Will Michigan State's Brian Lewerke start vs. Purdue? Too early to tell

EAST LANSING — Mark Dantonio said co-offensive coordinator Dave Warner approached him during Saturday’s game about taking out injured quarterback Brian Lewerke.

Michigan State’s head coach made the choice to ride it out with his junior starter, even as he struggled with his accuracy.

The timing was not right, Dantonio said.

What happens moving forward with Lewerke’s shoulder could dictate a move to either Rocky Lombardi or Theo Day, the 12th-year coach said Sunday night on a teleconference to recap the Spartans’ 21-7 loss to Michigan a day earlier.

“I think this is a situation that gets better over the course of time,” Dantonio said of Lewerke’s right arm. “So I think even now, as the week progressed, he felt better. That’s why we made the decision and he made the decision that he would play.

“I think it’s better today than it was yesterday, so we’ll have to make the decision as we go.”

Lewerke went 5 of 25 for just 66 yards but also caught a 4-yard TD pass on a trick play Saturday against the Wolverines, admitting after the game he suffered the injury a week earlier in MSU’s upset win at Penn State. According to ESPN Stats & Info, Lewerke’s 20-percent passing performance also was the worst completion percentage by a Big Ten quarterback with at least 20 attempts in the past 20 years.

“I don’t want to make excuses with that,” Lewerke said after the game. “Obviously, it probably affected it (accuracy) a little bit. But not enough to be as bad as I played today.”

Dantonio cautioned not to put the Spartans’ loss solely on Lewerke’s injury or inaccuracy, though he did admit his second-year starter was “off” during the game.

“It’s protection, down and distance, separation the wide receivers can get on the defensive backs and certainly concept used. You have to look at that as well,” Dantonio said. “There’s a lot going into it. … You know, people want to put it on one person. It’s not just on one person. It’s on our entire unit. And coaches. “

The Wolverines had just come off a scoring drive to go up by 14 points with 10:21 to play. After a touchback, Lewerke came out again with MSU’s offense.

“Coach Warner sort of suggested — we talked about when we would do that, but I wanted to stay with Lewerke for one more series,” Dantonio said, adding he “wanted to give Brian Lewerke one more chance” to move the offense.

It was a three-and-out series, with Lewerke scrambling for 3 yards and then throwing two incomplete passes. The last was when Lewerke was under pressure and rolling to his left, a laser high and wide of double-covered Darrell Stewart Jr.

Michigan got the ball back and milked 6:41 off the clock before punting. Dantonio put in Lombardi with 2:38 to play. The redshirt freshman moved the Spartans down the field, largely because the Wolverines committed four penalties on the drive. However MSU’s offense stalled at the U-M 39 and turned it over on downs when Lombardi was sacked twice before throwing an incomplete pass on fourth down.

Dantonio, who after the game voiced a vote of confidence for Lewerke as his starter, also gave more insight into last week’s practices. After saying Lewerke did not practice Monday through Thursday, Dantonio said his QB did practice in a limited capacity, running the ball but not throwing it. Lombardi and Day took turns running the first-team offense.

Whether that means he will start Saturday at home against Purdue (noon, ESPN) remains to be seen.

“I’ve always believed in him. I’ve always felt like he has a great demeanor. I’ve always said that,” Dantonio said. “He’s a confident guy on the field and off the field, and he can roll with things. If he does have a bad moment, I’ve always believed he can respond.

“I have faith in our other quarterbacks, too, but I’m always gonna give our guy a chance. He’s put himself in a situation where he’s proven himself.”

‘Juvenile’ pregame

Dantonio gave one brief remark on the pregame dustup between a few Wolverines and his players, who were making their traditional phalanx march the length of the field about two hours before kickoff Saturday.

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh called Dantonio and the scuffle “bush league.” Dantonio responded by saying the accusations were “B.S.”

“You know, really not going to even bother commenting on it. I’ve never commented on a coach in the past, and I’m not gonna comment on one now,” Dantonio said Sunday night. “And the whole thing to me was sort of juvenile. And things are gonna happen in rivalry games, but I sort of stand by what I said yesterday.”

More:Michigan State football's account of pregame skirmish with Michigan

More:Michigan football's account of pregame skirmish with Michigan State

Receivers down

Felton Davis III is expected to undergo surgery on his torn left Achilles this week, Dantonio said, a college career-ending injury that will take about six months of rehab as the senior prepares for the NFL draft in April.

That leaves a lot of questions and issues at wide receiver for MSU.

Dantonio said he expects sophomore Cody White to be back “sooner than later” but declined to give a more concrete time frame. Redshirt freshman C.J. Hayes was “coming on” in practice in recent weeks before he suffered an unspecified injury last week at Penn State and missed the U-M game. Laress Nelson also did not play with a leg injury he suffered late in that game, while Jalen Nailor returned but in limited snaps Saturday. And Dantonio said Brandon Sowards also did not practice Wednesday or Thursday but played Saturday.

“It’s difficult with our wide receiver situation,” Dantonio said, “because they’ve been in total flux. … But you can’t make excuses in a football game. You gotta play with what you got. You gotta play it on game day. And they played better than we did, certainly on the defensive side of the ball, and they got things going offensively as well.

“So we gotta be able to play through the pain, I guess.”

Dantonio did not get as specific with center Matt Allen’s lower-body injury, saying the sophomore’s status “is sort of an unknown a little bit” and would not get into a prognosis.

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Download our Spartans Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!