Michigan State Football

Michigan State defensive back Shakur Brown will skip his senior year at Michigan State after declaring for the 2021 NFL draft, he announced in a tweet Monday.

"Ever since I was a child, it has always been my dream to compete at the highest level and play in the NFL," Brown wrote. "After much prayer and discussion with my family, I believe the time is right for me to pursue that dream."

Brown is tied for the national lead in interceptions this season with five and has also broken up four passes for the 2-5 Spartans, who end the season Saturday against Maryland. Brown did not say if he would play in the final game.

Per Matt Wenzel of MLive.com, Brown is the third cornerback in as many years to depart Michigan State a season early in favor of the NFL draft. The Jacksonville Jaguars drafted Josiah Scott in the fourth round earlier this year, a year after the Pittsburgh Steelers added Justin Layne.

After redshirting his first year, he tallied six tackles and returned an interception for a score through 12 games in 2018. He played in only seven games in 2019 because of injuries, recording 23 tackles, six pass breakups, two sacks and an interception.

Unless he plays Saturday, Brown will end his Michigan State tenure with 54 tackles, 16 pass breakups, seven interceptions and a pair of sacks through 26 appearances.

Michigan State football players Luke Fulton and Charles Willekes have both been suspended indefinitely from all team activities after getting arrested in September, according to Matt Wentzel of MLive.com.

Fulton was charged with aggravated assault related to a criminal complaint on Sept. 8 in East Lansing, but later accepted a plea for misdemeanor assault and battery. Willekes was arrested regarding the same complaint but his records have been sealed. 

Both players will have their records sealed as long as they complete the conditions of their sentence under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act. Fulton and Willekes will also avoid any jail time provided they complete the conditions of their plea agreements.

Fulton's lawyer Mike Nichols explained the situation involving his client.

"In order to avoid any misleading information, even though that record is supposed to be sealed at this point in the case, the charge was reduced to assault and battery, which is not an unusual resolution where the person really wasn't really hurt badly," Nichols said.

The Spartans are scheduled to begin their season Saturday against Rutgers after the entire Big Ten conference season was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Both players were looking to see more action in 2020 after redshirting during their first season last year.

Willekes is a walk-on who followed in the path of his brother, Kenny Willekes, who was a star last season for Michigan State after totaling 10 sacks and 78 tackles. The younger of the two appeared in one game last year on special teams.

Fulton was a 3-star recruit out of Ohio but is yet to see regular-season action.

Michigan State placed all of its football players into quarantine or self-isolation for 14 days after a member of the team and a second staff member tested positive for the coronavirus.

The school said in a statement: 

"As part of the athletic department's return to campus policy, student-athletes quarantine when coming into close contact with an individual who tests positive for COVID-19. The university has designated areas available to house individuals in quarantine as needed based upon the living arrangements of student-athletes."

The NCAA Division I Council allowed schools to hold limited practices for their football and basketball teams as early as June 1 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. To prepare for the 2020 football season, the group laid out a six-week schedule to steadily ramp up workouts.

With students slowly returning to campus, a number of schools announced they had student-athletes test positive for the coronavirus.

The council's plan gave the option of coaches requiring student-athletes to work out and attend team meetings for up to 20 hours per week beginning on Friday.

Michigan State, however, announced on Wednesday it was temporarily suspending all football training after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend.

The Big Ten announced it was adopting conference-only schedules for its fall sports this season. Friday's news, however, raises further doubts about the viability of staging a college football season any earlier than the spring.

The Spartans were originally supposed to kick off the season Sept. 5 against Northwestern. The school lists its schedule as "TBA" following the Big Ten's announcement.

Former Michigan State wide receiver Andre Rison alleged Monday former Spartans assistant coach Carl "Buck" Nystrom slapped him before a game against Illinois in October 1986. 

Rison told ESPN's Eric Woodyard he originally felt the situation was "part of being tough and being a football player that wanted to make it to the National Football League," but his view has changed over time, especially amid the current movement for racial justice.

