Long hoping to repeat Saint-Dic's rise

EAST LANSING - All the expectations Brandon Long had as a junior were pushed aside when Jonal Saint-Dic pushed him aside.

No one could have predicted last fall, when Long exited camp as the first-string defensive end, that Saint-Dic would develop into an All-Big Ten and future NFL player as he seized the starting spot to anchor Michigan State's defensive line.

With one final chance to re-establish himself, Long is again penciled in as a starter. The senior said he's rebuilt his confidence and, like Saint-Dic a year ago, worked all summer on becoming a more dynamic playmaker.

"Jonal went out and had a great season. Out of nowhere, he just decided he was going to be a great player, and there was nothing I could do," said Long, who again is expected to start on the end of the line. "It was best for the team, which is fine. But absolutely, it does motivate you to want to be a better player, to want the same type of thing to happen to you to help your team out. Hopefully, I'll have a similar result."

It wasn't as if the 6-foot-4, 250-pound Long, who played seven games in his true freshman season in 2005, didn't contribute. He played in all 13 games, recording 18 tackles and four of them for a loss. Two of those were sacks.

But his biggest contribution came in the Champs Sports Bowl after Saint-Dic was ruled academically ineligible. Long stepped in again at the starting spot, recording a season-high four tackles and reinvigorating both his and the coaching staff's belief.

Defensive line coach Ted Gill said of Long, "It's his time."

"He made a little comment to me in the offseason which was a little funny. I was really getting after him pretty good about a couple things, and he said, 'Coach, it seems like you're on me quite a bit.' And I said, 'Last year, you were a backup. This year, you're a starter. That comes with the territory'," Gill said. "That woke him up, and he realized what I was trying to do was motivate him to become a better player. He's really had a good offseason, and I look for Brandon to have a good year this year."

In his first two seasons under John L. Smith's staff, which recruited Long as a linebacker out of GlenOak High in Canton, Ohio, Long played immediately, seeing time in 17 games and making 11 tackles.

Then when Mark Dantonio took over at MSU, he planned to use the speed advantage Long carried onto the line from his days as a linebacker. It'll be critical this season, as Long is paired opposite Cincinnati transfer Trevor Anderson on the defensive line.

"Brandon's just an athletic freak - he squatted like 600 pounds," Anderson said. "He's playing with a lot more confidence and technique than he was last year. He doesn't realize it, but I'm around him all the time and I realize he's going to explode this year."

After starting against Alabama-Birmingham and Bowling Green at the start of 2007, games in which he had two of his five tackles for losses, Long begrudgingly watched the undersized Saint-Dic - now with the Kansas City Chiefs - begin to usurp his minutes.

Still, he's understanding as to why he didn't see the field as much as he'd hoped.

"The minutes I wanted? No - everybody wants to be a starter, the main guy," Long said of last season. "But did I get what I deserved? Yeah, sure. It's not really what I deserved, but it's what (Saint-Dic) deserved. You're never satisfied as an athlete, you always want greater and more. Hopefully, I can achieve some of those things this season."