DEFENSIVE END Trevor Anderson puts a lick on Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen during a game earlier this season. Anderson has three sacks for minus-24 yards in the Spartans' first five games this season. - Dan Graschuck photo

EAST LANSING – It’s been a circuitous route to the starting Michigan State defensive end position for former Detroit Crockett High School star Trevor Anderson.

Nevertheless, Anderson has found a home at MSU after transferring from Cincinnati and following former Cincinnati coach Mark Dantonio, who now is in his second year at the helm at MSU.

The road to East Lansing was hardly a smooth ride, though. The NCAA does not make it easy for a young student-athlete to change directions once he or she makes a pressurized decision concerning which college to attend at 17 or 18 years old.

If a student-athlete decides to transfer from one college to another, the NCAA penalizes the kid. If a coach decides to skip town and coach at another school, the NCAA puts on its blinders.

It is a double standard. Almost every student-athlete chooses a college because of the coach. If the coach leaves, the players are stuck.

Two years ago, Anderson experienced the NCAA double standard.

Dantonio left Cincinnati to take the MSU job and Anderson decided to follow him. But new Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly (formerly Central Michigan’s head coach) would not release Anderson.

It mattered little that Anderson viewed Ted Gill (his defensive line coach at Cincinnati) as a father figure and that Gill followed Dantonio to MSU as its new defensive line coach.

When Anderson informed Kelly that he wanted to transfer from Cincinnati to Michigan State for family reasons, Kelly told Anderson he would not give him a “blanket” release to MSU.

A blanket release is an NCAA clearance for a student-athlete who has transferred from one school to another to receive an immediate scholarship from the school the student-athlete has transferred to. The student-athlete cannot play in any games for a year, but he/she can practice with the team and his/her grant-in-aid (tuition, room and board, books) begins immediately.

If a blanket release is not given, the student-athlete must pay his/her own way for school in the first year. The student-athlete also cannot practice with the team.

Because Kelly would not give Anderson a blanket release, he had to pay the price while sitting out a year (2007).

“It was tough,” Anderson said, “so I had to do what everyone else does – take out student loans. It was hard not being able to work out with the team, but I used the time to work really hard to get some things together with my credits. I did that instead of whining.

“I’m glad I came to East Lansing; it is a great environment. I’ve been made to feel at home here.”

Sitting out a year is never easy for a student-athlete and some lose their edge. Anderson said he is still trying to get back to the level that saw him become one of Cincinnati’s dominant players. As a freshman, he earned team Defensive Newcomer of the Year Award honors, and as a sophomore, he led Cincinnati with six sacks and was second with 13 tackles for loss.

“I’m still trying catch up with the game’s speed,” Anderson said. “I work hard in practice and do everything they ask of me, but the game is played at another speed. Yes, sitting out a year was difficult, but I feel I’m getting better every week.”

The Spartans will play host to Iowa this Saturday in East Lansing. It is Homecoming, so a win would send everyone home feeling good. More importantly, Saturday’s contest will go a long way in determining if the 4-1 (1-0 Big Ten) Spartans are pretenders or real contenders.

“We are a better team than a lot of people think,” Anderson remarked. “We have some players that work hard and grind it out. We put in the effort in the off-season and it shows in game situations that we can compete. We may not have a team full of All-Americans, but we can make up for that through coaching and effort.”

Anderson also noted that many feel the Big Ten is wide open and anyone can win the conference title this season.

“We know that on any weekend in the Big Ten, any team can win,” he said. “From top to bottom, we have to be prepared to play every week. We cannot look at a team and assume we can beat them.”

At 6-foot-2, 250 pounds, Anderson is not the biggest defensive end in the land. But the former Crockett High star noted that he makes up for his smaller stature with determination, heart and a solid skill set.

“I’m quicker than most of the tackles I face,” Anderson said. “I do a lot of spin moves and other things that require footwork. I get to drop back in coverage if the defensive scheme requires that.”

Anderson said his foundation on the Westside Cubs and at Crockett prepared him well for Division I-A competition. He noted, in particular, that his coaches in Detroit helped to make him a very “coachable” individual.

“Everything we teach in practice, Trevor tries to do it,” MSU defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi said. “We want to play with speed and he gives us that on the end. You can have those 350-pound linemen, but if they cannot slash and get to the body of the DE, that’s how we want to play.”

Not looking ahead, but it is impossible for college football fans to not know that MSU will play Michigan on Oct. 25 in Ann Arbor. Anderson’s best friend and high school teammate, John Thompson, is a starting linebacker for the Wolverines.

“J.T. and I are like brothers,” Anderson said. “When we play each other, it is going down.”