our rivals go berzerk.
He said with a grin
As he beat them again
”All the trophies are just a nice perk”.

So if you think the tenor of this preview is going to at least rely heavily on how much we’ll miss Kirk Cousins, you’re partially right.* Cousins threw last year for an astonishing 419 pass attempts and managed to have only six regular season interceptions. I bring these stats up because it’s difficult to impress how good Kirk Cousins was last year when he needed to be.

* Note: Even smart passes for 2 yards on 3rd and 6 will occasionally be missed. VERY OCCASIONALLY.

Andrew Maxwell

Every single preview regarding the MSU Quarterback position is going to focus on and try to predict whether Maxwell can fill Kirk Cousins shoes. In response, a numbered list.(It’s been a few months, I’m rusty at blogging.) 1.) The average pro-style starter in the Big Ten going back five years will throw down for 58.8 percent completion, 16 TDs and 8 picks.2.) It’s fair to have higher expectations of that from Maxwell, some of the data points in point number 1 included freshmen and Rick-Six Stanzi. Maxwell is a fourth year player beginning his Redshirt Junior year and has looked plenty competent in relief so far. 3.) Maxwell has yet to take a meaningful snap in a meaningful piece of a game and after missing the Spring game  he missed a lot of important reps with his young supporting cast.

Must love this story from the Free Press:

Maxwell's team was running an inbounds play. "We set the picks, whatever," he said. "I catch the ball at the free-throw line."

He did a drop step. Turned. And raced the other way. He was wide-open. We are talking, ridiculously open. "This is it," he thought. "I'm going to get my dunk, get my dunk."

Maxwell passed half-court and couldn't hear anything, and he dunked the ball with one hand, turned, and everybody was laughing.

"I looked at the ref, and I was like, 'Yeah, that was the wrong hoop, wasn't it?' "

"And he was like, 'Yeah.' "

As much as this is a story about Andrew Maxwell, it’s equally a story of his supporting cast. MSU loses their top three wide receivers, top two Tight Ends and one Edwin Baker.They are replaced by a bounty of talented but unproven underclassmen. Further hampering that chemistry was the loss of Andrew Maxwell in Spring Ball which robbed him of even more of those needed reps. Every rep in fall camp counts.

2011 Game Log

Everything looks excellent! Pay no attention to those Garbage Time Stats against Indiana! Seriously, don’t pay attention to any of that really, I just thought it was good quick reference. There’s nothing here to suggest Maxwell might struggle this year, unfortunately, there’s not a lot to refute it either. That’s all I have to say about that.

If it seems like I’m bearish on Maxwell, it’s more like there’s just nothing to point to other than a good anecdote about high school basketball and some noticeable improvement from 2010 to 2011 on the field in garbage time. There’s also a lot of missed reps from the Spring and an entirely new surrounding cast at the skill positions with the exception of Bell and Caper. As much as I’m looking forward to Boise State, opening with a tomato can would do MSU well in this situation.

Connor Cook

Battle tested. Warrior of the Spring. All-Time Quarterback.All of these things describe Connor Cook’s warrior-i-ness. He went 20 of 45 in the Spring Game for a touchdown. Handed the ball off to Sparty successfully. Check.

The likelihood of Cook seeing non-injury time this year are low. Cook played well enough in the Spring Game, but, Maxwell has three years in the system and knows that offense inside and out now. In the extremely unlikely event of a position battle Dantonio is not quick to make changes(Baker/Bell –2011), (Cousins/Nichol –2009) so let’s all agree there’s no chance of that happening plskthx.

 

Tyler O’Connor

Not battle tested. True freshman. If he is seeing meaningful time in any meaningful game, something has gone very, very wrong. There’s an excellent chance that Maxwell got into a fistfight with Cook so powerful they ruptured a hole in space and time and will fight for all of eternity. Alternative! It’s the Rose Bowl and we’re up 100-3 on USC and Dantonio burns O’Connor’s redshirt so he can give Lane Kiffin the finger in the middle of the second quarter. Another Alternative! One time in NCAA 04 I recruited a two-star athlete who was a 97 Defensive End, but was easy to get because the game was broken, maybe in NCAA 12 O’Connor turns out to be a 97 much to the surprise and delight of Spartans everywhere.

