Michigan State Football: 5 players who improved stock in 2019 spring game

The annual spring game has come and gone so which Michigan State football players improved their stocks after strong performances?

Michigan State is officially in the home stretch to the 2019 season. The spring game is in the rearview mirror and Mark Dantonio now has a better feel for his team with practices winding down before summer.

The defense beat the offense 42-26 in the only public scrimmage this spring and it gave fans a good opportunity to see just how far the team has come. The offense may have lost, but there’s potential for improvement there. The defense, well, picked up right where it left off in 2018.

Some players made names for themselves in the spring game while others weren’t quite as impressive as fans and coaches would have hoped.

Which five Spartans are trending up after the spring game?

Not many young guys who didn’t already haves roles for the fall stood out the way redshirt freshman defensive end Zach Slade did.

There was plenty of success up front on the defensive line from familiar faces as well as guys like Naquan Jones and DeAri Todd — two guys who figure to have big seasons — but Slade stood out in the absence of Kenny Willekes.

No, he didn’t get the start for the defense, but he played quite a bit and came up with two big turnovers for the green team. He recovered a fumble, which isn’t a huge deal, and then he read a screen pass to perfection, tipping the ball to himself and nearly taking it to the house. That’s a brilliant play for a young defensive end.

If he can continue this high IQ football, he’ll see plenty of action in the fall and he presumably helped his positioning on the depth chart in the spring game.