STARKVILLE — While the Mississippi State University football staff can’t ignore the new star defensive players arriving for spring practices, they can treat them like walk-ons.
Before they play in their first Division 1 football game months from now, defensive lineman Denico Autry and Quay Evans will be forced to work their way up the Bulldogs depth chart in spring workouts scheduled to restart this weekend.
Mississippi State’s early enrollees this spring include defensive end Denico Autry, defensive tackle Quay Evans, center Dylan Holley, offensive lineman Charles Siddoway and offensive lineman Justin Senior.
Despite being highly-recruited talents that MSU was able to obtain and get enrolled for spring practices, neither Autry or Evans will have a name on their jersey. Nothing will be on their maroon helmet despite a piece of tape with their last name written on it. Everything from now on will be earned.
“We don’t have scout teams in spring so they’re just going to try to get out there,” MSU coach Dan Mullen said Tuesday. “One of the things I think you see in spring is a lot more balance of reps across the board for everybody. It’s an opportunity for them to learn and for a lot of people to prove themselves. So I think you’ll see them rotate in pretty regularly, trying to work with the (second-string) and the (third-string) group to start off and working their way up.”
The opening of football practice Thursday was cancelled due to weather and is likely to restart Saturday morning with all workouts open to the public.
Evans, a four-star prospect from Morton High School, and Autry, who local fans are familiar with as a Junior College All-American defensive lineman from East Mississippi Community College are the highlighted members of the five early enrollees as MSU tries to add to the defensive line depth.
“Obviously we need the d-line to step up big,” Mullen said. “When you’re losing a top player in Fletcher Cox and an experienced guy like Sean Ferguson and Trevor Stigers who was a rotator a little bit. With those guys all moving on that’s a spot that you have to see some guys step up.
A few weeks removed from winning a National Junior College National Championship at EMCC, Autry gave his verbal commitment to the Bulldogs program on Dec. 13.
“I have a pretty good relationship with the coaches,” Autry said after committing to MSU. “I watched a lot of film and man I can see myself making a lot of tackles in (MSU defensive coordinator Chris)Wilson’s defense.”
Evans, a 305-pound defensive tackle prospect, was rated the top prospect in the state of Mississippi among all positions by various recruiting services. Scout.com has listed him among their top three prep defensive linemen for two years after he was credited with 72 tackles with 4.5 sacks, four forced fumbles and two fumbles recovered in his senior season at Morton. Evans, who is likely to see some playing time early chose Mississippi State over Auburn, USC, Florida State, LSU, Alabama, Ole Miss and a host of other programs.
Autry, who will try to give MSU an instant pass rushing threat, led all Lion defensive linemen with 81 total tackles (54 solos and 27 assists), including a team-high 11 sacks and 13 other tackles for loss at EMCC. The Albemarle, N.C., native was also credited with 41 quarterback hurries, four pass breakups and a pair of forced fumbles on the season.
“You watch them run or watch our guys do agilities, they’re both very, very athletic guys but for any player coming in in the spring is an enormous advantage,” Mullen said. You actually get to learn the proper way to learn.”
For the development of Autry and Evans, the tutoring begins now so they’re ready to contribute starting in fall practices.
“Where how the rules are set up in football, you have to crunch it all in in the fall really fast before you go play a game and that is not the most beneficial way to learn,” Mullen said. “So these guys, the opportunity to come in spring is to really get a grasp for everything that is going on and let it sink in, puts them in a great position to be able to contribute and play next fall for us.”
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