 

Best Case Scenario: Maxwell’s chemistry with his receivers is immediate and they grasp the offense without issue. Maxwell comes in and shows himself a competent game manager and shows himself capable of winning a game with his arm early in the season.  Stays healthy the whole season, (I have tiny little voices in my head saying I shouldn’t be worried about this, and tiny ones saying I should.) He’s able to match Kirk Cousins production his first year as the QB.

Worst Case Scenario: Maxwell’s lack of experience shows itself in an ugly way. He gets down early against Boise State and struggles to get his confidence in time for ND where MSU loses another squeaker. Then the QB controversy begins.

Overall Assessment: Well, how do you feel about uncertainty? An opportunity for learning? A chance to grow out of your comfort zone? Horde canned food and gold coins for trading after the power goes out? However you feel about massive uncertainty scale your reaction to your love of MSU football and plan accordingly. Maxwell is walking into as friendly a Quarterback situation as they come and won’t be rushed to perform at a high-level immediately via QB competition. However, his competition will be stiff opening against number 8 Boise State on August 31st. So far any evidence for or against his immediate impact is inconclusive. Bet on Maxwell being perfectly capable to play adequately or even goodly-ish this year but that he'll need a year to get out of the shadow of Kirk Cousins.

Jerel Worthy’s milkshake brings Mike Tomlin to the yard. Damn right, it’s better than yours. Actually, Worthy wasn’t the only beneficiary of some one-on-one time with Tomlin. Tomlin reportedly took Kirk Cousins to dinner on Tuesday night at Mitchell’s. No word on whether they took in the Lorax over at NCG or who paid.

I am unabashedly a fan of how the Steelers conduct their business. Three coaches in 42 years and a focus on being a good team year in and year out. The Steelers, Pats, Ravens, Packers are all teams where regardless of the round, if an MSU player lands there you know they aren’t going to get bungled away through mismanagement.  For Cousins, the Steelers might be a nice landing spot, Charlie Batch’s grandkids are too old to be playing NFL football and Cousins could come in as the backup and develop from there.  For Worthy, he’d play either defensive end position in the Steelers 3-4 defense. Left end Aaron Smith is a little long in the tooth, this season will be his 12th and the last two he’s been injured significantly. Young buck Ziggy Hood has looked good in relief and is penciled in as the FUTURE there.  At the right end position is Monty Kiesel of Grizzly Adams fame. He’s 33 and his backup is 31. So if Tomlin is scouting Worthy, it’s could be for the right end position.

51 other NFL representatives attended the Pro Day who weren’t Mike Tomlin, but I probably don’t like them as much. With the exception of Worthy, Mel Kiper MSU has Cousins and Linthicum sitting just outside of his “Top 5” at each position. Mike Mayock thinks Trenton Robinson is a True Free Safety, which is why the Steelers probably aren’t looking at him. Trenton Robinson is not going to supplant Troy Polamalu anytime soon. Edwin Baker jammed out a 4.43 in the forty. Baker’s speed has never been his problem, it’s his hands, it’s his inability to wiggle his way out of things the way Bell could, an extra year would have really helped him.  Keith Nichol jumped over ALL OF THE THINGS putting up a gaudy 39.5 inch vertical. How is no one looking at this kid as a Strong Safety?

My Oh My How Times Have Changed

I remember a few years ago, when Demond Williams was a Diamond-In-The-Rough Corner during the John L Smith days. At 5’9” and 170 he was a speed guy, he’s not going to tackle anyone, he keeps people from catching the ball. He was an average to slightly above average player on a pretty poor defense. His pro day came and went and he ran a 4.71 in the forty. When Trenton Robinson committed to Michigan State as a Diamond-in-The Rough Corner, there was an awful amount of whining about how he only had offers from the MAC. Well Trenton Robinson is an all Big-Ten Safety and a mid-round draft pick. While this evidence is anecdotal, Dantonio is undoubtedly doing a better job of recruiting players to his system and developing them such. More supported evidence on this later.

