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Published Sep 8, 2022
Kimbrough praying for Snow, playing for keeps
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Jim Comparoni  •  Spartans Illustrated
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East Lansing, Mich. - Chester Kimbrough would like to remember last Friday night’s game for all of the quality plays he made.

Kimbrough, starting at nickel back for the first time, was targeted by Western Michigan's pass game as a potential weak link. But he came through, time after time, in coverage - often against the Broncos’ best receiver.

It started with a pass break-up in the flat to help thwart Western Michigan’s first possession. And he played well throughout the night, allowing only one reception in six targets.

He graded out better than any player on the team in pass defense, according to Pro Football Focus, and No. 1 overall on the Spartan defense. It was the best game he has played in a Michigan State uniform.

But he couldn’t think about himself after the game - or even during the game.

Late in the second quarter, Kimbrough was the player who accidentally collided with Darius Snow, causing Snow to go down with a season-ending injury.

On that play, Kimbrough came in aggressively and a bit unconventionally, with a hip-first type of direction, as Snow attempted to tackle Western Michigan running back Sean Tyler. But by the time Kimbrough’s sideways body arrived at the pile at a high rate of speed, Michigan State safety Kendell Brooks had already hit Tyler, knocking Tyler from Kimbrough’s path. Kimbrough couldn’t stop. He continued forward. Right into Snow.

Kimbrough hit Snow with such force that Snow’s right leg shot backward as if it had been kicked by a draft horse.

“Oh my God,” Kimbrough said on Tuesday, when asked about the collision. “Snow will always be in my prayers.”

Michigan State coaches and personnel have not revealed specifics about Snow’s injury, other than he is out for the season. Kimbrough has relived the play over and over throughout the week.

“That play, I just saw an opportunity to make a big hit,” Kimbrough said. “Kendell Brooks, he took the whole hit. He (Brooks) like demolished the dude, and I was already like flying in. Snow came and took the hit.

“It stuck with me the whole game, but I had teammates picking me up, telling me it’s football and it’s going to be the next man up.

“Right after the game, I texted him. For me, I feel for him. But he’s strong right now. He’s holding up right now.”

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'IT'S PART OF THE GAME'

Mel Tucker is trying to provide support. Tucker didn’t know the extent of the injury when he saw Snow outside the locker room following the game, but he knew it was serious.

“Remember that I told you this,” Tucker said to Snow. “Don’t let anyone tell you want you can and can’t do. Remember I said that. Don’t let anyone tell you. I don’t care who it is.”

It was a pep talk toward a long road to recovery.

Tucker met with Darius’s father, former Michigan State basketball great Eric Snow, outside the locker room as well.

Tucker and Snow go back a long way. They played high school basketball against one another back in the late 1980s when Tucker was at Cleveland Heights and Snow was at Canton McKinley.

“Yeah man, it’s so unfortunate,” Tucker told Eric Snow. “Darius was doing such a good job.”

Eric Snow nodded.

“He has work ahead of him,” Eric told Tucker. “It’s just a different type of work.”

Tucker thought about those words three days later.

“That’s the approach we have to take and Darius has to take,” Tucker said. “The type of work that he is going to be putting in from this point is going to be different than what he’s been doing, but it’s still going to be work. It’s all work.”

No one is blaming Kimbrough.

“Injuries are very unfortunate,” Tucker said. “It’s part of the game. But Darius is going to chop, we’re going to chop with him. And we’re going to see how things turn out.

"I wouldn’t count him out. He’s just too good, too good of a guy, too much of the ‘it’ factor. He has the pedigree. It runs deep in his blood.”

Football runs deep with Kimbrough, too. The former four-star recruit from New Orleans transferred to Michigan State in 2021, after his sophomore year at Florida. He saw an opportunity to compete for a starting job at an unproven program for an unproven coach. He liked what Tucker was selling.

“I feel like Coach Tuck is building something special here,” Kimbrough said. “I felt like that team needed help and I wanted to bring my talent here to make the team better.”

Kimbrough started 11 of Michigan State’s 13 games last year. He had enough good moments last season to hang onto his starting job and earn trust for 2022. But he was part of a pass defense that ranked dead last in the country in pass yards allowed and No. 10 in the Big Ten in yards allowed per pass attempt.

“I feel like I could have done better,” Kimbrough said. “Last year, it was like a learning experience for some people, me mostly. That was my first year playing a whole game, so I was making mistakes."

Michigan State's 40-29 loss at Purdue, and the Boilermakers' 536 yards through the air, produced lasting lessons.

"All my focus brings me back to the Purdue game," Kimbrough said. "I looked at that a lot. That game, I wasn’t good on my technique. I tried to rely on my athletic ability. But when you play a good receiver, you can’t rely on athletic ability by itself because that player has just as much athletic ability. So you have to rely on technique and I am more focused on my technique now.

“This year, I feel like I know what mistakes I made and I know how to fix that now. I feel like I’m more in-tune now.”

Tucker and the staff moved him from cornerback to the slot area after Ameer Speed transferred from Georgia.

Kimbrough took the things he learned at corner, worked on is weaknesses during the off-season, and welcomed the tutelage of Tucker as Michigan State’s new cornerbacks coach.

“The nickel spot is like cornerback,” Kimbrough said. “Us nickels, we work on corner stuff in practice every day with Coach Tuck.”

Assistant coach Ross Els works with the nickel backs on big-picture schematics, but Tuck handles the micro techniques.

“It’s very tiring, working with Coach Tuck,” Kimbrough said, “because he’s the head man and he wants 100 percent effort every time. I feel like that’s getting us better, the whole secondary.”

Western Michigan tested Kimbrough's improvement. The Broncos put their top receiver, Corey Crooms, in the slot against Kimbrough. They thought Kimbrough might be the weak link of the secondary and they went at him.

“For pre-game, we thought he (Crooms) was going to be outside,” Kimbrough said. “But I was already thinking that he might be in the slot, coming into the game. He’s pretty good. Once they moved him to slot, I was on their best player and I knew that I had a big role to fill and I feel like I did a good job of that.”

Western Michigan tried to go deep to Crooms twice against Kimbrough. Kimbrough stayed on top of Crooms and stacked him each time for incompletions.

Western Michigan won't be the last team to put a top receiver in the slot and test Kimbrough.

“Of course I feel good about it but I can’t get complacent with success,” Kimbrough said. “I feel like moving to nickel was great for me because I play better with my eyes at that position. You can see more. I feel like I can make a lot of plays at the position.

"Every week, it’s competition. Nobody’s spot is solidified. If you’re having a bad week, the next man is going to be up.”

So he plans to keep chopping. Right along with Darius Snow.

“I feel we are doing big things this year,” Kimbrough said. “And I’m going to keep praying for him.”

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