To get ready for the upcoming season, SpartanMag.com is taking a close look at key areas of the team. Today, we dissect the state of the Spartan offensive line:

EAST LANSING - Michigan State will stack solid next to solid all across the offensive line in 2018. Whether or not that will add up to a great offensive front remains to be seen, but there are components in place to make the unit quite good - maybe “championship good.”

THE GOOD: Michigan State returns five players with extensive starting experience, and a sixth (sophomore Jordan Reid) who started one game and might be the most rapidly-improving lineman on the team.

THE BAD: Center is the only position up front that isn’t filled by a returning starter. It’s also the most cerebral job in the trenches, and an area where inexperience can come with a cost.

THE X-FACTOR: It’s sophomore Matt Allen’s turn to take over the starting center job. His brothers, Jack and Brian, held the post from 2012 to 2017, with legendary success.

Matt Allen (6-3, 296, Soph.) was functional at center during spring drills and had no major errors in the Green-White Game.

“He had a great spring,” said offensive line coach Mark Staten.

* Tyler Higby (6-5, 284, Jr., Houston) and David Beedle (6-5, 333, Sr., Clarkston, Mich.) are expected to compete for the starting left guard job.

Higby started the first seven games last year at left guard. Beedle started the last six games, but went down with a lower body injury in the Holiday Bowl and was held out of the spring game. (Beedle started the first three games at right guard in 2017, and then gave way to Kevin Jarvis).

* Sophomore Jordan Reid (6-4, 281, Soph., Detroit) had a good enough spring that Staten said Reid is going to start in 2018 - the only question is at what position. He’s capable at guard or tackle, and rising fast.

Reid started ahead of Luke Campbell at right tackle in the regular season finale at Rutgers last year. Reid, Campbell and Cole Chewins (last year’s starter at left tackle) will compete for the two tackle positions.

* Chewins (6-8, 290, Jr., Clarkston) has started 16 straight games at left tackle but don’t discount the possibility of moving to a new position.

“He can go left or right (tackle),” Staten said of Chewins. “That’s the nice thing about him. If he needs to go on the left side or right side, he is going to do whatever we ask him to do and I’m excited about his season coming up.”

Chewins sat out the Green-White Game. Campbell started at left tackle with the first-string that day. Reid started at right tackle, and showed a terrific new level of quickness.

* Higby worked at tackle and center during the spring. If he doesn’t start this year, he could become a valuable utility player - possibly functional at all five positions.

* With Allen establishing himself in the spring, Staten feels good about a seven-man playing group, with an eye on more.

On the second string, Mustafa Khaleefah (6-6, 280, R-Fr., Dearborn, Mich.), A.J. Arcuri (6-7, 283, Soph., Powell, Ohio) and walk-on guard/center Blake Bueter (6-4, 300, R-Fr., Howell, Mich.) are the closest to knocking on the door of the playing group.

“Guys that are doing some good things, starting to step up, you see Moose doing some good things, you see Bueter doing some good things,” Staten said at the end of spring practice. “Whether they will continue through the summer and find their way onto the field is up to them.”

Arcuri missed practice for most of last year while recovering from an undisclosed injury and surgery. He returned last November, and finished the spring in good fashion.

He served as the second-string left tackle in the Green-White game, and he made my list of players (starters and reserves alike) who have made noticeable progress (Brandon Randle, Mike Panasiuk, Jordan Reid, Matt Dotson, Kevin Jarvis, Tyriq Thompson, Tre Person, Noah Harvey and Kenny Willekes were the others on my list).

Plays from the spring game that caught my eye involving Arcuri (one negative and two positive):

- He allowed pressure to Willekes late in the second string’s opening drive. Willekes beat him with an inside move.

+ Arcuri played better as the day progressed. He impressively erased second-string defensive end Dillon Alexander during a third-and-18 pass play in the first quarter.

+ Arcuri drove freshman defensive tackle DeAri Todd backward four yards on an inside zone with 7:46 left in the first half.

Can this o-line play at a championship level? Yes. But that doesn’t mean the line will stuff every pass rush threat it sees, and it doesn’t mean the run game will churn out 200-plus yards against every opponent.

Michigan State has shown in the past that it can compete for championships, and win them, while having a good, not great, offensive line. And that’s the level of play we are likely to see from the o-line this year, although something beyond good is possible.

Let’s look at run blocking, first.

Michigan State won the Big Ten Championship in 2013 and 2015 by ranking No. 5 in the conference in rush offense both years (averaging 185.8 yards per game in ’13 and 158.2 in ’15).