Jonathan Smith Impressed by Growth for Michigan State Football
With the final day of Spring practices come and gone, Michigan State Football will now turn its focus to making sure it keeps as much of its team intact for the fall, when the season begins.
Team leaders have made their mark throughout the spring, and they know they have to get better. A team that went a disappointing 5-7 last season will be shooting for a much better second season under Coach Smith.
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It appears the growth Smith was looking for was present throughout the 15 days of practice the team was able to have throughout this month. Despite not having a Spring Game this year, the Spartans took full advantage of their practices.
Coach Smith addressed the media, including Chris Solari from the Detroit Free Press, on Thursday, talking about the growth he has seen from his team before today's final practice.
"Feel good about the work that we've gotten done over the last five weeks," Smith said. " Guys stayed in it, continued to work.
That's all you can ask for a group that has plenty of new faces, alongside key returners at major positions. The quarterback room appears to be as comfortable a group as seen in some time in East Lansing.
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Returning starter Aidan Chiles spoke very highly of backup quarterback rising redshirt-freshman Alessio Milivojevic just last week. Inconsistency was an issue for Chiles last year, but to have the room feeling confident all-around is only going to help the Spartans try to reach their goals in 2025.
On the defensive side of the ball, defensive lineman Alex VanSumeren appears to have become one of the biggest vocal leaders for the Spartans. Not to mention, he has been a huge driving force in getting the new team members to buy into what Coach Smith has been preaching.
VanSumeren spoke on the importance of carrying on the vision enforced by Coach Smith.
" We're trying to be the best football team we can be. And people see the vision," VanSumeren said. " And for the guys that stayed, in college football these days, guys are hopping around at a bunch of schools. You gotta have pride in your school. I have pride in the university, and the people here, pride in the degree, stuff like that. And especially for the new guys, I've been trying to teach them stuff, just about the place in general."
With Spring Practice now over, Michigan State Football is focused on playing its best ball in 2025 and beyond.
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