Overhauled, depleted Michigan State secondary looking for new stars

Chris Solari , Chris Solari | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Michigan State players focused on improvement Michigan State football players are working to put behind last year's struggles and off-season turmoil. Video by Chris Solari/DFP

EAST LANSING – Michigan State’s maligned secondary underwent a radical off-season overhaul.

Many of those changes are not by choice. And safety Khari Willis knows those who remain in the defensive backfield have “a lot of opportunities in our room, to say the least.”

“Our coaches have obviously stepped it up, knowing that we’re a unit that needs to be better,” Willis said recently. “We have a history of guys that have been great here. There’s no excuse. We’re not lowering our expectations just because certain people are gone. We’re looking for the next guy to step up.”

MSU football coach Mark Dantonio said in December he expected attrition from his roster after last fall’s dismal 3-9 showing, by far his worst record in 10 seasons and the Spartans’ worst campaign in more than 35 years. He could not have envisioned the amount of personnel MSU would lose in its secondary.

Demetrious Cox graduated. Montae Nicholson opted to enter the NFL draft a year early, meaning the Spartans will have two new starting safeties this fall.

One of their potential replacements, redshirt freshman safety Demetric Vance, was dismissed earlier this month after being charged with third degree criminal sexual conduct. The same happened to Donnie Corley, who saw sporadic action at cornerback and wide receiver and was thought to be on a two-way track.

Cornerback Vayante Copeland left the program. Safety Kenney Lyke, cornerback Drake Martinez and cornerback/receiver Kaleel Gaines transferred out. And cornerback Tyson Smith’s football future remains uncertain after the junior revealed he suffered a stroke late last season.

But Dantonio is confident in the players who remain.

“There’s gotta be an opportunity,” he said, “and sometimes you need a little bit of space up there to have that opportunity, so I think that’s a good thing.”

Willis, who sat out the spring game, is being touted as one of the team’s leaders going into his junior season. He and Grayson Miller started the 2015 Michigan game as true freshmen, and they are joined in competition among the veterans at safety along with fellow juniors Matt Morrissey and Jalen Watts-Jackson, and sophomore David Dowell. Redshirt freshman Austin Andrews and true freshman Dominique Long also will have a chance to impress.

“We’ve got a lot of leadership at that position, a lot of people that have playing experience,” Willis said. “It’s gonna be competitive, it’s gonna be fun. We’re close. … We all want to play, we all want to win. But we all know that whatever is better for the team, we’re gonna compete. And it’s been fun so far. We’ve been pushing each other to get better.”

The loss of oft-injured Copeland at cornerback stings. Dantonio said Justin Layne, who arrived as a wide receiver and worked on both sides of the ball during spring workouts, should be considered a cornerback for now.

“It’s been back and forth,” Dantonio said of Layne. “I think right now, you gotta look at him as a defensive player. But he has the ability to go over there and play it. We have to be careful not to overload him.”

Layne started the spring game at cornerback opposite true freshman Josiah Scott, who enrolled in January. Sophomore Josh Butler (who sat out the spring game) and junior T.J. Harrell (a converted linebacker) add depth from within the system. MSU also brings in a number of rookies – Tre Person, Emmanuel Flowers and Shakur Brown – who will get an opportunity to prove they can join the playing group immediately like Layne did a year ago.

“We’ll see that at the end of camp – you gotta obviously be playing well when the season rolls around,” Willis said. “All our corners, I would honestly say, have improved. … We got a lot of guys I feel that are looking pretty good, or at least definitely getting better.”

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