Michigan State enters its final week of spring football practice ahead of Saturday’s "Spartan Football Kickoff" event. Head coach Mel Tucker spoke at the podium on Monday to address the media about his team and how spring practice has been going.
“I feel like the team is improving,” Tucker said. “We’ve really been focused on having a relentless mindset in everything that we do. Being tough, disciplined and selfless, just really hammering those core principles and players have really responded.”
Saturday’s event will be the 15th and final spring practice for Tucker and the Spartans in 2023. It will be held inside Spartan Stadium and admission is free for fans. Gates open at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time and fans will be able to take pictures on the field from when the gates open until 2 p.m. Eastern Time when the football starts.
While most teams around the country have a spring game for their final spring practice session, Tucker has been known to have more of a practice with a little bit of scrimmaging format. That was the case last year as well because of injuries. This year’s event will look similar to past years.
“We’re gonna have more of a practice type format with some scrimmaging as opposed to a game,” Tucker said. “That’s worked for us in the past. Just with our numbers, it’s going to be nice to be more competitive for us. We can get a lot more out of it as opposed to trying to split the team up and create some type of game.”
Per Michigan State Athletics, the format will be a "15-period practice featuring individual and group drills during the first half and live scrimmage periods during the second half."
Last spring, MSU wasn’t able to have a spring game because it had very few scholarship offensive linemen healthy. This spring, injuries to the defensive line seem to be the issue.
“If we had more defensive linemen healthy and ready to go, we might be able to divide the squad up and have a competitive kind of game,” Tucker said.
Florida State transfer defensive tackle Jarrett Jackson is one of those defensive linemen that isn’t fully healthy. Tucker said that Jackson is “a little banged up.”
Saturday won’t be the first time that MSU has stepped foot into “The Woodshed” this spring. Last Saturday, MSU had a scrimmage inside Spartan Stadium.
“I thought the guys played hard," Tucker said when asked about what his takeaways were after the latest scrimmage. “It was very competitive. We have competition pretty much at every position.”
Tucker also thought it was “physical” and there were some guys getting hands on the football in the back end. He mentioned as well that he saw “good back-and-forth” between the offense and the defense.
The quarterback battle will have many people interested on Saturday at the "Spartan Football Kickoff" event as it will be fans’ first look at how each quarterback looks this year.
“The quarterback situation is still an open competition,” Tucker said. “It’s going to be that way for a while. All the guys are competing at a high level, and I think they’re all developing and they’re all getting better.”
As far as new arrivals on campus, UConn transfer running back Nathan Carter has been getting a lot of attention in spring ball. Tucker has also been fond of what Carter has done on the field and in the weight room so far this offseason.
“He’s got really good burst through the hole, runs hard,” Tucker said about Carter. “He came in very impressive in the weight room. He looks the part. He’s very humble and very hard-working. He does an excellent job in the special teams work that we ask him to do. He seems to be picking up the scheme pretty quickly. He’s very mature and very attentive.”
Texas A&M transfer defensive lineman and former five-star recruit Tunmise Adeleye is also grabbing headlines.
“He brings something a little different for us,” Tucker said. “I think he walked in the door like 280 (pounds). We need to be able to win at the point of attack and have mismatches on tight ends.
“I like his size. I like what he brings to the table, and he’s got a lot of upside still. He’s still a relatively young player.”
Tucker also mentioned Jackson. Tucker likes what he’s seen from him especially in the conditioning aspect of the offseason training.
“In our out-of-season conditioning program, he showed a lot of leadership,” Tucker said about the Florida State transfer. “He has the size and he’s shown to have the intangibles we’re looking for.”
The two newest assistant coaches on Tucker’s staff are defensive line coach Diron Reynolds and cornerbacks coach Jim Salgado. Tucker described both additions to the staff as “home runs.”
Recently, MSU parted ways with general manager/executive director of player personnel and recruiting Saeed Khalif and director of community and high school relations Thomas Wilcher. While Tucker didn’t want to get into specifics of why both were let go, he did say that they are “in the process right now of looking to fill that recruiting position and other positions underneath that.”
Tucker noted a few things in regard to what he wants to find out about his team on Saturday.
“I want to see how guys compete, how hard they play,” Tucker said. “I want to see the type of toughness they play with, the discipline. Are they selfless? Do they celebrate together? Are they trying to draw attention to themselves? Are they helping each other out? Are they communicating?”
College football fans and even head coaches across the country have been talking about the prospect of playing other opponents in a spring game instead of having intrasquad games or scrimmages.
“I’m always open for new ideas and if I feel like it could help our program, I would listen,” Tucker said.
There’s also a lot of other events going on around campus on Saturday along with the "Spartan Football Kickoff." In the morning, the annual Izzo Legacy 5K Run/Walk/Roll event will be held and the race will finish inside Spartan Stadium. MSU’s softball team will battle Minnesota at 1 p.m. and MSU’s baseball team will take on Western Illinois at 3:35 p.m.
“Great weather, great day to come out and support the Spartans,” Tucker said.
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