Michigan State University Athletics
Michigan State Football :: Official Athletic Site
Oct. 1, 1997
Long Not Short on Experience
By Nate Ewell, MSU Sports Information
Octavis Long has always been the little kid on the team.
Never mind that the senior wide receiver carries a slight 178 pounds on his 5-10 frame. Little here not in the sense of size, but rather age.
Long was the little kid when he was in third grade, playing on a team made up of mostly fifth graders. Later, as a sixth-grader, he would join future Michigan State teammate Muhsin Muhammad on an eighth-grade team.
|
| Octavis Long |
Long has been little for so long that he has had time to study the older players, see how they carry themselves. And he has never been afraid to ask for older players' advice.
The result? The perpetual little kid had no problem ascending to his role as a senior leader on this year's Michigan State team. It's a role he has mastered so quickly, you'd have thought he had been the older kid all his life.
"He's a great team player," said freshman wide receiver DeMario Suggs. "He is always putting the team first and willing to help any of the younger guys out. That's why he is one of our senior leaders."
Growing up in the north side of the city of Lansing, Long heard about a good team on the other side of town. His mother, Rosie, outfitted him in the proper gear and the third-grade Long joined the South Side Panthers, a team made up mostly of fifth-graders.
From that first appearance in organized football, Long's biggest asset has been his speed.
"I was always fast," he remembers. "I noticed early on that I could run faster than most of the older guys."
Long's speed has never left him, and he now displays electrifying quickness at wide receiver. Last year, when Long first really made an impact for MSU, he proved to have the definition of game-breaking speed -- his 21 catches went for an average of 23.4 yards apiece, including a 64 yard touchdown.
Along with praise for Long's speed came questions about his hands. Long took the criticism well and has worked to improve.
"It didn't bother me because it was true," Long says. "Coming in as a running back, I hadn't spent much time catching passes, plus there is a big difference between high school quarterbacks and college quarterbacks. There isn't a receiver around who doesn't drop some passes, but I had to work to overcome that."
Besides a stint at wide receiver while playing for the Miller's Breakers -- the junior-high level team which also featured Muhammad -- Long was a running back his entire career before coming to Michigan State.
A two-year starter at Sexton High School who gained 1,100 yards rushing as a senior, the switch to wide receiver as a freshman forced Long to make some adjustments. As always he knew he had the older receivers on the team to turn to for advice.
"I learned a lot from Mill Coleman, who was a quarterback in high school, and Muhsin Muhammad, who was a running back," Long says. "They had to make transitions like I did. Those guys surrounded me and took care of me."
Long absorbed the messages the older players gave him and followed their advice. They helped him earn the starting wide receiver spot in this, his fifth year with the Michigan State program, and now he is busy giving that advice back to young players.
"Players like Mill Coleman, Muhsin Muhammad and Derrick Mason taught me to be patient and concentrate," Long says. "And the biggest thing is to accept the coaching. A lot of times players coming out of high school get frustrated, but if you listen to the coaches, they won't steer you wrong."
"I go to Octavis every day," acknowledges Suggs, perhaps the future generation of MSU's outstanding receiver corps. "I ask him about splits, re-routes, man blocking -- it's something different every day. But he's always helpful, and he won't ever turn you away."
After listening to everything the older players told him throughout his career as the little kid, Long seems to have picked up something that wasn't directly in their message -- how to be a leader.