The LIU Haiku

Transition ball care

Golden Defensive Prowess

We has it, you don’t.

MSU Pro Day

It’s the MSU Pro Day today and your favorite Seniors of 2011 will be performing their drills again for 35 GM’s from across the NFL,CFL, UFL, XFL, etc. For some candidates like Brian Linthicum, Keith Nichol, Todd Anderson and Chris D. Rucker this is the chance they didn’t have at the combine to impress the decision makers. For guys like Worthy and Robinson who did not have the most stellar measurables at the combine this is a chance to improve on “soft spots” in their performance. For guys like Cousins and Keshawn Martin, this is a chance to improve their mid-round draft stock. Mocking the Draft is interested to see if Cousins can “jockey for position in the second round.” Frequently, Pro Days serve as confirmations of what you already know about a guy. It’s a rarity that someone comes out of a pro day in MUCH better position than they came into it.

On an interesting note, I’ve heard some former and not-so-recent players will be there. Kendall Davis-Clark and David Herron, both JLS guys are rumored to be participating. There are others, they shall remain nameless until they are confirmed/not confirmed.

When Brady Hoke Is Recruiting, If He Wants Something, He'll Say Anything

Ace Anbender from MGoBlog interviews Wyatt Shallman on his commitment to UM. From the interview:

ACE: What did you get into when you talked to Coach Jackson? What did he tell you that firmed things up for you?

WYATT: We just talked about positions and how he sees me playing. It checked out with the things that I want to do.

ACE: Specifically, I know there have been a lot of questions when it comes down to position, how do they plan on using you when you come to school?

WYATT: At running back, and that's what I want to play, so that's why I liked it.

ACE: What do you think are your biggest strengths on the field, especially when it comes to being a running back. What do you bring that isn't necessarily what your more traditional running back might bring?

WYATT: There's not too many running backs who are 6'3", 250. I think I bring a lot of speed and power for that size of back, so I think that's what I bring to the game. I'm a one-cut running, so I think I'm going to bring back the power game to Michigan. I don't dance too much, that's what I think I'm good at.

Recruiting kids to a position you have no intention of keeping them in is a time-honored tradition as old as college football itself. This however borders on absurd, there is a zero percent chance that Shallman takes a snap as a running back in any sense other than a gimmicky end-around to appease the Running Back heart of UM’s Tight End or as a Rock-Toting Fullback. Last year’s fullback Stephen Hopkins had 11 carries for 43 yards, which is neither the number of carries it read like Shallman is expecting or the number of yards. To Ace’s credit, the next question in the series is about what weight the staff Shallman is expected to arrive at, which read to me like if you want to play RB, think about losing 20-30 lbs immediately.

Bonus Bits

Brian Hoyer is looking for a job as an NFL starting QB, if you’re hiring. Drew Stanton is visiting the Jets in what’s hopefully a move to get the Lions to decide between him and Shaun Hill. Munn Minute has a look at MSU’s reinvigorated NCAA hopes. TOC takes a long concerned look at the minefield of a West bracket. MSU gets some love for “promoting scholar-athlete excellence”. MSU follows up on that by topping the “Hoops & Helmet Rankings”.

This is part two of our Outback Bowl Film Review. You can read part one of our review here and Heck's fantastic film review over on The Only Colors.

1.) Senator Cousins threw seven picks in thirteen games and three from the start of the fourth quarter in the Outback Bowl. What happened?

Well, the obvious suggestion would be that he was pressing, although he threw the first pick down only 16-14 with 11:21 left in the game. The way MSU's season went most games were only half over at this point.

