Michigan State Football: Felton Daivs III being under-utilized in 2018

After watching Michigan State football’s offense sputter through five games, it’s evident the Spartans are under-utilizing Felton Davis III.

Five games into the season, Felton Davis has 374 receiving yards and two touchdowns on 23 catches. He’s been Michigan State’s No. 1 target and he’s just starting to gain momentum.

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However, Michigan State hasn’t been using him quite enough as he is, by all accounts, a future NFL receiver.

Not many teams in college football have a 6-foot-4 receiver the caliber of Davis III who the quarterback can just toss the ball up to and almost guarantee he’s going to catch. The senior wide out wins all the 50-50 balls and he’s an impressive route runner with incredible hands.

Winning 50-50 balls apparently isn’t enough for Dave Warner to dial up plays to take full advantage.

In fact, in the red zone against Northwestern, all the staff had to call was a fade to Davis III or maybe even a back-shoulder throw in the end zone because the Wildcat defenders couldn’t keep up with him. A 50-50 ball to Felton in the corner of the end zone or even up near the front pylon would have been the difference between two field goals in the red zone and two touchdowns.

Sure, that eight-point swing wouldn’t have made the difference as the Spartans lost by 10, but they also failed to score in the red zone at the end of the game, turning the ball over on downs when Davis III was under-utilized yet again.

With Cody White out, Davis III needs to be a focal point in the offense and even though he finished with seven catches for 98 yards along with 50 rushing yards and two total touchdowns, he needs to see the ball more if this offense is going to succeed close to the end zone — or at all.

Any time he’s in single coverage (most of the game against Northwestern), he should be the target. Most team’s defensive backs have a hard time guarding him one-on-one and that should be where the ball goes 99.9 percent of the time in that case.

Michigan State has an under-utilized potential first-round talent at receiver, and that’s costing the Spartans seven points in the red zone more often than not.