While college basketball is getting younger and younger, success on the football field still requires a strong base of experience. The Spartans, on the other hand, are looking at a season where they will be dependent on freshman.
Source: The Only Colors
Michigan State is beginning just its second week of fall camp but coach Mark Dantonio has already had time to evaluate his new roster. What stands out so far? Talent, Dantonio said. “I think I’m most pleasantly surprised with how many good players we have, quite honestly,” Dantonio said on Monday during Michigan State’s media day. “We lost some players, we lost some good players, we lost some other players who weren’t going to play for us.”
Source: MLive.com
Matt Dotson will wear No. 89 this season for Michigan State. It’s the same number the tight end had at Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati, but that’s about the extent of the similarities between last year and this one. Dotson is making the transition from high school star to college freshman and knows his place in the pecking order. So, he’s attempting to do everything possible to move up the ladder early.
Source: MLive.com
Matt Dotson was warned it would be fast. There is a substantial difference, though, between being told what it’s like to drive 130 miles per hour and actually being in the car. Dotson, a freshman tight end, was shoved into the passenger’s seat as a college football player on Monday when Michigan State opened fall camp with its first practice. And, it was as advertised. “It was very fast,” Dotson said, “very fast-paced and a lot of change of direction.”
Source: MLive
There was a time not long ago that maybe a handful of true freshmen would come in and play right away at Michigan State. In 2007, head coach Mark Dantonio’s first season, the Spartans played six true freshmen. That was the most MSU would play until 2015, when it was again six freshmen who saw the field. The 2016 season was an entirely different story, with Michigan State playing nine true freshmen because of a combination of performance and injuries. Under normal circumstances, that could be considered an aberration and MSU could go back to redshirting the vast majority of its 2017 class.
Source: Spartan Tailgate
If you’re making bets on which members of the incoming Michigan State freshman class see the field in 2017, Matt Dotson seems as good a place as any to start. A tight end from Cincinnati, Dotson has both size and skills that drew him plenty of recruiting suitors and a spot in a position of significant need for Michigan State this fall.
Source: MLive.com
Josiah Scott became one of the spring game stars. Hunter Rison and Jack Camper both gave fans a sneak peek at their skills as well. Those were Michigan State’s three early enrollees. But the Spartans could be counting on a few more true freshmen to help rebound from last year’s 3-9 debacle.
Source: Detroit Free Press
National signing day has come and gone, which means we can begin to fully evaluate the recruiting haul each team collected. This week on the Big Ten blog, we’re looking at which player or position group has the potential to make an instant impact for each team in 2017.
Source: Big Ten Blog- ESPN
The weekend before he signed to play college football for Michigan State, Moeller High School’s Matt Dotson was near Disney World. There was no beach or Mickey Mouse ears involved, though, as Dotson was actually playing his final high school game. Selected as part of the U.S. U-19 National Team, Dotson was part of an all-star squad that beat Canada, 33-11.
Source: Cincinnati.com
Nine freshmen played in a football game for Michigan State in 2016. That would be nine real freshmen. You know, the ones that are in their first year at college. We’re not talking about the ones that got two semesters of learning the ropes of college life under their belts as a redshirt before seeing the field. They’re still young and inexperienced, but not like real freshmen.
Source: Land of 10
Michigan State introduced us to 22 new scholarship players on Wednesday, when it unveiled its 2017 recruiting class on national signing day. Now, the question is how many of them we’ll meet again this fall on the field at Spartan Stadium.
Source: MLive.com
During Michigan State’s 3-9 season last year, head coach Mark Dantonio sent nine true freshman to the field to see snaps. That was by far the most number of true freshman he has played in his tenure at Michigan State, and this season, the progression of those recruits is likely to leave more freshman off the field than not. However, Michigan State has three four-star recruits who are more than capable of quickly finding a role in the Spartans’ weekly rotation.
Source: isportsweb
Time will ultimately tell how well this new crop of Spartans turns out but here’s a look at Michigan State’s home run signees, the top four-rated players (per 247Sports.com composite rankings) in this year’s class
Source: Land of 10