Quarterbacks Showcase Their Skills at Spring Game

April 23, 2016

Damion Terry completed 6-of-12 passes for 70 yards in leading the White to a 14-11 win over the Green in Saturday's spring game.

By Steve Grinczel, MSUSpartans.com Online Columnist

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- This may come as a news flash to some, but Michigan State will have a quarterback next fall.

Life behind center did not end as the Spartans knew it when Connor Cook took the final snap of his career in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Cotton Bowl, based on the results of Saturday's Green-White Spring Game in Spartan Stadium.

Four quarterbacks, led by fifth-year senior Tyler O'Connor, demonstrated more than adequate ability to make Big Ten-level plays with their arms and legs.

Fourth-year junior Damion Terry's 3-yard touchdown run, which he set up with a 23-yard completion to tight end Josiah Price on fourth-and-10 late in the third quarter, held up as the difference in the White team's 14-11 victory over the Green.

However, over the course of the next minute O'Connor rallied the Green back into position to win with a 27-yard scramble and a 13-yard touchdown pass to early enrollee true-freshman wideout Cam Chambers.

And on the Green's final possession, Brian Lewerke kept the drive alive with a 25-yard run, but the final pass of his freshman year as a Spartan was intercepted by David Dowell at the 14-yard line. Even highly touted freshman quarterback Messiah deWeaver, another mid-year addition out of high school, gave everybody something to think about during the summer by completing two passes for 27 yards during the White's nine-play, 58-yard, go-ahead-to-stay touchdown drive in the second quarter.

All four demonstrated the ability to throw accurate passes, even while under duress, and extend plays, or make something out of nothing by eluding pass-rushers.

"Tyler did a nice job and (O'Connor, Terry and Lewerke) made plays with their feet and had big gains, which is a positive," MSU head coach Mark Dantonio said. "Quarterback is about decision-making and leading in the huddle, and also about creating plays, so we'll look at the film and evaluate that."

Dantonio hadn't gathered enough evidence by the end of the 15th spring practice to declare a starter for the 2016 season, and indications are that the competition could carry through the first game or two. The determining factor will be consistency.

"I don't know (if today) was indicative of our spring," Dantonio said. "In a practice they probably get more reps than they got in this game. I think our guys have thrown it better (in previous practices), but I'm not going to `dis' them either."

It was Lewerke and deWeaver's first opportunity to perform in front of a big-college-style crowd, and the announced attendance of 51,000 is a MSU spring game record.

"I think everybody wants to hear the coach say, `He's the quarterback,' " Dantonio said. "And I'm not going to say `He's the quarterback' until we get in the game and see production. So until we see the production on a consistent level, I'm not going to make the mistake of saying, `This guy's it' and put all the pressure on one guy.

Tyler O'Connor led the quarterbacks on Saturday with 138 yards passing while completing 10-of-16 throws.

"I want the pressure to be on the group of four, I want the pressure to be on our quarterback coach (Brad Salem) and I want the pressure to remain their among all of them to be consistent when it comes down to decision-making, creating and making plays. Right now, Tyler, I think, has done a nice job of that. The other guys have, too, but they've got to show consistency.

"(O'Connor) certainly has the most experience, but we'll see how it all shakes out."

O'Connor, who completed 10 of 16 passes for 138 yards and one touchdown and had 24 rushing yards on three carries, is OK with breaking camp without any assurances or guarantees.

"It ensures that no one gets complacent," O'Connor said. "To me, and I believe every other quarterback will speak to this, we have to play with the mindset that we're the guy and we're going to out there and be the No. 1. That's what's expected from our end and I believe that's what we expect from Coach D, that it's going to be a competition all the way through the fall.

"I feel good about where I'm at. I feel like I played well, but there's still a lot of time and a lot of things can happen throughout the summer, so a lot of work has to be done still."

For all of Cook's success as Michigan State's most accomplished passer, he was inclined to rely on running out trouble only as a last resort. Collectively, O'Connor, Terry, Lewerke and deWeaver bring the added dimension of pulling the ball down and running for daylight, sometimes as a 1-A option.

"I think what this group of quarterbacks does is, we kind of just let the game come to us," O'Connor said. "If we see a lane we're going to take off and maybe Connor was more hesitant to do so. Coach Salem said if we see 5 yards, go get it, that's a successful first down. If we can get 10 yards on a scramble that's as good as a successful pass.

"I think we all have good ability to do something with our feet."

Terry's highlight of the game was his 18-yard pass-and-circus-catch to star-wideout-in-waiting Donnie Corley, another mid-year freshman, just before getting drilled by defensive end Robert Bowers, much to the dismay of Dantonio, who made the quarterbacks off-limits to live tackling.

However, all Terry, who completed 6 of 12 for 70 yards, dwelled on were the six incompletions.

"That's the only thing on my mind right now," he said. "I don't even care about the touchdown. I know we won the game, but I know I've got to hit those throws if I want to become a consistent Big Ten quarterback and I'm definitely going to be stressing that all this off-season. There are definitely some throws I wish I could have back."

A perfectionist, Terry gave himself a spring practice grade of C-plus and he knows the scouting report on himself better than anyone.

"I definitely hold myself to a higher standard," he said. "Coach (Salem) is always talking to me about just staying in the rhythm. I make the big plays, but I need to handle the little things. He says I make the hard things look easy and the easy things look hard but I'm going to work on that each and every day of the summer.

"We're going to be competing with each other the rest of the way, so no way it's over and it's going to be fun."

It might be naïve to say it's still anybody's ball game, but going into the 2013 season, senior Andrew Maxwell was the presumptive starter until Cook came out of the pack to bypass him and O'Connor. Salem, head coach of the White team, even revealed how close Lewerke (2 for 9, 42 yards, one interception) came to having his red shirt removed at the end of last season when Cook was still nursing a sore shoulder that costs him the start at Ohio State and Terry was also ailing.

"A lot of people didn't know that going into the Penn State game that (Lewerke) was the No. 2 guy (behind O'Connor) because we thought Connor was out," Salem said.

The situation was rendered moot when a game-time decision put Cook back in control, but Salem spoke about having a full quiver heading into preseason camp in August.

"Brian had a very productive spring," Salem said. "It was good week to press him for urgency. He's come a long way. We still see freshman-thinks, but we see a high upside. From my view of watching Tyler, I thought he looked good, threw the ball consistently, had good pocket presence and took off when he had to.

"Brian keeps growing. What he did at the end, with the mistake, we want to eliminate those things. Damion needs to continue to be consistent throwing the football. He has the ability to make big plays with his legs and his knowledge has come a long way in understanding and comfort. And Messiah (2 for 6, 27 yards), I mean a high school kid.

"He's going to prom next week and he took them on a touchdown drive so that's good stuff."