Spartan defense finds Nemo and some attitude
It hasn’t taken long for junior college transfer Nehemiah Warrick to make an impact on Michigan State’s defense. When it comes to juco players, you often hope to find someone that can provide some depth, but rarely does a player become an instant leader on the practice field. Warrick appears to be the exception. As Shannon Shelton of the Detroit Free Press reports, many players credit “Nemo” with the change of attitude for the Spartan defense this spring and fall. If you look closely, you might even see some swaggering.
To a player, the Spartans and coaches attribute that newfound assurance to one guy.
“Our attitude is so different,” said bandit SirDarean Adams. “I’m not gonna lie, I think our attitude has changed once they put my best friend back at safety. Once he got in the mix, our whole attitude just changed. We didn’t want you to get a yard on us — we got mad if you got an inch on us.”
High praise for a player who hasn’t played a down for the Spartans, a player whose reputation comes solely from a few weeks of spring workouts and scrimmages.
Speaking of swagger, MSU tight end Kellen Davis is hoping to regain some of his this season. Joe Rexrode of the Lansing State Journal writes that Davis hasn’t lived up to the expectations he set coming out of high school.
It’s a question that has to be asked of Kellen Davis - one of the most-pursued, most-heralded and seemingly most-talented football players brought to Michigan State by coach John L. Smith.
Expected to blossom into stardom as a sophomore tight end in 2005, Davis instead provided minimal impact. So was last season an individual disappointment?
“Very disappointing,” he said.
Over the weekend, Steve Grinczel of MLive.com wrote about the various position battles being waged on MSU’s practice field this fall.
Important position battles in all three areas of Michigan State’s football team - offense, defense and special teams - advanced to the next phase as the Spartans donned pads for the first time in preseason camp.The duel at center between senior Kyle Cook and junior John Masters continued to move toward a resolution in Tuesday’s intrasquad scrimmage, head coach John L. Smith said after Friday afternoon’s practice.