Freshman Madaris Trying to Factor In At Receiver

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By Brian Colloway, Lansing State Journal

The wide receiver position is a crowded one for the Michigan State football team with several young players vying for time.

True freshman Monty Madaris is among those in the mix and is hoping for an opportunity to play this season.

“It means everything,” Madaris said of the opportunity at receiver. “That’s my dream. That’s why I came to Michigan State is to play. Football is basically my life right now.”

The 6-foot-1, 190-pound Madaris was a prized recruit in MSU's 2012 class. He was regarded as one of the nation's top receivers by several recruiting services while starring at Cincinnati Moeller.

Madaris knows playing this season hinges on how quickly he gets familiar with the playbook and adjusts to the pace of the college level. He is trying to gain as much knowledge as possible to put himself in the best position to play.

“We have a couple of upperclassmen and right now I’m just learning from them,” Madaris said. “I’ve got to learn the plays. The older receivers, they really are my mentors right now with learning the offense.”

MSU coach Mark Dantonio has seen good things from many different receivers and said everybody is in the mix at the position.

“All of our guys catch the ball very, very well. It’s basically whose going to be able to step up there and learn what they have to do the fastest,” Dantonio said. “I think Macgarret Kings has shown some things. He’s exciting to watch after he catches the football. Tres (Barksdale) has made some very good plays down the field catching the ball and also Madaris has been solid.

“We’ve seen Kyle Kerrick and DeAnthony (Arnett) in the spring and we’ve seen a day or two of (Aaron) Burbridge and he’s got skills. All those guys are guys that we would recruit over again and I think they’re gonna play a lot of football here. But they’re young and so they’re still learning how to get lined up in the huddle, let alone sometimes on the field and in the various formations that we have.”