Accoutability, Da Bang Stick, and perspective

Let me first state the I am proud that Mark Dantonio took responsibility for the loss on Saturday night, however that still doesn’t exonerate him or his staff from the absolutely horrendous job of coaching.

Redzone offensive play calling was once again questionable, especially short yardage situations where the only option appears to be poorly designed running plays that the defense know where the play is going. I understand that Dantonio wants a power running game, however this offensive line has not exhibited any reliability in being able to sustain blocks or move defenders off the line of scrimmage. At some point the staff has to realize that it is more important to score touchdowns once inside the redzone. Yeah it is macho to maul a defense and have your backs run over defenders, but MSU doesn’t have that ability with the five they have blocking this year. It’s time to for this staff to leave their egos in the lockerroom and concern themselves with what they do do well, throw the football. The TE’s have been an underutilized aspect of this offense, especially in the red zone.

I believe that much of the offensive woes can be attributed to the play of the line. In all honesty I see it as a two-fold issue. The coaching combination of Roushar and Staten has had mixed reviews since coming to East Lansing. They haven’t had much in the way of talent to work with, and this year it became very apparent with the constant shuffling. The best lineman is Foreman, but even he has appeared to take a step backwards this year. Nitchman, Moss, Young and Cironi are average at best. The scary part is MSU will lose three of these starters at seasons end, and could likely have three redshirt freshman (Klatt, Barrent, Thorton) as replacements. Folks, the MSU running game could actually be worse in 2010.

Defensively the issues have continued to be the secondary and it’s inability to cover receivers. Besides routinely giving up the big play, this group struggles to break up or intercept passes. I don’t believe it is due to a lack of talent or inexperience, which only leaves coaching. To put it bluntly, Harlon Barnett is not cutting it as the secondary coach. Before everyone comes down on me for slandering a Spartan legend, let’s be honest, do any of the DB’s remotely play like he did back in the day? Has any of the secondary members showed a knack for playing the ball when it is in the air? If I am missing something let me know because I’m not seeing it, and that falls directly on the coach.

My concern is that Dantonio’s loyalty may cloud his vision and prevent him from effectively evaluate the job his assistants are doing. Dantonio definitely allows his coaches to use their discretion in how to coach their respective units, but since the success or failure of this team falls on his shoulders I hope he emphasives the need for improvement.

Okay, I’m done beating up on the players and staff. In fact things were brought into perspective on Sunday when I had a discussion with a good friend of mine who is the defensive coordinator at Wake Forest. Wake lost in the waning minutes to Miami as they drove the length of the field to score the winning touchdown. We both lamented on how upsetting the losses by MSU and Wake were, but he just looked at me and said, “Let’s remember it’s just a game, and as much as we want our teams to win, sometimes it just isn’t our day.” He went on to say how every defensive set he used in Miami’s final drive was countered. There were minor breakdowns, as there is on every play, but the Hurricane QB and receivers made the correct decision in every situation. He knows much better than I how his decisions will be second guessed by all the armchair quarterbacks, and told how he should have done this or that. But the fact remains he is the one that has studied hours of game films, knows the oppositions tendencies in just about every situation, and makes the decision that puts his players on the best position to win. And like Dantonio takes responsibility for the loss.

Time for MSU to regroup, again

What is it with MSU and last minutes losses? The words, “Two minute warning” now strike fear into the hearts of Spartan fans. it seams that no matter how large a lead the Spartans have, an opponent will find a way to overcome the deficit and pull out a victory. It’s become a repeated pattern since CMU. Cousins leads the team down the field for what appears to be a game winning drive only to have the defense suddenly appear incapable of stopping anyone. The only game in which the Spartans had a final shot was ND, but Cousins overthrew Caper in the endzone and then followed that up with an interception. CMU, UM and Iowa all were able to mount game winning/tying drives as time expired that cost MSU wins.

