During Friday night\u2019s home opener, three true freshmen got to play in their first career game. While this was not as many as the seven or eight that had been mentioned as possibilities, one name that did not play caught some eyes. Tight end Jayden Savoury has been making his presence felt during camp.<\/p>\n
From Jonathan Smith commenting on Savoury\u2019s ability to make plays during the scrimmages, to fellow players praising the Orchard Lake (Mich.) St. Mary\u2019s product, he has gained considerable hype. Smith went out of his way to drag the tight end into playing time discussions when the original question highlighted Aydan West, Braylon Collier, Derrick Simmons, and Jace Clarizio.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Savoury continued to get praise from the staff.<\/p>\n
This time, it was from his position coach, Brian Wozniak.<\/p>\n
Wozniak was asked the joys of coaching a multi-sport athlete, in particular a basketball player. Savoury won a state title with Orchard Lake St. Mary\u2019s on the hardwood before his gridiron title as a senior. Wozniak started with his own basketball analogy, and added where Savoury fit in the coach\u2019s system.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s always fun, I was a hooper myself, I think that basketball translates so well to football, I think of like the tight ends in general, we got our \u2018Y\u2019 is a little more Tim Duncan, right?,\u201d Wozniak asked, rhetorically. \u201cOur \u2018H\u2019 is a little more of that slashing, small forward, you know? Both those kind of athletes, one is still long, maybe a little bit more powerful, so with Jayden, it was easy to see where he fit with that scheme, a slashing three.\u201d<\/p>\n
The coach then expanded on the upside and joys of coaching Savoury. Wozniak went as far as to predict a special career for the freshman that has yet to take a down of collegiate football.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love to sit here and say, \u2018yeah, when we recruited him, we knew what we were getting,\u2019 but yeah, he\u2019s been a pleasant surprise,\u201d Wozniak revealed. \u201cThat guy is going to have an awesome career. I\u2019m excited for him. He just gets football. Sports speak to him, you know, you teach him something, he gets it. It\u2019s pretty rare to have a guy like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Masunas expanded on this, calling the group, as a whole, one of the best in the nation. He also alluded to Wozniak\u2019s system, talking about the different ways that the coach utilizes the talented tight end room.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have one of the best tight end groups in the nation,\u201d Masunas said. \u201cNot including just Jack (Velling) and I, but BP (Brennan Parachek), Kai (Rios), Jayden (Savoury), some of the younger guys coming in, Jay Coyne, I think we got a great group. Using them all in their different ways is awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack Velling is a veteran under Wozniak\u2019s system, with the senior playing under the former Wisconsin Badger for all three of his prior seasons. In 2023, Velling thrived, with eight touchdowns. With the senior missing all of fall camp with a foot injury, he took the time to help mentor the potential star for the Spartans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to be a good teammate, help out the younger guys. Jayden Savoury, I helped him out a bunch,\u201d Velling revealed.<\/p>\n
The hope for Jayden Savoury is that he will get a solid chance to shoot at the Michigan State football record books. The current mark for most touchdowns by a Spartan tight end in a season is six, by Kellen Davis in 2007, also being tied by Josiah Price in 2014 and 2015. Through Velling, Masunas, Parachek, or Savoury, Wozniak is seeking to lift the record to new heights.<\/p>\n
Based on the hype building for Savoury, the season mark might not be the only thing in jeopardy. Price\u2019s career record of 21 end zone trips might be circled in Savoury\u2019s football notebook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The hype train can’t be stopped.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":21066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[563,59,573,734,812,191],"class_list":["post-21702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-brian-wozniak","tag-featured","tag-jack-velling","tag-jayden-savoury","tag-michael-masunas","tag-michigan-state-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21702","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}