13 Michigan State

Chutzpah, thy name is Sedrick Irvin. Here's a young man who spent 1992's Hurricane Andrew huddled with six other people in a bathroom in his native Miami, cracking jokes as the roof was being blown off the house. Who's so self-assured that in his first meeting with Spartans coach Nick Saban upon arriving in East Lansing, he told Saban that he had spent the previous night in jail. Saban, aware that Sedrick's cousin is Dallas Cowboys wideout Michael Irvin, was less than amused.

"There's a reason they call me the Miami Mouth," says Irvin, whose decision to attend Michigan State still has recruiters in the Sunshine State scratching their heads. "I run my mouth so much during practice that sometimes Coach yells at me, 'You're not that great.' " A self-confessed windbag, Irvin is a breath of fresh air in a program often associated with the dour countenances of Saban, now in his fourth season, and George Perles, who coached the Spartans from 1983 to '94. "It's refreshing to have a guy with such an upbeat personality," says Saban. "Besides, Sedrick's never a clown when it's time to play."

Despite back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons, Irvin was overshadowed in the Big Ten by running backs such as Darnell Autry of Northwestern in '96 and Curtis Enis of Penn State in '97 Then there's fellow junior Ron Dayne of Wisconsin, who received more ink than Irvin when both were true freshmen in '96, never mind Irvin's 16 rushing touchdowns.

Irvin will run behind an offensive line that lost three starters to the NFL, including All-Big Ten left tackle Flozell Adams. But junior quarterback Bill Burke, who started two games as a redshirt freshman and none as a sophomore, could miss the beef more than Irvin. Burke suffers from a chronic sore back, which can be aggravated by any twisting or throwing motion; as a result, he was limited to throwing every other day during spring practice. Defensive pressure only worsens the condition. It's not inconceivable that 6'6" true freshman Ryan Van Dyke could be the starter when the Spartans open with a visit from Colorado State.

"Quarterback is our one big question mark," says Saban, who, with gifted wide-outs in junior Gari Scott and sophomore Plaxico Burress, wants to pass more often. Scott was second on the team with 36 receptions a year ago. The 6'6" Burress, a Virginia state champion hurdler in high school, wowed the coaching staff with three touchdown grabs in the spring game.

The Spartans will be their typical smash-mouth selves on defense. Nine starters, including the entire line and secondary, return for a unit that ranked 13th nationally in total defense last year. The playmaker on this unit is 6'5", 264-pound junior end Robaire Smith, whose older brother Antonio plays on the Spartans' basketball team and led the Big Ten in rebounding two seasons ago. Robaire is physical, too, as his 11 sacks in '97 bear witness. His teammates call him Bubba after another Spartans defensive end named Smith, who made Big Ten quarterbacks' lives miserable before going on to NFL stardom.

The schedule isn't favorable. The Spartans' nonconference opponents include Oregon and Notre Dame as well as Colorado State, and they play Big Ten powerhouses Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State on the road. But as Irvin might say, bring 'em on.

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