Young offensive linemen key to Michigan State football rebuilding run game

EAST LANSING — It wasn’t that long ago that Spencer Brown was an up-and-coming offensive lineman, just like many of his teammates in the trenches for this year’s Michigan State football team.

And the fifth-year senior remembered what it took for him to go from young and unproven to starting the past 13 games at right tackle.

“It's being patient,” Brown said Wednesday. “Sometimes, we feel like we know it all, but we don't. It's just being able to take a deep breath, understanding yesterday is gone and tomorrow you got a shot. …

“You don't know until you're thrown out there in the fire. It's really understanding the coaches' jobs are on the line, the program is out on the line. They're not just throwing anybody out there. You gotta know what you're doing.”

Brown and junior left tackle Brandon Baldwin return this season, along with a pair of fifth-year seniors in left guard J.D. Duplain and center Nick Samac. That provides a strong returning nucleus, with 75 total career starts.

They’re expected to be joined at right guard by sophomore Geno VanDeMark, the first of a wave of bigger, stronger offensive linemen coach Mel Tucker and his staff started stockpiling almost as soon as they arrived at MSU in 2020. The hope is that they’ll allow offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic to expand his rotation and keep the veterans fresh.

And, most importantly, revive the struggling run game.

“Consistency is so important, and it's just trying to find that. I think we're getting there,” Kapilovic said Wednesday. “We have more options this year, by far, than we had last year or in my first year here. And so I feel good about that. And I think we're gonna get there. …

“We always talk about when you bring these kids in, among everything else we're developing, if these O-linemen can develop their football IQ, that's going to give them a greater chance of being successful here and in the future.”

VanDeMark emerged as a starter over the final two games last season after injuries to since-graduated Matt Carrick and Brian Greene. He also saw action last fall on the field-goal unit with sophomores Ethan Boyd and Kevin Wigenton. So, too, did junior center Dallas Fincher, who could be in line for playing time early as Samac recovers from an offseason upper body injury.

The Spartans have 17 of their 20 offensive linemen weighing more than 300 pounds, and 14 who are 6 feet 5 or taller.

“I wasn't here before, but they talk about how they weren't as big as we are now. Coach Tuck has brought that up about a lot,” said VanDeMark, who is 6-5 and 320 pounds. “He's had the O-line and (defensive) line stand up in the team meetings and was like, ‘Look at how big these guys are. We have to be able to run the ball.’”

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That has been an ongoing issue for MSU, dating back to Mark Dantonio’s final two seasons (2018-19). Over the past five seasons, MSU has averaged 126.4 rushing yards a game, and that includes the Kenneth Walker III-led 2021 campaign, in which the Spartans averaged 175.6 yards a game in Tucker’s second year. The Spartans bottomed out in Tucker's debut season at 91.4 yards a game and averaged just 113 last season, 110th out of 130 Football Bowl Subdivision programs.

The numbers were even worse in Big Ten play: 95.2 yards a game last year to rank 12th -of 14 teams. The Spartans were 13th in 2020 after ranking 11th in 2019 (111.6) and last in 2018 (119.6) against Big Ten opponents. Short-yardage situations also have been an issue in four of those five seasons, resulting in an inability to extend drives and control the clock.

That has made re-establishing the run game, starting up front with the blockers, a priority this offseason.

“The run game to us, that's our pride. We pride ourselves on running the ball and being able to physically control the game,” VanDeMark said. “So I think that for us, an offensive lineman, it's very important, and as an offensive line unit as well. You want to run the ball — fourth-and-1, let's run it; fourth-and-3, let's run it. That's kind of what we want. We want to be able to run the ball and have of our coaches be able to trust us in getting those yards when we need them, and then pop a big (run).”

That means the older offensive linemen are tasked with bringing along their potential replacements. Brown said the lack of depth last season wore on the starters at time, and the goal is to get as many healthy bodies contributing as possible to produce at a high level in the trenches.

“It's not more so about competing with them. We're competing against the defense, you see what I'm saying, because we need everybody to pull together,” Brown said. “So we complement each other just by working hard every day and giving it our all.”

While many are quick to credit Walker for the success of 2021, that group also had a group of nine offensive linemen who entered the season with a bevy of starting experience. Samac and Duplain were part of that line.

“I think you saw that in the 2021 season, where we had basically an interior that was fully rotatable,” Samac said. “So I was playing second and fourth quarter every single game.”

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Does this group have that kind of depth? Kapilovic said it has been “very up and down” nearing the end of preseason camp, with the Sept. 1 opener against Central Michigan rapidly approaching.

“I don't know if that's good or bad sometimes in camp,” he said. “If you're dominating one side of the ball in camp, then you're wondering, 'Are we really any good or are they not very good?' So you're hoping. We're getting a lot of give and take, so I think that's a positive.”

MSU added junior college All-American tackle Keyshawn Blackstock, who should be in the rotation behind Baldwin at left tackle. Boyd “is breathing down Spencer Brown’s neck” at right tackle, Kapilovic said. Fincher will be needed if Samac remains hobbled. Wigenton is joined on the inside by redshirt freshmen Kristian “Big Dooley” Phillips and Braden Miller pushing for their first taste of collegiate action. The Spartans also added four-star true freshmen Stanton Ramil and Cole Dellinger, and Kapilovic said fifth-year senior Evan Brunning and redshirt freshman Ashton Lepo also could contribute in some way.

The veterans who have been through the ups and downs of the past three seasons also know a return to consistency in running the ball comes down to what they and the young guys do up front.

“I always tell them to stay focused,” Baldwin said. “Their time is gonna come.”

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

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football run game relying on young offensive linemen