"When the coach slapped me, the whole room got silent, and Mark Ingram Sr. put his arm around me," he said. "I shed a tear. I had never been struck by a grown man. Not by my grandfather, not by my father—who wasn't in my life a lot—but I just had never been struck by any man, and then I had never been struck by a white man, for sure. For a long time, I just held it in."

Rison played at MSU from 1985 through 1988. He explained to Woodyard the incident was never disclosed to anyone outside of those in the locker room that day, a group that included former Spartans defensive coordinator and current Alabama head coach Nick Saban:

"That man had no right to hit me. I never told my mom. I never told anybody. The only people that really knew were our whole team and all the coaches. Nick Saban was on that staff. He was one of the ones that came to me and consulted me. That's why I respect him to this day. I don't have to call Nick Saban every day and knock his door down, but Nick Saban offered my son a scholarship [to Alabama], and that was fair to me. That was fair and was all I ever asked for. I love Nick. I love Nick like a father figure."

Nystrom was an All-American guard at Michigan State before later returning to the school to serve as the offensive line coach. He was inducted in the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame as part of the 2014 class.

Neither Michigan State nor Kyle Nystrom, his son and Northern Michigan's current head football coach, returned requests for comment about Rison's allegation, per Woodyard.

Rison added he's happy to see the ongoing efforts to achieve racial equality:

"I played basketball at Michigan State and I also made All-Big Ten at Michigan State in indoor track, and I thought it was part of the culture of trying to get to the next level. Also, I was fresh off watching 'Roots' as a kid and listening to how slavery was. We were real close to [having learned] that, but not like this generation of professional athletes, so that's why I commend them for how they stand up and protest and the way they do for racial change.

"For me, myself, being in an interracial relationship, in a marriage of 15 years, I love my wife, and it doesn't matter what color you are and what race you come from, because we're all human."

Rison was selected by the Indianapolis Colts in the first round of the 1988 NFL draft. He earned five Pro Bowl selections and won Super Bowl XXXI with the Green Bay Packers in 1997 during a 12-year career.

Nystrom retired in 1992 after a 38-year collegiate coaching career.

Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh and men's basketball head coach Juwan Howard have each accepted 10 percent salary cuts for the 2021 fiscal year to help compensate for the athletic department's projected $26.1 million budget deficit due mostly to the COVID-19 pandemic, per Bryan Fischer of College Football Talk:

The cancellation of sports has caused numerous athletic departments to make budget cuts, including Michigan's.

NCAA winter championships were canceled this year, and spring sports seasons ended in mid-March.

Although the fall sports season is scheduled to begin on time, it's unclear if that will be case because of the pandemic.

The United States has recently seen a stark rise in COVID-19 cases, with the country setting a one-day high with at least 44,580 on Monday, per figures from the World Health Organization.

Harbaugh's salary was $7,504,000 for 2019, per USA Today. Howard signed a five-year deal starting at $2 million annually in 2019, per Nick Baumgardner and David Jesse of the Detroit Free Press.

Harbaugh and Howard aren't the only high-level athletic department employees taking pay cuts. Of note, athletic director Warde Manuel, other senior-level administrators and "many" head coaches will take 10 percent pay cuts beginning August 1, per Michigan's announcement.

Staffers earning between $100,001 and $150,000 will take 7.5 percent pay cuts, and those earning between $50,000 and $100,000 will see 5 percent pay cuts. Anyone earning below $50,000 will not have their salaries reduced.

The school projects spectator admissions revenues to drop 50 percent from fiscal year over fiscal year. Expenses have been cut in every area except for student-athlete financial aid, which has risen $800,000.

Curtis Blackwell's federal lawsuit against former Michigan State football coach Mark Dantonio, former president Lou Anna Simon and former athletic director Mark Hollis was dismissed on Wednesday.

Per Matt Wenzel of MLive.com, United States District Court Judge Janet Neff dismissed the case following March recommendations from magistrate judge Sally Berens. 

In addition to the dismissal, Neff ordered Blackwell's attorneys, Thomas Warnicke and Andrew Paterson, to pay monetary sanctions. 

Blackwell was a former staff member under Dantonio from 2013-17. He filed a lawsuit in November 2018 against Dantonio, Simon, Hollis and two Michigan State police detectives, saying he was wrongfully accused of covering up for student-athletes in an alleged sexual assault in January 2017.

