EAST LANSING — A year ago, no one within Michigan State’s football program knew what to expect from spring ball. Even though they were preparing for Mel Tucker’s second season as head coach.
Things developed quickly, along with the breakneck pace of practices. A bevy of transfers blended seamlessly. Returning players discovered how much more intense things would be during a regular offseason. Everyone learned how to do the things Tucker demanded at high levels of intensity and energy behind closed doors.
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By the time they broke camp in the fall, unbeknownst to almost everyone outside the Duffy Daugherty Building who saw it coming in the spring of 2021, the Spartans were poised to become the surprise story of the college football world.
“I guess you could say we really got into the swing,” junior safety Darius Snow said Tuesday, after MSU opened with its first of 15 spring practices.
Michigan State quarterback Payton Thorne throws during spring practice March 15, 2022.
That buy-in coming off Tucker’s 2-5 debut season in 2020 resulted in the Spartans making the biggest turnaround in program history. They went 11-2, won the Peach Bowl and finished No. 8 in the country. They had the Walter Camp national player of the year and Doak Walker Award winner in Kenneth Walker III and discovered an offensive firepower that mostly had vanished since the CFP appearance.
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More importantly, they showed they immersed themselves in what Tucker preached last offseason — or “out of season,” as he calls it, because he believes his sport has become a year-round venture.
“We were 2-5 and then we went to whatever we were a year,” Tucker said…
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