It was a straightforward question Mark Dantonio didn’t hesitate to answer.
Would the Michigan State coach pursue a quarterback through the transfer portal?
“I don’t anticipate doing that right now, I don’t want to do that,” he said. “That's not the way that we’re going to go.”
That was Dantonio’s answer on Jan. 10, 2019 during a press conference in which he announced a restructuring of his offensive coaching staff. Less than a year later, he was asked the same question and gave an answer that wasn’t nearly as concrete.
“I think those are conversations that are in-house conversations as we go forward and see what our guys do too,” Dantonio said on Dec. 18, prior to Michigan State’s win against Wake Forest in the Pinstripe Bowl. “Right now, focused on trying to watch our quarterbacks during bowl practice and get them ready to play next season. I think they have a huge upside, but they’ve got to play well.”
There’s a reason for the change in tone. Last January, Dantonio backed Brian Lewerke, who struggled the second half of the 2018 season playing through an injured throwing shoulder. Lewerke, a three-year starter, finished his college career this season and now the Spartans don’t have a clear starter in 2020.
Michigan State returns three scholarship quarterbacks in redshirt sophomore Rocky Lombardi, redshirt freshman Theo Day and true freshman Payton Thorne while incoming freshman Noah Kim won’t join the program until this summer. Lombardi is the only of the three with notable game experience, making three starts for an injured Lewerke in 2018, and he has appeared in 12 other games as a backup quarterback. Day made just two brief appearances this season and attempted only three passes while Thorne didn’t see the field while taking a redshirt as a true freshman.
Heading into spring practice, it should be a three-man competition at quarterback between Lombardi, Day and Thorne. It’s a battle that could easily carry over to fall camp before a starter is named and by then there could be an outside addition to the room via transfer. A graduate transfer, who is eligible to play immediately, would appear to be the best fit for the team as a bridge between 2020 and when someone else on the roster is ready.
Maybe Dantonio and his staff believe their quarterback of the future is already on the roster and don’t think it’s necessary to add one through the portal. Maybe he thinks finding the right one could be a significant addition for an offense that hasn’t ranked in the top 95 in the nation in scoring since 2015 and that would outweigh the risk of losing one or more already on the team to the portal.
A couple of the top quarterbacks to enter the portal since the end of the season are already off the board as Wake Forest’s Jamie Newman transferred to Georgia while Houston’s D’Eriq King is headed to Miami. However, there are other notable targets the Spartans are already familiar with and could pursue.
Clemson redshirt sophomore Chase Brice announced on Jan. 16 he was transferring and told 247Sports he plans on completing his degree in May to be a graduate transfer, and he is a rare one with two seasons of eligibility left. Brice played 22 career games for the Tigers over the last two seasons behind standout starter Trevor Lawrence and completed 60.5 percent of his passes for 896 yards, nine touchdowns and four interceptions and had 28 carries for 179 yards. According to 247Sports, Brice declined to reveal which schools were now in communication but noted he’s back in touch with some of the same programs that recruited him in high school.
A former three-star prospect from Georgia, Brice received a scholarship offer from Michigan State when he was in high school. He also took a visit to East Lansing for the Spartans’ win against Oregon on Sept. 12, 2015 in a matchup between a pair of top-10 teams before committing to Clemson three months later.
Brice is familiar with the Michigan State’s coaching staff. Dave Warner, who was the co-offensive coordinator in 2015, is now the quarterbacks coach. Brad Salem, who was the quarterbacks coach during Brice’s recruitment, is now the offensive coordinator. However, the Spartans aren’t on the same level as they were at the time.
Between 2013-15, Michigan State posted a combined record of 36-5 with a pair of Big Ten titles, wins in the Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl and a trip to the College Football Playoff. The Spartans are 27-24 since and coming off back-to-back 7-6 seasons as the offense continues to fall well short of expectations. Dantonio said any potential staff changes would be made after the season but hasn’t made an announcement either way or talked to the media since a postgame press conference after the Dec. 27 Pinstripe Bowl win.
While Brice spent the last three years playing for a national power, Indiana’s Peyton Ramsey has been on the opposite sideline from the Spartans. The redshirt junior entered the portal, according to multiple reports on Monday, and appears positioned to be a graduate transfer with one season of eligibility remaining.
Ramsey started all 12 games in 2018 before losing his job to Michael Penix Jr., then filled in when the redshirt freshman was lost for the rest of the season due to injury. Ramsey has completed 66.5 percent of his throws for 6,581 yards, 42 touchdowns and 23 interceptions and has 300 carries for 832 yards and 14 scores in 32 games.
It doesn’t appear that Ramsey, a former three-star recruit from Cincinnati, received an offer from Michigan State in high school. That was the cycle the Spartans signed Messiah deWeaver, who transferred out of the program after his redshirt freshman year. However, Michigan State’s official recruiting and player personnel Twitter account and Ramsey now follow each other.
Looking to see who is following who on Twitter is a bit of a reach but that could be the position Michigan State finds itself in this offseason. The team lost the bulk of its starters and desperately needs its offense to show growth.
The options certainly aren’t limited to Brice and Ramsey. Boston College redshirt junior Anthony Brown and Stanford redshirt junior K.J. Costello are among the other top quarterbacks in the portal. Brown has already suffered a pair of season-ending knee injuries while Costello, according to The Seattle Times, visited Washington on Tuesday.
Timing should be a factor as well. Dantonio could opt to let his quarterbacks battle through spring practice to determine if the program really needs to bring in someone from the outside. And there are new players added to the portal every day. But, it’s impossible to overlook the effect transfer quarterbacks and the portal have had on college football since it went live in October 2018.
Of the four teams that made the College Football Playoff this season, three started quarterbacks who began their careers at different schools. LSU’s Joe Burrow, the runaway Heisman Trophy winner who guided the Tigers to a national championship, spent his first three seasons at Ohio State. Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts was previously the starter at Alabama, while Ohio State’s Justin Fields transferred from Georgia. Burrow transferred to LSU before the portal went live but there’s a point that remains – sometimes it’s in the best interest of both the player and program to move on and both can benefit.
Dantonio spent the second half of the 2018 season and the entire offseason backing Lewerke as the team’s starting quarterback. There’s now an uncertainly that lingers and it leads to speculation about the future at the position. There are quarterbacks available but, even if Michigan State truly wants to add one, it would require selling the program as the best option amid what should be a list of potential suitors for those players.
In less than a year, Dantonio shifted from saying pursuing a transfer quarterback wasn’t an option to basically giving a non-answer. It will be interesting to see where he really stands on that this offseason because the question isn’t going away.
Related Michigan State football stories:
An early projection of Michigan State’s depth chart on defense and special teams for 2020
An early projection of Michigan State’s depth chart on offense for 2020
Kenny Willekes records two sacks to help North team win Senior Bowl
Breaking down Michigan State football’s 2020 schedule
A look at Michigan State’s 5 biggest losses on defense and top replacements in 2020
A look at Michigan State’s 5 biggest losses on offense and top replacements in 2020
"looking" - Google News
January 29, 2020 at 06:00PM
https://ift.tt/3aPL8Ol
If Michigan State is looking for a transfer QB, there are a few top options - MLive.com
"looking" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2tdCiJt
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "If Michigan State is looking for a transfer QB, there are a few top options - MLive.com"
Post a Comment