Michigan State’s linebackers can’t remember when or why they settled on their third-down mantra. At some point, team captain and middle linebacker Riley Bullough looked at the players beside him and let them know it was time to “tip it back.”
It’s a reminder to turn up the intensity.
“It’s our third-down thing,” junior linebacker Chris Frey said. “You’ll see us out on the field and we’ll do it. We just like to leave everything on the field. It started last year. We’re just emptying the bucket.”
Whatever they’re emptying, the middle of No. 8 Michigan State’s defense has plenty of it. The Spartans have four linebackers who have at least eight tackles and have all made major contributions to a 2-0 start to the season. The team’s deepest position is only getting deeper. The return of sixth-year senior Ed Davis can help fill those buckets even more as he returns from injury.
Davis, a former honorable mention all-conference pick, tore his ACL last August and needed to wait until the second week of September to be officially cleared for a sixth season of eligibility by the NCAA. He played one snap against Notre Dame while trying to regain stamina and confidence in his injured leg. Head coach Mark Dantonio said the team plans on being smart about how they work Davis back into the lineup.
“We just felt like he wasn't quite there yet,” Dantonio said about last weekend. “... I think the more good players you have, the better it is. The more you can spread it around a little bit, keep people fresh with different packages (and) different things we can do to try to get him involved.”
Getting Davis involved with a group as active and gung-ho as the Spartan linebackers could be an interesting juggling act. He’s listed as Frey’s back-up for this Saturday’s marquee match-up against No. 11 Wisconsin, but fellow outside linebackers Jon Reschke and Andrew Dowell (first- and second-string on the other side of the defense) also have the ability to rotate through that position if needed.
The result, more so than specializing or certain packages, is tipping it back.
“We leave it all on the field,” said Reschke, who missed the season opener with an injury but made eight tackles and forced two turnovers against the Irish last week. “You go as hard as you can for a certain amount of plays and then let the next guy go as hard as he can. That’s how we roll.”
The same depth that helps the rest of the linebacker corps empty their personal buckets on any given series is letting Davis take a more measured approach. He said he’s 100 percent healthy now that he’s 13 months removed from the original injury, but mentally he’s still learning to calm his nerves and trust his knee.
“It definitely eases my mind,” he said. “I want to help my team in any way, but I know if I’m not ready to go in I can’t do anything but hurt my team. Us having depth at linebacker is great. It gives me a chance to ease back in and not risk me getting injured or hurting the team with things I can’t do.”
Michigan State’s unusual bye in the second week of the regular season gave players like Davis and Reschke a little extra time to get their legs under them. The flip side is that the Spartans are just starting an 11-game stretch of Notre Dame, BYU and nine Big Ten opponents. It will be an all-hands-on-deck marathon of a season for the Spartans, who will need their buckets to be overflowing with options at linebacker to make it through.
