Can Michigan State football transfer RB Jarek Broussard be the next Kenneth Walker III?
EAST LANSING — Jarek Broussard shimmied under the tent, shuffled his feet around his coach and the pads on the turf and burst through tunnel.
In Michigan State football’s drills during the first day of practice Thursday, he looked like one of the guys. In the weeks ahead, coach Mel Tucker hopes to get a better idea whether the former Colorado running back can be the one to replace and follow in the footsteps of Kenneth Walker III as an immediate impact transfer to spearhead the Spartans’ rushing attack.
“The biggest challenge is knowing what to do within this scheme,” Tucker said of Broussard, who did not arrive at MSU until May. “What we're asking him to do is know the plays and the terminology and things like that. And he's been familiar with that, but it’s been a little bit.”
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Walker proved to be a pivotal portal addition for Tucker in helping MSU go 11-2 and finish No. 8 in the country.
After splitting time at Wake Forest his first two years, Walker emerged as one of the nation’s best in the country and easily the most impactful transfer last season, winning both the Walter Camp national player of the year award and Doak Walker Award. The consensus first-team All-American finished first among Power Five players with 1,636 rushing yards (the fourth-best season in school history) on 263 carries and a 136.3 yards-per-game average. Walker produced 1,168 of his yards after contact. He also tied for eighth nationally with 18 rushing touchdowns, which is tied for the fifth-most in a season by a Spartan.
It also turned Walker into a new one-and-done phenom in the transfer era, going to Seattle in the second round of the NFL draft with the 41st overall pick. And his December entry into the draft left a huge void for the Spartans.
Without Walker in the Peach Bowl win over Pitt, MSU managed just 46 yards on 24 carries from Jordon Simmons, Elijah Collins and Harold Joiner. In late November, the Spartans added Wisconsin transfer Jalen Berger, who enrolled in January and went through spring practice.
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Then in late January, Broussard — the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year in 2020 — announced his intentions to reunite with Tucker. He arrived at MSU this summer with two seasons of eligibility remaining.
The 5-foot-9, 185-pound Dallas native suffered ACL injuries his first two seasons at Colorado, redshirting as a true freshman in 2018 and then sitting out Tucker’s only season in Boulder in 2019 after a second knee surgery.
“It's been a couple of years since we had him, but you can see he's just more mature,” Tucker said. “These guys just grow up. … And that's what you see these guys And then obviously from a physical standpoint, he's just bigger.”
During the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Broussard ran for 895 yards in six games, an average of 162.6 per game that ranked third in the Football Bowl Subdivision. He added five touchdown runs to earn first-team All-Pac-12 honors and an All-American honorable mention.
“He's an explosive player. He's an explosive athlete. You can see kind of the way he's built,” Tucker said. “He runs with power and he's got quickness and he's got speed. He's got burst through traffic. He's got really good awareness and instincts, and he's a credible receiver out of the backfield.
“He's just in general a football player. He loves to play football.”
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In starting 10 of his 11 games last season, Broussard ran for 661 rushing yards on 142 carries with two touchdowns to get All-Pac-12 honorable mention, but he missed the season finale against eventual league champion Utah due to a non-COVID illness.
“He's got the tools. … I think he has good vision in the backfield, and he's got good hands. So I think we're gonna do a lot with him,” MSU quarterback Payton Thorne said of Broussard. “And it'll be interesting to see what kind of player he can be here, because obviously we know what Ken was and everything. You saw Ken last year during summer workouts, and you knew this guy was gonna be a stud.”
Broussard arrives and joins a crowded competition with the Spartans.
Simmons served as Walker’s primary backup last season, and in two seasons has 497 yards on 126 carries without a touchdown. Collins ran for nearly 1,000 yards as a redshirt freshman in 2019 but has battled illness and injuries the past two seasons.
Joiner arrived last season as a transfer from Auburn, finishing with 43 yards on 13 carries. Berger had 389 yards on 84 attempts with three TDs in seven games the past two seasons at Wisconsin.
And by adding Broussard as the fourth running back transfer in the past two seasons, Tucker showed he plans to remain aggressive in upgrading positions if needed.
“The players know that we're gonna add guys to the team every year, whether they're from the high school ranks or whether they're transfer guys,” Tucker said. “And it's always been that way.”
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OL mending
Offensive lineman Matt Carrick is back in uniform going through drills after leg surgery cut short his 2021 season and forced him to miss spring practice.
Tucker said he plans to bring along the senior slowly as he returns to the field and battles for the starting job at right guard.
“We're trying to give him some (reps),” Tucker said, “and then we're gonna give him a little bit more and then build him up.”
The offensive line was decimated by injuries during the spring, forcing MSU to alter its spring work on offense and shift two defensive linemen for healthy bodies. During Thursday’s 15-minute open portion practice, there were no red jerseys or offensive linemen sitting out on the side.
“We had so many injuries in the spring that it was tough to even see who the heck we had,” Thorne said of the big guys in front of him.
Only a few players during drills wore red jerseys, which signify injuries: cornerback Ronald Williams, wide receiver Terry Lockett Jr., and defensive end Avery Dunn. Chester Kimbrough was not in a red jersey but didn’t work with the cornerbacks, instead going through individual work on the side of the field.
Kicker update
Tucker said one of the biggest position battles he is monitoring is at kicker, where he said freshman Jack Stone and sophomore walk-on Stephen Rusnak are battling to replace six-year stalwart Matt Coghlin.
“At the end of practice, we did PAT-field goals,” Tucker said, “so I had a really close eye on our on our kicking situation with Rusty and Jack Stone.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football: Jarek Broussard the next Kenneth Walker III?
