Dantonio: Tough decisions coming up for MSU

The defense beat the offense, 27-20, in the second jersey scrimmage of preseason camp Friday in Spartan Stadium. The scrimmage, which utilized a modified scoring system, was 148 plays long (including special teams) and lasted for two-and-a-half hours under sunny skies and temperatures in the low-80s.

“I think we got a lot of things done,” said Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio. “We worked a lot of different situations. I think about every situation that could come up in a football game we were able to address out here.

“It was a very competitive game. I thought the hitting was very crisp; we tackled well, things like that. You have to watch the film to really break it down from there.

“I thought our running backs ran well. Even though maybe the yards don’t pile up, I thought they ran effectively, showed power and explosiveness.

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“I thought they (offense) improved from last week, there’s no question about that. They protected the quarterback better. We had a lot of people play, and we’re getting ready to get closer to game day. That’s what we wanted to try and do today, was put 10-play drives together and things of that nature, and we got that done.

“(The scrimmage) starts to separate people. Like I said all along, we have a deep football team right now. We’ll watch the film and try and make some tough decisions over the weekend, and then we come back for four practices before we have a rehearsal scrimmage, and that’s just finishing things up (for preseason camp). The bulk of what we’ve done has been accomplished. I feel good about it. We have some guys nicked up that we’ll get back; they will have an opportunity to heal a little bit. I think we’re on track.”

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-MSU athletic communications