Michigan State football's Mel Tucker moving players' positions, adds grad transfer kicker
EAST LANSING — Mel Tucker said he emerged from Michigan State football’s second scrimmage on Saturday with a good understanding of his team's makeup.
He also mentioned three Spartans he wants to see contribute at other positions.
Two of them are redshirt freshmen moving from offense to defense, with Hamp Fay switching from quarterback to safety and Davion Primm shifting from running back to cornerback. True freshman Dillon Tatum also slides over from safety to cornerback in an attempt to get on the field faster.
“I was encouraged to see what Primm did in the scrimmage. He made some plays on the ball,” Tucker said Monday. “Dillon Tatum has been playing some safety — he's playing corner now, and I was encouraged by what I saw from him there. We have taken a look at Hamp Fay at some safety, so I saw him do some good things as well. …
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“They're really young guys, and they're still developing. So the key is to get the best players on the field and get them on the bus and get them on the right seat on the bus so they can be productive.”
Perhaps the biggest news for Fay is he is out of the running for the backup quarterback job, which offensive coordinator Jay Johnson said Thursday is a competition between Noah Kim and Katin Houser. Fay, 6 feet 5 and 22 pounds, was the only scholarship quarterback not named by Johnson in the battle, and the second-year player from Texas was Tucker’s first quarterback signee in the 2021 class.
The move only became official “the last few practices,” with Tucker adding that Fay also has been working on special teams all of preseason camp.
“Noah Kim has been playing well, and Houser is coming along pretty nicely,” Tucker said. “So I feel good about those guys and what (offensive coordinator Jay Johnson) has been able to get done with them. … I'm not trying to put (Fay) in the Hall of Fame and say he's going out there and running through guys or anything. When we put him out there, he had the movement skills. He's smart. he's got range. He can run — he ran track in high school, he was a hurdler. He's a big guy, and he's a high-effort, high-intensity guy.
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“So he understands the game, and he just likes to play ball. We saw that.”
Primm’s move, while less surprising, still is intriguing. He emerged as one of the buzziest names from coaches during spring practice, after the departure of Kenneth Walker III to the NFL and before the transfer arrival of Jarek Broussard from Colorado. Broussard and Wisconsin transfer Jalen Berger presented a major logjam in the backfield for the 6-foot, 195-pound Oak Park native.
Four-star prospect Tatum could benefit from the shift, potentially even working into the nickel back spot at some point. The 5-11, 185-pound former West Bloomfield High star enrolled in January to begin learning coordinator Scottie Hazelton’s defense, and a move to corner means he is getting hands-on work with Tucker at his new position.
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“We talked about Primm and DT, you're always looking for corners — I am always looking for corners,” Tucker said. “And the reason why is because that's not the easiest position to play, and it's difficult to find guys that can go out there have that skill set to do that. We're always eyeballing guys, even all high school tape. It could be a quarterback, a running back, a receiver. A guy could be a safety, but he could have the skills to play corner.
“Those are guys that we look at and say, 'Hey, let's look at them at corner.' If we put them out there and they look pretty good, we know they can do it, and we keep working with them.”
Senior safety Xavier Henderson pointed to Justin Layne beginning his MSU career as a wide receiver before moving to cornerback and becoming a third-round NFL draft pick. Jeremy Langford, like Primm, bounced between running back and cornerback before settling back in on offense and becoming a fourth-round draft pick.
“Coach (Mark Dantonio) used to love moving everybody around,” Henderson said. “So I just tell dudes when they get moved around it's an opportunity and to not look at it as anything but opportunity and control which you can control.”
Tucker also said ultimately it is his call to change positions, but that he won’t do it without talking to the player first.
“It's a conversation with the young man,” Tucker said “We don't just go and come out to practice one day and the guy's over here with the quarterbacks and say, 'Hey, guess what? You're playing safety.' No, you gotta sit down and have a conversation and present it and say, 'OK, what do you think?' There's a conversation and it's, 'OK, ready, break. Let's go take a look at it.' …
“We're always keeping their future in mind as well. I mean, first and foremost, it's about the team. But it's about how we think that they can be most productive and have the best career. It's a two-way street. We're working with the guys. When we move guys, we're doing it with intent, and there's a good reason to do it.”
Kicker update
Tucker continues to monitor the battle at kicker between freshman Jack Stone and sophomore walk-on Stephan Rusnak, saying “I like what I'm seeing from those guys.”
However, they now have competition.
MSU confirmed Monday afternoon the addition of graduate transfer kicker Ben Patton from Auburn. A 2019 Rochester Adams grad, Patton played in four games last season for the Tigers, making 5 of 6 field-goal attempts, including a 49-yarder in overtime against Alabama, and all six of his point-after kicks.
Patton, 5-10, 200 pounds, also went 2-for-2 in Auburn’s Birmingham Bowl loss to Houston and handled kickoff duties in two games.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football: Mel Tucker moving players, adds kicker
