EAST LANSING - Matt Dotson is my choice to have a breakthrough season for the Michigan State offense in 2019.
The junior tight end has three career starts and 16 career catches. But I expect his productivity to double this fall.
At 6-5, 252, the former four-star recruit has the length, hands and agile athleticism to rise as a receiving option in Michigan State’s revamped offense. His blocking ability has been a work in progress for three years. He might not be outstanding in that area, but his pass catching skills and mobility are going to mesh nicely in Brad Salem’s system.
Can he block well enough to give Michigan State a good strong-side running option? We will begin to learn that answer in the season opener on Friday against Tulsa (7 p.m., Spartan Stadium). If he comes through, with help from reserves Noah Davis and Trenton Gillison, then the Michigan State offense, and the team as a whole, will be a step closer to becoming a legitimate contender in the Big Ten East.
As for the pass game, tight ends were targeted frequently in the April Green-White Game as part of MSU’s updated spread offense. That trend continued into MSU’s fall scrimmages, and Dotson is excited about it.
“As a whole, our tight end group, I think the first scrimmage we had like 15 or 16 targets and about the same in the second scrimmage,” Dotson said. “We’ve been getting the ball a lot more, a lot more out in space. Just throwing the rock to us and it’s been helping the whole offense.”
Head coach Mark Dantonio noted early in camp that Dotson was playing with more physicality and had an improved understanding of what to do and how to do it. That’s supposed to happen when a sophomore second-stringer becomes a junior starter. Dotson is on that path.
Athletic talent has been a plus for Dotson for years. He played primarily as a wide out in high school at Cincinnati Moeller. Playing attached to the offensive line as a traditional tight end for the conventional portions of MSU’s multiple system under Dave Warner proved to be a challenge for Dotson.
Dotson been in the developmental stages as a support player for two years, trying to earn all-around trust. Now with Matt Sokol having graduated, Dotson will be the starter and likely an inviting target if defenses skew the strength of their coverages elsewhere.
When Dotson served as Sokol’s back-up, or as the second man in a two-TE set, Dotson was the preferred choice over Sokol when it came to tight end targets. Sokol had only eight catches last year. Dotson had 14.
Sokol signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Chargers and is still alive in their camp. He wasn’t a bad tight end, but pass catching never proved to be a strength.
Dotson, on the other hand, needs to seize the opportunity to become MSU’s most reliable tight end threat since Josiah Price.
“I’m fired up,” Dotson said. “I’ve been playing football since sixth grade and this has been probably the most excited I’ve ever been, coming into a football season - just overall, personally and for the team. I mean I’ve never felt anything like this and I’m really excited to get started.”
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