Former Michigan State football players Josh King, Donnie Corley and Demetric Vance were sentenced to three years probation in June 2018 after pleading guilty to felony seduction charges stemming from an accusation that they raped a woman in the bathroom of her on-campus apartment. 

Per Chris Solari of the Detroit Free Press, police said Blackwell was led out of Michigan State's football facility in handcuffs on Feb. 8, 2017.

"With no evidence, none, that [Blackwell] covered up for the athletes, the MSU Police Department, in stormtrooper fashion cuffed [Blackwell]; seized his personal and MSU cell phones and hauled him off to the MSU Police station," the lawsuit read.

Per Wenzel, Blackwell refused to speak to representatives from Jones Day law firm which had been retained to investigate how sexual assault allegations against football players were handled by the athletics department. Blackwell was subsequently the only university staff member not to be cleared of wrongdoing in the firm's report. He said his Fifth Amendment rights were violated after his contract wasn't renewed following the investigation.

Wenzel noted that Berens' recommendation "admonished Blackwell's attorneys for using court filings to generate media attention. 

Neff ruled that Blackwell has until June 5 to find new representation, as his lawsuit against the two Michigan State police officers will be allowed to continue.  

As the sports world continues to figure out how to navigate amid the coronavirus pandemic, it sounds like Michigan State football is ahead of other programs with its ability to recruit virtually. 

Per The Athletic's Colton Pouncy, some of the Spartans' top 2021 commits praised the coaching staff's ability to innovate under the current circumstances. 

Safety Gabe Nealy, who committed to the school in April, told Pouncy about his virtual meeting with Michigan State:

"The coaches spoke about how things were going to be at MSU. They talked about schemes, my role there and they really just laid out my entire future for me. Me and my family really loved that they had a plan for me and how they were going to develop me and they laid everything out for us. I told the staff I was committing immediately after the visit."

According to Pouncy, there is a process to setting up virtual visits that starts if a recruit is interested roughly one week in advance.

After the calls are organized, recruits meet various members of the athletic and academic staffs that is capped off by a meeting with new head coach Mel Tucker and positional coaches who will explain the player's role on the team. 

"I talked to all the coaches for about 15 minutes about the school and why I could be beneficial to the program, and we finished off with the head coach," safety Jah'von Grigsby told Pouncy of his experience. "They like my versatility on the field. I can play on the roof, the box or even nickel."

Pouncy noted some things that Michigan State does, including a festival theme for its various virtual visits by setting up "booths" along the way that show different departments in the football program. 

Tight end Kameron Allen showed off one of the graphics put together by the Spartans of him in a green and white uniform sitting atop a throne:

Michigan State's ability to adapt and innovate because of limitations stemming from the pandemic is particularly crucial with a new coaching staff in place. Mark Dantonio stepped down in February, leaving the Spartans scrambling to fill his job. 

Tucker, who began his coaching career with Michigan State as a graduate assistant from 1997-98, returned to the program after resigning as head coach at Colorado. Based on the early returns from his recruiting skills, the Spartans have to be happy with their choice. 247Sports ranks MSU 23rd nationally in the 2021 recruiting cycle.

Michigan State football head equipment manager Andrew Kolpacki is putting his sewing skills to good use during the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Nick Mantas of WLNS, Kolpacki and his friends, MSU alums Garrett Briningstool and Lauren Scott, are using his personal sewing machine to make masks in an effort to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Kolpacki said of the endeavor: "Sewing is used in football equipment [and] we usually are repairing jerseys, but obviously without being on the football field right now for spring football, we can use that skill that we've developed and put it towards good use."

Briningstool noted that they learned how to make masks by watching YouTube videos.

Scott described the trio's plans for the masks moving forward: "We will continue to make masks as long as we are self-quarantined and self-isolating. So for the next 30 days we will be making masks and we will be sending them to local health care workers and nursing homes and sharing with family and friends."

Per CNN, there are over 880,000 known cases of COVID-19 worldwide, resulting in more than 44,000 deaths. The United States has the most reported cases of any country with nearly 190,000, and there have been over 4,000 deaths as a result.

