National signing day at Michigan State

Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio is comfortable with his team's progress at the halfway point of the spring football session. The Spartans finish up on April 25 with the annual Green-White game at Spartan Stadium.

(Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)

EAST LANSING -- Michigan State is looking very much this spring like a football team with 24 seniors and several key returning starters, including third-year starting quarterback Connor Cook.

In fact, Spartans coach Mark Dantonio said something that isn't often heard at the conclusion of spring drills, much less after the seventh of 15 practice sessions.

"I know this, that we could go out and play a game tomorrow,'' Dantonio said on Thursday night at Spartan Stadium, where on April 25 his team will polish off the spring football session with the annual Green-White game.

"We're going to make mistakes, but we're game ready,'' Dantonio said. "We've practiced enough, we do enough things from a live standpoint and tackling standpoint. There's risk in that, there's a catch-22 in that at times, but when we hit the field we're moving, and we have a lot of guys back with experience, and we play like it.''

Dantonio said the experience at quarterback -- in addition to fifth-year senior Cook, Tyler O'Connor is in his third spring session and Damion Terry his second -- leads to a lot of retention and more flexibility in the offensive play calls.

"They don't make many mistakes in terms of calling things in the huddle,'' Dantonio said. "There's a definite foundation, and they can concentrate on developing a higher lever of play, and they have been impressive.''

Dantonio said of Demetrious Cox, RJ Williamson and Montae Nicholson "those three guys have to be out there,'' when asked about the secondary.

"Arjen (Colquhoun) and Jermaine (Edmondson) are vying for that other (cornerback) position, although we could play around different positions depending our our third nickel and those type of different things.''

On the injury front, middle linebacker Jon Reschke has been taking part in all of the drills but will not go "full-full" contact until next week.

Dantonio was asked to identify leaders who have stepped up, and he pointed to junior middle linebacker Riley Bullough first.

"Riley Bullough is in a position of leadership even though he's a junior, (and) certainly Shilique (Calhoun), RJ Williamson are guys that have done that,'' Dantonio said. "Joel Heath is a guy I think has stepped up. Lawrence Thomas, LT, has done a nice job as well. So a lot of different guys have sort of taken that approach.

"On the offensive side, Jack Conklin now is going into his fourth year, (and) certainly Jack Allen. Donavon Clark is another guy. But we've got a lot of guys that have played a lot of football here, and I think they feel comfortable in speaking up and saying what they want to say.''

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