I don’t want to sound like a homer but this team is young and has not learned how to close out a win in a close ball game. Has the offense been to conservative at times? Yes, but the offensive line has not been dominant to make the offense be effective. Dantonio wants to establish the run but hasn’t been ableto do that because of the average play of the line. Even with Cousins and the receiving threats MSU has at their disposal teams are still able to shutdown the Spartan running game, even without stacking the box. Don’t use the season ending injury to Winston as the reason because the problem lies at the point of attack. The offensive line is simply not moving opponents off the line of scrimmage.

Many of you were probably just as exasperated with the MSU offense when they could not punch it in from a yard out on four tries. A bootleg would have been nice, but with Cousins coming off a severe ankle sprain, and the unknown status of Nichol probably negated the chance of Cousin running and risking an injury. Still the line needs to move people off the line. This is going to be an issue the remainder of the season and further hinder the offense, especially if weather conditions are not favorable to the passing game.

Has the defense mproved? Yes, and I wish MSU could replay some of the earlier games because I am almost certain the outcome would be different. Prevent defense aside, the defense has played at the level I expected since the Wisconsin game. There is still room for improvement, but overall this unit has the making for a championship type defense.

With all that being said, I have some concerns about the game Saturday with the Gophers. As mentioned, the weather does not appear to be conducive for throwing the ball. Temperatures are expected to be in the thirties, with 20 mph winds with gusts up to 30. UM is giving up 177.9 yards/game, second worst only to Illinois. MSU gained 193 yards against the Illini and will need another similar performance if they want to come away with their fifth win.

Defensively the Gophers are last in rushing offense and that plays into MSU’s strength. The passing game revolves around Weber throwing to Decker, much in the same way Cousins and White are a combination. Expect the weather to be a determining factor in the outcome of this game, with the team that is able to establish a running game and limit the turnovers, winning.

History is not on MSU’s side in Big Games

Forgive me if I don’t sound enthusiastic about MSU’s chances Saturday against Iowa, but the short history of the Dantonio era in “Big Games” has not been spectacular. To me a “Big Game” requires players to step up and make plays consistently and coaches to have their team mentally and physically prepared.

In 2007 MSU had two games that I consider meet the classification of being a “Big Game,” PSU and BC. Yes I understand that Dantonio beat ND his first time out, and that they played a close game against a far superior UM team, but to me a “Big Game” is when something of importance is on the line.

Against PSU they fell behind and managed to claw their way back to eventually win the game that gave them a respectacle 7-5 record. The team showed resolve by not throwing in the towel and the coaches displayed some daring by calling for a fake punt that kept a drive alive and allowed them to score the winning touchdown.

The second big game in 2007 was the Champs Bowl game against BC where they team played respectably in the loss, but had one of its leaders fail miserably.

Last year MSU had “Big Games” against Cal, OSU, PSU and UGA. The Cal opener saw MSU’s defense make too many mistakes to consistently stop the Bears offense, while the offensive line was simply overmatched at times and never could open holes for Ringer.

MSU was overwhelmed in both contests against OSU and PSU, coming out completely flat and appearing ill prepared. Players made enough mistakes in these two games for an entire season, and exhibited a deer-in-the-headlights performance. One can understand this happening once to a young team that is still learning, but when it happened a second time it exposed some of the deficiencies in the coaches ability to prepare this team. MSU made a bit of a recovery against Georgia in the bowl, but after going into halftime with a slim lead, the second half showed little in the way of imagination to get the offense untracked.

Now the 2009 season has already provided enough drama in the first seven games to make me wonder if this team is capable of beating anyone that has equal or slightly better talent then themselves.

Against Wisconsin both MSU lines were manhandled. The offensive line was feeble in their attempts at run blocking, and the defensive line never got close enough to Tolzien to cause him any concern. The team once again appeared to be uninterested and lacking enthusiasm, and that falls directly upon the shoulders of the coaches. If MSU shows the same level of motivation against the Hawkeyes, this game will get ugly quickly. Hopefully the team will play for pride and not allow a team to come into Spartan Stadium, smack them in the mouth and take their lunch money without putting up a fight.

