EAST LANSING – When Keith Bhonapha began investigating Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams during the portal process, the new Michigan State football running backs coach remembered the Massachusetts transfer started his career in the Big Ten.
But Bhonapha learned far more about Lynch-Adams from his response about why he did.
“I asked him why he left Rutgers. And he said he was immature and he probably should have stayed,” Bhonapha recalled after practice Thursday. “And as soon as he said that, I’m like, ‘This is the kind of guy I want in my room – a guy that is self aware,’ because self-awareness is a quality that a lot of people don’t have. And he has it.”
Lynch-Adams returns this fall to his Midwest roots for his sixth and final college season and back to a conference he is familiar with, having also discovered plenty about himself since his younger years. With the opportunity comes a chance to show he has the vision and talent to shine in the Big Ten, like he always felt he could.
“I was kind of getting my feet wet a little bit. And it was me just kind of rushing my process, just not really understanding that this thing might take a little bit of time,” said Lynch-Adams, who spent two years at Rutgers in 2019 and 2020 before departing for UMass. “It was really, like (Bhonapha) said, just me being immature in a way where it was just like, ‘I want it now, I want it now.’ And that really wasn’t my speed or my process.”
MSU is coming off its worst rushing production in school history from a year ago, one of the worst on-field issues during a season of low points that resulted in Mel Tucker being fired and almost his entire staff being dismissed. Last season, the Spartans ranked 125th out of 130 Football Bowl Subdivision teams at just 89.5 rushing yards per game, the lowest average in school history. Their 289.3 yards of total offense also was the program’s worst in 32 years.
Some of that inertia in the run game was due to MSU needing to attempt to pass its way back into games. But much of it was due to an inability to sustain blocks at the line of scrimmage to free up starting running back Nate Carter, who like Lynch-Adams arrived last fall as a mid-major transfer from the Northeast (Connecticut) looking to show he could shine in the smash-mouth Big Ten.
Both have their work cut out for them this season.
Instead of leaving for his final two years of eligibility after Tucker’s termination, Carter stayed and impressed new coach Jonathan Smith and his staff to cement his status during the transition this spring. And he showed enough last season to land on the Doak Walker Award watch list earlier this week. The 5-10, 202-pound native of Rochester, New York, started all 12 games last season and led MSU with 798 yards and four touchdowns.
“I have a lot of confidence in Coach Smith and his offense,” Carter told reporters at Big Ten media days last month in Indianapolis. “And even this spring, it (was) great being able to learn a new offense and seeing myself and how I can be successful in this offense. It’s given me a lot of confidence, and I think it’s giving our team a lot of confidence to see the success we’ve had offensively.”
He now gets a new running mate in Lynch-Adams, who agreed to transfer to MSU days after Smith and Co. closed out their 15 spring practices. The addition after attrition was a necessity to rebuild the depth beyond Carter, with the Spartans losing four running backs from a year ago into the portal after the coaching change – Jalen Berger (UCLA), Jaren Mangham (Minnesota), Davion Primm (Moorehead State) and Jaelon Barbarin.
“He’s a great guy, and it’s been amazing to be here and work with him in the summer,” Carter said of Lynch-Adams. “He’s very very explosive, very fast. He’s very productive, as you could see from what he did last year. So it’s going to be amazing for us to be able to feed off of each other to help our offense win games and do what we need to do. I believe we’re going to have a very productive offense this year, and I think that’s going to rely heavily on how we do as a running back group.”
Lynch-Adams should slide into the No. 2 role behind Carter, though it also could turn into more of a 1A-1B situation depending how Saturday’s first scrimmage, a second one a week later and the rest of preseason camp plays out heading into the Aug. 30 opener against Florida Atlantic (7 p.m./BTN).
“I think the one thing you’re gonna get with Nate is the consistency of how he comes to work every day, the way he’s going to attack the in-between time, when it’s time to watch film, when it’s time to take care of his body and maintenance. I think when it comes to being a conscientious player, he’s probably one of the top that I’ve been around throughout my coaching career,” said Bhonapha, who arrived with Smith from Oregon State. “I think when it comes to Kay’Ron, he has a lot of those attributes as well. But for him, he’s kind of playing catch-up just not being here during spring ball and just being a couple of months behind.
“I would say similarities, they both are very agile. You think about that change of direction, I’m always preaching these guys about transitions, they both have that innate ability to make guys miss in space. I think both of those guys are really tough. They’re not huge, big guys, but they’re hard to tackle, they usually fall forward, they know how to make guys miss. Those are the things you want.”
MSU’s other scholarship running backs are both freshmen who were committed to Smith and staff at Oregon State. Brandon Tullis early-enrolled in January and took third-team reps during the spring, and Makhi Frazier arrived this summer.
A 5-foot-10, 215-pound native of Warren, Ohio, Lynch-Adams left Piscataway and emerged in three seasons with the Minutemen, rushing for 1,888 yards and 16 touchdowns on 442 carries in 30 games. A year ago, he finished with 1,157 yards and 12 touchdowns on 236 carries, adding 20 catches for 118 receiving yards.
That came after playing 18 games in two seasons with the Scarlet Knights, getting 83 carries for 320 yards and two rushing touchdowns along with a receiving score while playing behind current NFL running backs Isiah Pacheco and one-time MSU commit Raheem Blacksheer. Lynch-Adams played in two MSU games while at Rutgers, including at a near-empty Spartan Stadium to open the 2020 pandemic-shortened season.
And he said having a Big Ten background has helped ease his transition since returning.
“It was me just having to understand once I left that situation, just looking back on it, that I kind of, should have kind of maneuvered around in a different way,” Lynch-Adams said of his days at Rutgers. “But everything happens for a reason. So I’m back in a situation that I once was in when I first started my college career. So that’s a real big, exciting move for me.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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Opening game
Matchup: Michigan State (4-8 in 2023) vs. Florida Atlantic (4-8 in 2023).
Kickoff: 7 p.m. Aug. 30; Spartan Stadium, East Lansing.
TV/radio: Big Ten Network; WJR-AM (760).
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football: Can revamped RB room revive ground game?
