Pat Fitzgerald getting Michigan State football ready for Spring Showcase

“We cannot play enough football.”

That is what Michigan State football coach Pat Fitzgerald said to the media after the last Tuesday spring practice on April 14. With spring ball almost over, MSU is looking to make more strides during the buildup to Saturday’s Spring Showcase inside Spartan Stadium.

Fitzgerald and his staff have taken a unique approach to building this year’s Spartan team — 6:30 a.m. practices, and “fluid” position battles have been a major foothold in East Lansing. And with 29 incoming transfers, Fitzgerald and his team of staffers have a bunch to figure out before the season starts the first weekend of September against Toledo.

A reporter asked Fitzgerald about some incoming players, both transfers and early enrollees, who have impressed him thus far. According to Fitz, Kenny Soares Jr., Kayd Coffman, Marvis Parrish, Eddie Whiting, Keahnist Thompson, and Dion Crawford have all stood out thus far, but to not look too hard into who is with the ones and twos on Saturday afternoon.

When asked about potential starters, Fitzgerald responded with three names who are locked into their roles, those being Alessio Milivojevic at quarterback, Jordan Hall at Mike linebacker and Rhys Dakin at punter. Besides that, Fitzgerald stated that every job is still up for grabs.

In terms of Saturday’s Spring Showcase, the Spartans are hosting the event in Spartan Stadium with free admission, and autograph signings with players and coaches after the event is over.

Fitzgerald stated that he hopes there will be “plenty of moving around from his guys.”

If anything, expect up to around 75 total plays with ones on ones, and twos on twos, and once again Fitzgerald expressed deep interest in not looking into who is starting and who is not this weekend.

One last note of the press conference from Tuesday morning was how important the center position is for the entire staff. Fitzgerald stated that the Spartans will rotate as many guys as they can to snap the ball for injury purposes in case anything happens during the season.

The Spring Showcase will start at noon on Saturday inside of Spartan Stadium.