Cousins Pick 1

MSU lines up in the shotgun and Georgia lines up in their 3-4 and shows blitz from the defense left or a slightly delayed blitz from defense right. The blitz ends up coming from the area in yellow. This is probably as good a job as Georgia did masking the blitz all day.

The play snaps and the defense right starts dropping back into coverage while two blockers on the left come completely unblocked. Obviously, Cousins is all "Oh Balls!". The left side of MSU's offensive line was expecting the blitz to come from the defense right and so they're left with no one to block.

Bell can't block both defenders, I mean he probably could if he was all hulked out and pissed like he is in the first quarter. Seriously, he can't block both guys. Foreman isn't blocking anyone, but doesn't look around to see if the blitz is coming from the other side.

Bell picks his poison, but ultimately he was just trying to make Cousins feel better about the fact that he had less than two seconds to get rid of this ball. Cousins is about to get smeared by number 19.

He throws the ball to what looks like a B.J. Cunningham who is in single coverage and has gotten himself some separation.

But the safety makes a great play and jumps the route and runs the other way with the ball. Which sucks.

Cousins Pick 2

MSU lines up in a Two Tight End I formation. Georgia has got nine in the box. MANBALL is about to ensue. right? RIGHT?

Wrong. The play snaps in some "Oh sir, you've bested me with your trickeration" fashion, Linthicum and Sims take off on verticals downfield. Cunningham runs a wheel route past the sticks.

Both Tight Ends are deep into the secondary and it looks like here comes another catch on Linthicum's already amazing 115 yard day.

I means seriously, Linthicum is stupid open. Except Alec Ogletree does his best Woodson imitation and leaps up in the air to tip a ball that he really had no business getting to.

He tips it down and it's a Fat Guy Interception. I'd try to screencap it, but the glory of a Fat Guy Interception is not meant to be beheld by viewing instrument less ornate than that of the simple human eye.

Cousins Pick 3

MSU is in it's 5 WR package and Georgia lines up in a 3-4 Over. The blitz comes from defense right this time. The corner actually gets sent on a corner blitz, but because he's a few yards off the line of scrimmage it comes as an unblocked but slightly delayed blitz.

The play snaps and he begins his attack.

He's still coming while his friends are trying to kill Kirk. Note, if Keshawn Martin, WR at the top-right of the screen cuts his route short there's a good chance this isn't a pick.  Number 9(also top-right) is in man coverage on Cunningham. He still would have been short of the sticks but would have had a great chance to make a play.

Bell is open out in the flat but Cousins heard all of you guys screaming at him in the first half and knows that he should not throw short of the sticks.

Nichol is open way downfield, but Cousins got pressured into a bad throw and throws to his most reliable target, Cunningham.

2.) Nichol touchdown.

MSU lines up in a 5 WR shotgun set. Georgia lines up in it's 3-4. Georgia is guarding the endzone fiercely as evidenced by the three deep safeties right on the goal line.

The play snaps and Georgia brings four, the remaining four that are up on the line pick a man and drop into coverage.

The red represents the actual routes run by the Wide Receivers. In a moment you'll see this was obviously a designed clearout for Nichol from the outset.

Here the yellow routes are what MSU ran and the red routes are what the respective routes by Georgia defense was. The concern that Keshawn Martin caused for the Georgia D is what allowed Nichol to get open. Martin ran right at the deep middle safety and dragged both the safety and his linebacker into double coverage. Cunningham who ran the quick out, had the job of taking his guy out of the play, which left Nichol in single coverage in the endzone. Nichol can outmuscle a safety because even his muscles have muscles.

3.) Safety Play

Keshawn Martin has the red line over him. He is about to be safetied for safety's sake.

The blitz is coming from the area in yellow. That is a lot of blitzing. Sugar jets!

The play snaps and Cunningham starts on his route. The red route was the route he ran, the yellow route would have probably prevented a safety. It would have caused Boykins to square himself in the wrong direction, which would have given Martin time to at least get out of the endzone.

