{"id":19066,"date":"2024-09-03T14:46:25","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T18:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/?p=19066"},"modified":"2024-09-03T14:46:25","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T18:46:25","slug":"michigan-state-football-ken-talley-has-finally-arrived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/?p=19066","title":{"rendered":"Michigan State Football: Ken Talley has finally arrived"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Michigan State football has a rising star in the form of Ken Talley who showed out in the season opener against FAU.<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The majority of the fanbase is in panic mode after the 16-10 <a href=\"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/michigan-state-football-key-players-potentially-out-for-season\/\">Michigan State football<\/a> win against FAU. I\u2019m not there yet, but the next three games will be very telling. The offense was underwhelming. The defense, particularly the defensive line, exceeded expectations. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of those key contributors: Ken Talley.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A consensus four-star coming out of high school, Talley signed his NLI with Penn State but ultimately transferred to MSU just before the 2022 season. Although highly-rated, Talley was known to be a bit of a project. Undersized, he had all the intangibles but some things needed fine tuning. Based on Friday\u2019s performance, I\u2019m thinking he had a more productive off-season than we were all expecting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although the plan all along was to consistently rotate guys in, Talley was never supposed to take significant snaps.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Monday, Jonathan Smith confirmed this.<\/span><\/h4>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Smith said redshirt-sophomore Ken Talley was impressive and wasn\u2019t supposed to play a lot of snaps but forced his way onto the field.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; SpartanMag.com (@TheSpartanMag) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheSpartanMag\/status\/1830640103695458442?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even with the entire front-seven impressing on Friday, Georgia Tech transfer D\u2019Quan Douse, Khris Bogle, and Talley really stood out to me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Any player who chooses to stay while having every reason to leave holds a special place in my heart. Plenty of programs would have taken a flier on him. Talley chose to stay in East Lansing and made sure to make the most of his snaps.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recording two quarterback hurries and credited for 0.5 sacks, Talley played with the explosiveness recorded in his recruiting profile.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">SACK!!!<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MSU_Football?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MSU_Football<\/a> defense making big plays! \ud83d\udcaa <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YfsiP4IWBX\">pic.twitter.com\/YfsiP4IWBX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CFBONFOX\/status\/1829690064378495076?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 31, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I watched this play live (in person) and did not know Talley was \u2018built like that\u2019 as the kids say. Simply put, I did not think he possessed that kind of explosiveness.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Being the college football nut that I am, I went back and checked his high school recruiting profile.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was shocked with what I saw:\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Ken Talley recruiting eval \ud83c\udfaf <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xDnLJtPbxq\">https:\/\/t.co\/xDnLJtPbxq<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gkiZXvGPqk\">pic.twitter.com\/gkiZXvGPqk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; MilkManMSU (@MilkManMSU) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MilkManMSU\/status\/1829942776412442843?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 31, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pretty spot on, right?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The defensive line has been a hot topic in East Lansing ever since head coach Jonathan Smith got to town. Expected starters Derrick Harmon and Simeon Barrow both hit the portal for a new team. Who would take over those starting spots was always a question.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Talley is not going to fill the shoes of Harmon or Barrow. He\u2019s honestly too small to even play their position. But from the edge, Talley could help lessen the blow potentially as early as this year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s see how Maryland goes. Go Green.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ken Talley made the most of his opportunities in the opener against FAU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":19069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[59,386,191,189,504],"class_list":["post-19066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-featured","tag-ken-talley","tag-michigan-state-football","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}