Chris Solari

Detroit Free Press

EAST LANSING – Sunday morning arrived, and Brandon Clemons felt a little more tired than after the average football game.

Playing on both sides of the ball for the first time in two years can wear on a big guy.

He wasn’t alone.

Michigan State used starting right guard Clemons at defensive tackle and tight end Jamal Lyles at defensive end in last Saturday’s win at Notre Dame. The seniors played both ways at the most physically demanding positions on the field, a role they expect to continue for the foreseeable future as No. 8 MSU prepares to face No. 10 Wisconsin on Saturday.

“I enjoyed it. I was out there having fun,” Clemons said Tuesday. “I would run a couple plays on one series on offense. Then they would be like, ‘All right, go play defense,’ and I’d go on the other side of the field and play defense.”

Dantonio said using Lyles and Clemons for “about seven or eight each” has helped add depth to a defensive line that lost a number of players to graduation or transfer since the end of last season. He said that will continue until the younger defensive linemen are ready to supplant them.

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“Both of those guys have been defensive players for not just a little bit of time, but for a significant amount of time, a year at least, in their background,” Dantonio said this week. “So they have a knowledge base that allows them to play fast and be functional.”

It wasn’t a first for Clemons, who was granted a sixth year by the NCAA over the summer. The 6-foot-3, 302-pound native of Milford, Pa., arrived at MSU as a defensive tackle and played there six games in 2013, getting two tackles in the Rose Bowl win over Stanford.

The next season, coaches started sprinkling Clemons in on both sides of the ball. He played on both lines in a blowout win over Eastern Michigan, shifting to the offensive line full-time after that. Defensive end Demetrius Cooper said he believes Clemons could have become a starting defensive tackle had he not made the shift.

Clemons said he learned two days before the Notre Dame game that he would see some time on defense again after working with both units during practice. He has been an athletic blocking force while pulling from his guard spot, and the Spartans did that in abundance against the Irish before he entered the game on defense.

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“As far as the plays go, I’m pretty solid there as far as knowing what they do,” Clemons said. “But the techniques are different. On defense, I just need to shoot out and get penetration pretty much. In the offense, I need to make sure I’m taking the right steps — the footwork has to be perfect. And knowing my assignments, understanding a defense if they change.”

Lyles shifted to tight end early in the 2013 season, with Shilique Calhoun and Marcus Rush among others providing a road block at defensive end. The Spartans experimented with the 6-3, 257-pound Southfield-Lathrup product at defensive end during April’s spring game, and he impressed coaches then by dropping running back LJ Scott for a loss and sacking quarterback Damion Terry in limited action.

“On defense, you really don’t have to think as much. You can just let it loose, and it’s just fun going out there and just playing football,” Lyles said this week. “On offense, you’re working the scheme and you gotta be with your brother with gap control and stuff like that. On defense, you can just let it loose and be a beast.

“Yeah, defense is real fun.”

Lyles said knowing how tight ends want to block a defensive end has helped him on defense. He played around 50 plays against Notre Dame thanks to the tight end rotation with Josiah Price and Matt Sokol, a long way from his career-high 78-play game when Price was injured last season.

“Jamal, he played defensive end the first two years in college, so he still has the tangibles to be able to do those type of things. He’s really helped us out a lot coming out there and playing,” Cooper said. “Same thing with Brandon. He started off as a D-tackle, and Jamal started off as a defensive end. So, they really knew what to really do on defense.”

Lyles and Clemons know there could be more wear and tear with a two-way role, which means spending extra time caring for their body. Lyles said having TV timeouts also helps them compared to playing both positions in high school.

And Dantonio, despite calling it “abnormal” to have two-way linemen, thinks Clemons and Lyles can handle it.

“I thought they played pretty well. And so, I think we’re going to need to continue to do that until our young players get ready,” he said. “But we’re going to play the best players. If they’re the best players and they have to play 30 plays as a tight end, then we’re still going to play them at defensive end. …

“It’s a little bit abnormal, probably easier (to do) as a skill player, but we’ve done it in the past. So, we’ll continue to do what we have to do to put the best players out on the field.”

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Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com . Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.

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