Report: Delton Williams will be active for MSU in opener

EAST LANSING -- Mark Dantonio has all but said junior running back Delton Williams will be available for Michigan State's opener, but he has now stated it explicitly, in an interview with Spartan Nation Radio.

A partial transcript on spartannation.com of the interview, which will air between 6-8 p.m. Thursday on that site, included this response from Dantonio when asked if Williams will be eligible to play Sept. 4 at Western Michigan: "Yes. It will all be about his play on the football field. I feel he has paid his dues. I expected him to be back a little earlier than he was, due to university regulations, etc., he was held out for a longer period of time. So he missed all of summer conditioning as well as spring practice. I feel like we need to move on. We need to allow him get back with his life. Everything moving forward should be about his future, not the past."

Williams returned to the team Aug. 14, as dictated by an MSU student judicial board ruling and after a suspension of nearly five months for flashing a registered handgun on campus in a March road-rage incident. He will be off scholarship for at least the coming school year and his mother, Jennifer Evans, recently told the Free Press the family will rely on grants, loans and possibly a church fund raiser to cover the cost of about $40,000.

Williams, who played as a reserve the past two seasons, is trying to catch up in the MSU running back race. Dantonio said redshirt freshman Madre London is No. 1 on the depth chart after Saturday's scrimmage performance, but Williams is in pads and still working to get in shape.

Sophomore Gerald Holmes and true freshman LJ Scott are the other two contenders in the four-man race to replace Jeremy Langford.

Contact Joe Rexrode: jrexrode@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @joerexrode. Check out his MSU blog at freep.com/heyjoe.

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