Michigan State's Dillon Tatum, Alante Brown & Khalil Majeed dealing with 'longer-term' injuries
East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State junior defensive back Dillon Tatum, redshirt senior wide receiver Alante Brown and redshirt junior safety Khalil Majeed all suffered “longer-term” injuries during the Spartans’ week one victory over Florida Atlantic, head coach Jonathan Smith confirmed on Monday.
“Alante Brown will be hopeful to maybe November, coming back,” Smith said. “Khalil Majeed is doubtful to come back. Dillon Tatum, at least a couple months, if not for the year. So those three guys, which is a blow, with all three of them contributing, playing awesome. Feel really bad for them, but they are longer-term injuries.”
Smith noted that Tatum and Majeed are dealing with lower-body injuries, while Brown is dealing with an upper-body injury.
Tatum left the game following the first play of the third quarter. On the play, Tatum chased Florida Atlantic running back Zuberi Mobley toward the sideline and tackled him out of bounds. Tatum came down awkwardly on the left side of his body while attempting to bring Mobley to the ground. The West Bloomfield, Mich., native was called for a horse collar tackle penalty on the play.
Tatum recorded three tackles in a second-string role against Florida Atlantic before leaving with injury.
Tatum repped at both safety and nickel during fall camp. He filled in at nickel for Angelo Grose after Grose moved to safety in place of Malik Spencer, who was ejected due to targeting in the first half.
Central Florida transfer Nikai Martinez started at safety alongside Spencer and enjoyed a standout Spartan debut, finishing with six tackles and an interception. Michigan State will rely on Martinez and Spencer as its starting safeties moving forward, with Grose likely to move back to nickel.
“That’s a position (defensive back) that you need to have multiple bodies to play, especially when you think about DT (Tatum), his flexibility,” Smith said. “He can play nickel, he can play safety, he played corner a little bit last year, so he has some positional flexibility that now we don’t have. So getting Malik back will be huge. Nikai obviously had a nice game. And we have some answers. It’s always going to be ‘next man up.’ This game is a physical game and different positions are going to take a blow or two. We have to have the next guy step in.”
Majeed and Grose alternated at safety and nickel following Tatum’s injury. After Majeed left the game with an injury in the second half, however, Michigan State had few proven options left at nickel. Armorion Smith, a reserve nickel candidate, did not dress for Friday’s game. So with Tatum, Majeed and Smith unavailable and Grose and Martinez playing safety, Michigan State slotted Grose’s younger brother, Aveon, in at the nickel position.
The younger Grose, a walk-on transfer from Southern Illinois, logged two tackles in his fill-in appearance.
Spencer, Martinez, Grose and Smith are all experienced options for Michigan State at safety. But with Tatum and Majeed out, the Spartans will likely have to dip into their third-string unit for further depth at the position.
Brown caught one pass for 15 yards and returned one kickoff for 33 yards against Florida Atlantic. Michigan State coaches spoke highly of Brown’s development and leadership this offseason. The Spartans will now turn to a younger crop of wide receivers to fill in for the veteran Brown.
True freshman Nick Marsh and redshirt freshman Aziah Johnson received the most snaps at receiver outside of the starting group, which was made up of Brown, Montorie Foster and Jaron Glover. Antonio Gates Jr. and Jaelen Smith also figure to take on larger roles with Brown out and Michigan State looking to consistently rotate its receivers.