Instead Martin catches the ball two yards behind the goal line. ROUSHAR ALIEN HYPOTHESIS COMES NOW: If Martin can slip the tackle on Boykins, this is a minimum of a 40 yard gain. Likely six points. Number 9, Ogletree in the middle of your screen has a good angle, but is an inside linebacker and is likely not going to beat Martin in a footrace. Your next best angle belongs to All-American Safety Shawn Williams. Alas, instead of a well-disguised home run ball, Georgia gets two points.

I only bring this picture up because I want to show how hard Martin got hit. He's like three inches short of breaking the plane and doesn't make it out.

In fact, he got hit so hard he got knocked clean backwards for another yard loss on top of that. So that sucked.

4.) Brian Linthicum catches a 50 yard pass to set up the tying Touchdown.

Two things happened on this play that made all the difference. Georgia sent six on the blitz and it didn't get home. Thing number two is that in the still above, Linthicum had not yet caught the ball and Travis Jackson was a few yards downfield. I'm not saying that's an illegal man downfield, I'm just saying maybe be a bit more careful about that in the future.

I really wanted to do a workup on how and why Linthicum had 7 grabs for 115 and what gave him that success in this game. Unfortunately,  there really wasn't a typical play to chart on the matter. 115/7 is 16.3 yards per grab. He had two catches in the neighborhood of that a 17 yard pass from Cousins and an 18 yard pass from Martin, but his other catches were for -1,3,23,50 and 5 yards. So his day seemed to be largely feast or famine so it's difficult to use that as a framework to describe the whole day.

5.) I can't make this BieLOLema up.

I swore those were the Dr. Dre's Beats, but instead they're Bose. And as every audiophile jokes, "No highs, no lows, it's Bose". Crappy headphones and a pair of Officer Barbrady aviators. That's bi-winning!

Summation

Prior to the Outback Bowl all I heard from a couple of the Georgia bloggers that I follow is how afraid MSU should be of Georgia's D. It's absolutely true, their defense was excellent in getting Cousins to turn the ball over three times for the first and only time in 2011 and holding Bell to his lowest YPC of the season. For as much as I made reference in the MSU D vs UGA O post about how well MSU's D played, UGA's D did an equally impressive job.

The Offense as a result had kind of a feast or famine day and Dan Roushar got to wheel out his inner OC alien which always makes the denizens of Zerfgnax happy. In rewatching this game, we are going to miss Kirk Cousins next year. In spite of having a poor game, he had the poise and confidence to get in there and win MSU the game. People who think Maxwell will be an immediate upgrade will be lucky if they're right, as will we, the fans.

This is a great building block win for going into 2012. Georgia was a young and talented team who got the jump on MSU early and couldn't quite hang in there to close out the game. MSU beat a team when the two teams were on equal footing. It was a great way to close out the career for so many deserving seniors and set up our future seniors for their bowl game success.

As many of you are already aware, this could be the Spartans' best draft performance in recent memory.  So I have decided to begin providing a weekly update on ABDFF of how various Spartans are doing in relation to the NFL draft.  Folks, these are exciting times.  The NFL draft process is young and there is already a lot of good news about the Spartans. Let's start with a list of Spartan seniors and early departures.

42            Todd Anderson        FB            6-2           265          SR            Napoleon, Mich. - Napoleon

85            Garrett Celek          TE            6-5           252          SR            Cincinnati, Ohio - LaSalle

8              Kirk Cousins             QB           6-3           205          SR            Holland, Mich. - Holland Christian

3              B.J. Cunningham     WR          6-2           215          SR            Westerville, Ohio - Westerville South

67            Joel Foreman          OG           6-4           315          SR            Highland, Mich. - Milford

88            Brian Linthicum      TE            6-5           245          SR            St. Louis, Mo. - Clemson

82            Keshawn Martin     WR          5-11         189          SR            Inkster, Mich. - John Glenn

75            Jared McGaha         OL            6-6           298          SR            Powell, Tenn. - Powell

7              Keith Nichol            WR          6-2           220          SR            Lowell, Mich. - Oklahoma

69            Blake Pacheco         DL            6-1           264          SR            Salinas, Calif. - Monterey (Calif.) Peninsula College

