Five Spartans make Athlon Sports' preseason Big Ten All-Conference teams
Ahead of the 2023 college football season, Athlon Sports released its preseason Big Ten All-Conference teams. Five Michigan State Spartans made the cut.
While past production matters, Athlon Sports mainly factored in its projections and predictions for how well each individual player will perform in 2023. Team strength was not one of the criteria.
Michigan State redshirt junior linebacker Cal Haladay was selected to the first-team defense. In 2022, Haladay led the Big Ten in tackles per game with 10.0. He was earned second-team All-Big Ten honors by the coaches and the media. Haladay looks to help lead the MSU defense this season as the Spartans hope to bounce back from a disappointing campaign last season.
Redshirt seniors offensive linemen, center Nick Samac and offensive guard J.D. Duplain, were selected on Athlon's preseason third-team offense. Samac returns to lead an MSU offensive line that struggled at times last season. That was reflected in MSU’s rushing game as the Spartans were 111th in FBS in rushing yards per game (113.0). Samac has 38 games of experience under his belt as a Spartan, and he’s started 22 of those contests.
Duplain returns for his fifth season in East Lansing. He’s started games ever since he was a true freshman back in 2019. Duplain has been a constant on the MSU offensive line as he’s played in 42 career games with 35 starts. He has started 30 games in a row, dating back to the shortened 2020 season.
MSU was again represented on the defensive side of the ball with redshirt junior defensive tackle Simeon Barrow and redshirt senior linebacker Jacoby Windmon making Athlon's preseason third-team defense. Barrow has started at defensive tackle the past two seasons for the Spartans. He has 74 career tackles, 13 tackles for loss and seven sacks to his name.
Windmon made a big impact early in his first season at Michigan State after transferring from UNLV. Throughout the 2022 season, he won the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week award on three separate occasions. He also won the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week award, Senior Bowl National Defensive Player of the Week award and Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week award once each. Windmon recorded 49 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks in eight games last season. Additionally, his six forced fumbles led the FBS.
As expected, Ohio State (20 selections), Michigan (17 selections) and Penn State (13 selections) led the way in selections for the Athlon Sports preseason All-Big Ten teams. Iowa (12 selections) and Illinois (11 selections) were also in double-digits.