Per Nick Miroff of the Washington Post, 90 percent of U.S. mayors who responded to a national survey last week said they lacked sufficient face masks and other protective equipment for first responders and emergency and medical personnel.

Michigan State defensive lineman Kenny Willekes provided an answer for those who doubt his athleticism going into the 2020 NFL draft.

Willekes tweeted a video of himself completing a number of impressive athletic feats, including propelling himself up a wall into a backflip and walking on his hands:

ESPN's Adam Schefter noted "Without Pro Days, this is one way that draft prospects now try to impress NFL teams" with many of the league's offseason activities postponed or canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Production wasn't much of an issue for the Michigan State product during his collegiate career.

He tallied double-digit tackles for loss in each of his final three seasons for the Spartans, including 20.5 in 2018. He finished the 2019 campaign with 78 tackles, 15.5 tackles for loss, 10 sacks, two fumble recoveries and a forced fumble.

Willekes ran a 4.87-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine, and Lance Zierlein of NFL.com pointed to his effort over his athleticism when providing a breakdown.

"He's a high effort worker-bee with a relentless nose for the football. His refusal to give in until the whistle is more responsible for his success than his size or athletic traits. He's neither quick nor explosive, but he's very instinctive and has an above-average understanding of blocking scheme and play development. He's become a very impactful college player against all odds, but lacks the athletic profile to stick around long-term as a pro."

That is exactly the type of scouting report Willekes is addressing with this video. 

Bleacher Report's Matt Miller projected Willekes as the 16th-best edge-rusher in this draft and predicted he would go in the fourth round in a post-Super Bowl mock draft.

La Keshia Neal, the mother of Notre Dame defensive lineman Daelin Hayes, is disputing a claim made by former Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio that he and assistant coach Curtis Blackwell didn't visit Hayes at his home during the recruiting process.

According to the Detroit News' Tony Paul, Dantonio testified at a January deposition that Blackwell didn't travel along with him to visit recruits at their homes, noting it would've been an NCAA violation.

However, Neal provided a sworn affidavit saying Blackwell was part of a group from Michigan State that came to her home in December 2015. Neal provided a picture as well.

Hayes was the No. 10 outside linebacker in the 2016 recruiting class, per 247Sports' composite rankings, and chose the Fighting Irish.

Blackwell filed suit against Dantonio, former university President Lou Anna Simon, former MSU Athletic Director Mark Hollis and two MSU police detectives, in November 2018, per the Lansing State Journal's Matt Mencarini:

"The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Grand Rapids alleges that the defendants 'feeling the heat from the Larry Nassar cover-up, and eager to prove they were tough on cover-ups, ran roughshod over (Blackwell's) rights when he was wrongly accused of covering up for MSU athletes involved in an alleged sexual assault of a female co-ed in January 2017.

"With no evidence, none, that (Blackwell) covered up for the athletes, the MSU Police Department, in stormtrooper fashion cuffed (Blackwell); seized his personal and MSU cell phones and hauled him off to the MSU Police station.'"

As the case continues to wind through the legal system, Paul reported Feb. 4 that Blackwell alleged Dantonio had committed NCAA violations.

Blackwell claimed the former coach "orchestrated employment for the parents of two MSU football players, with mega-donor Bob Skandalaris."

He also said he was with a contingent of Spartans representatives for a visit with an unnamed recruit. Blackwell, director of college advancement and performance, wasn't permitted under NCAA rules to have off-campus visits with prospective recruits.

In his deposition, Dantonio said Blackwell had traveled once for a visit but remained in their car.

The 63-year-old resigned earlier this month and told reporters Blackwell's ongoing lawsuit had "no relevance whatsoever" in his decision. Michigan State athletic director Bill Beekman also said the allegations made by Blackwell "are patently false" from the school's understanding.

The Spartans hired Mel Tucker to succeed Dantonio.

According to the Detroit Free Press' Chris Solari, Tucker's deal reflected the current situation at the program. Should the NCAA levy any sanctions against Michigan State, an extra year will be added to the deal. Should the punishment carry over to more than one year, the extension would reflect the length of the sanctions.