96            Kevin Pickelman      NT           6-4           288          SR            Marshall, Mich. - Marshall

73            Arthur Ray Jr.          OG           6-3           299          SR            Chicago, Ill. - Mount Carmel

39            Trenton Robinson   S              5-10         195          SR            Bay City, Mich. - Bay City Central

16            Chris D. Rucker        WR          5-9           178          SR            Detroit, Mich. - Detroit Country Day

20            Kyle Selden             P              6-5           199          SR            Waterford, Mich. - Our Lady of the Lakes

47            Adam Setterbo       FB            6-3           245          SR            Spring Lake, Mich. - Spring Lake Senior

81            Brad Sonntag          WR          5-8           176          SR            Saginaw, Mich. - Nouvel Catholic Central

57            Johnathan Strayhorn               DT            6-0           272          SR            Detroit, Mich. - Oak Park

4              Edwin Baker            RB           5-9           210          JR            Highland Park, Mich. - Oak Park

99            Jerel Worthy           DT            6-3           310          JR            Huber Heights, Ohio – Wayne

So far, most of the news is about the seniors.  And you would expect that since we have all these "senior-related" events going on: the Senior Bowl, the East-West Shrine game, and NFLPA Collegiate Bowl.

Nevertheless, let me just just briefly start with Jerel Worthy.  As everyone knows, Worthy has been considered a first-round pick most of the year.  He's still considered a first-rounder by most mock drafts.  But at one point, guys like ESPN's Todd McShay had him going in the top 15, and now most mock drafts seem to have him going in the bottom half of the first round.  I think that once the NFL Scouting Combines get going, Worthy will get his chance to impress and move up into the top 15.

Then we have Kirk Cousins, who seems to be making a big splash at the Senior Bowl camp.  About a week or two ago, Mel Kiper Jr. was suggesting that Cousins could go by about the 5th round of the NFL draft.  Now we're hearing people (like Sporting News' Russ Lande) talk about Cousins going as high as the 2nd round.  That's crazy!  Oh no it isn't.  I've said it before, Cousins has played at times like a first-rounder -- particularly during the B1G championship game -- and it was only a matter of time before others saw what Spartan fans saw this year.  If Cousins does end up going in the second round, don't be surprised to see a significant boost in MSU's quarterback recruiting, as soon as next year.

Then there's BJ Cunningham.  In case you missed his touchdown at the East-West Shrine game, here it is.  Other than that, there's not much else...except if you think it's a big deal that ESPN's Todd McShay was raving about Cunningham!  McShay thinks Cunningham was the best receiver at the practices and that he could end up going in the third round of the draft.

Finally, there's Brian Linthicum, who is playing in the Senior Bowl.  According to Tony Pauline at SI.com, Linthicum has been impressive at the Senior Bowl practices: "Brian Linthicum (TE/Michigan State) has really impressed all day. He looked very athletic during opening drills and has made several impressive catches in full scrimmage."

Worthy, Cousins, and Cunningham have garnered most of the early attention, but here's a quick list of some related items:

- Keith Nichol made a nice grab (video) at the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl.

- Kirk Cousins, B.J. Cunningham, Keshawn Martin, Edwin Baker, and Trenton Robinson have all been invited to the NFL Scouting Combine.

- Trenton Robinson was interviewed by the Detroit Lions. 

- Unfortunately, there's not much news on other guys I expect have a good chance to get drafted, guys like Kevin Pickelman (injured), Todd Anderson, and Joel Foreman.  But hopefully, these guys will get invited to the NFL Combines, soon.

Leonidas writes on his own blog What Is Your Profession?. In addition to asking what your profession is he has begun writing to cover recruiting for ABDFF in his spare time. You can hit him up at noble.leonidas@gmail.com.