Spartans preparing all three quarterbacks to play Saturday at Maryland
EAST LANSING – Michigan State’s three quarterbacks expect to know who is starting by Friday. It’s the same thing Mark Dantonio did last week.
It could be one of them playing. It could be two. Or all three – Tyler O’Connor, Brian Lewerke and Damion Terry – could get a chance to snap the Spartans’ four-game losing streak Saturday at Maryland (7:30 p.m./Big Ten Network).
Quarterbacks coach Brad Salem wants them to know that any of them can go into the game at any time.
“You never know that as a backup quarterback, and even as a starter when you get the nod,” Salem said Wednesday.
Redshirt freshman Lewerke got his first career start in Saturday’s 54-40 loss to Northwestern, with fifth-year senior O’Connor relegated to the bench for the first half. Junior Terry did not play due to a hand injury, Dantonio said Tuesday, but he remains in the mix to start.
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Lewerke entered last week’s game on MSU’s first possession to a rousing ovation from the Spartan Stadium crowd, becoming the Spartans’ first redshirt freshman QB since Stephen Reaves in 2004. It got louder when he placed a pass in R.J. Shelton’s hands for 33 yards on third-and-8.
The 6-foot-3, 202-pound native of Phoenix, Arizona, eventually led MSU on a three-play, 39-yard drive midway into the opening quarter. He ran for 24 yards on one play, then threw his first college TD pass to tight end Josiah Price from 15 yards out.
“He was calm and composed, all of that. He wasn’t freaking out or anything. It was like in practice,” offensive lineman Brian Allen said of Lewerke. “He’s still young, and that’s something you grow into. Maybe he’s not Connor Cook right now in the huddle, but he’s a young guy and has people’s respect. And they’re gonna listen to him.”
Lewerke went 5 of 7 for 73 first-quarter yards. He struggled in the second quarter and absorbed a punishing hit for a sack in the end zone that resulted in a Northwestern safety. After one drive to open the second half, Lewerke’s day was done. He finished 12 of 19 for just 99 yards, a score and no picks.
Salem and Dantonio both said the game got “too fast” for Lewerke, which resulted in him fleeing the pocket or abandoning his primary receivers earlier than he should have.
“As you get more comfortable, you’re not so quick to escape,” Salem said. “You know more with your eyes where to go. … He’ll get better.”
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O’Connor entered in the third quarter after starting the first five games of the season. The 6-3, 228-pound veteran from Lima, Ohio, threw long touchdown passes of 59 and 86 yards to Shelton, then delivered a 9-yard score to Donnie Corley. However, the Spartans’ 23-point second half wasn’t enough to overcome their defensive deficiencies.
Salem said O’Connor gave the offense “a spark.”
“He was still leading,” Shelton said of O’Connor. “He’s always been a leader – never been up or down. He just came to work.”
A week earlier, with the offense struggling under O’Connor against BYU, Terry got the nod over Lewerke to provide that spark. The 6-3, 232-pound native of Erie, Pennsylvania, entered the game in the fourth quarter, threw an interception on his first drive, then moved the Spartans to their second score on their ensuing possession. He finished 6 of 10 for 63 yards passing, taking a sack while also running for 29 yards and his first collegiate TD on eight carries.
“It’s a hard position where you can’t put two of them on the field at the same time,” Salem said. “(Terry is) battling, working, and so he’s just continuing to grow as a quarterback every year and every week.”
Salem said he does not expect true freshman Messiah deWeaver to join the crowd right now. The 6-4, 215-pound freshman from Huber Heights, Ohio, played during the spring game after enrolling early, but he mostly has been spending his time running the scout team to prepare MSU’s defense for opposing offenses.
“It’s just ever growing and ever knowing,” Salem said of deWeaver. “The process of quarterback just never ends regardless of where you are.”
That’s part of what he has been trying to preach to his veterans as well, as well as instilling confidence in them.
“Just to know there’s competition, you should never be comfortable, even as a coach or a player or as a position guy,” Salem said. “I’m just happy and very proud in how they handled it.”
Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@chrissolari.
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