Okay, enough bashing of MSU because this team does have the ability to be a legitimate contender, but it is going to take a total team effort.

My abbreviated scouting of Iowa consists mainly of having watched their game against the Badgers. What I picked up on was Iowa’s difficulty in running outside the tackles against UW. The Hawkeyes pounded the middle of the line, meaning that Worthy and Wilson will have to really step up their game.

The Iowa OL engaged the Badgers front four and got them flowing in one direction and allowed the backs to cut back. If MSU doesn’t overpursue they could keep the Hawkeyes from ripping off 8 and 9 yard runs.

Stanzi is a good quarterback and I noticed that he effectively rolls out to find receivers. One play that he runs flawlessly is a reverse rollout that looks like a naked bootleg. This play allows him to either run or throw depending on what the OLB decides to do. If the OLB comes up to stop the run, Stanzi will throw to his TE that is left uncovered by the OLB. Since Iowa is not a spread offense I would play Decker at the MIKE and use Gordon and Jones on the outside. Having Jones move to the outside will cause issues for Iowa on how to block him.

The Wisconsin secondary played soft coverage and was allowing a 7/8 yard cushion. This allowed Stanzi to repeatedly hit short slants and keep moving the chains. MSU would be better served playing a press coverage and disrupt the Iowa receivers directly at the line of scrimmage.

MSU’s OL will have to do a much better job at run blocking than what they showed against the Badgers. Iowa’s defensive line engages the offensive line and reads where the play is going. Their primary purpose is to occupy the lineman in front of them and allow the linebackers and safties to come up play the run. If I was Treadwell I would strongly consider running another flea-flicker play because the Hawkeyes back seven react and come up quickly in run support. The OL is going to have its hands full in trying to contain DE Adrian Clayborn and DT Karl Klug, especially in pass blocking.

The MSU passing game needs to incorporate the TE’s to a greater degree. I expect White to be blanketed by the Iowa secondary, leaving the middle routes run by Gantt, Linthicom and Celeck to be available.

As I said at the beginning of this article, MSU’s history in “Big Games” under Dantonio has not been spectacular, will it improve Saturday night? Time will tell.

The Good, the bad and the Ugly at midseason

MSU has managed to even their record over the last three games with wins over UM and Illinois after dropping the Big Ten opener at Wisconsin.

I hate to sound like a prophet, but the things I wrote about have come true. Cousins has definitely taken the reins at quarterback. He had a strong performance against UM and even though he did not play against Illinois (feign a snap or two to end the game) Nichol did little to wrestle the starting spot away from him.

Larry Caper is showing the talent that made him a 4-star recruit. His overall game has really improved. We’ll learn more about this young mans durability over the next six games as he will likely receive the lions share of the work running the ball. It’s too bad that Glenn Winston tore his ACL and is out for the remainder of the season as he and Caper were becoming a formidable one-two punch. The door is now open for Ray or another back to step up and handle the carries that would have gone to Winston. One thing that Caper and Winston were benefitting from was the improved play of the offensive line.  The replacement will as well.

Speaking of the OL, as long as the starting five of Cironi, Foreman, Nitchman, Moss and Young can remain intact, MSU’s running game should flourish. The pass protection has been solid as well, allowing both Cousins and Nichol adequate time to stand in the pocket and find receivers.

My comment about Wiley possibly being a bigger loss than Ringer it was just my speculating on the reasons for the repeated breakdowns by the secondary over the first three games. Not to take anything away from Trent Robinson, but Dan Fortener has really solidified the secondary the last few games. There have been fewer breakdowns in coverage, and I attribute that to his veteran experience. Robinson may have more natural ability, but until he understands the mental part of the game better he will be a liability. Fortener reads formations better and is able to make the proper coverage call thus eliminating some of those breakdowns. This is one instance where the lesser physically talented player is showing that his knowledge and experience trumps raw ability.

The tightend position has continued to confirm its status as a team strength. Gantt and Linthicum have not been unseated by highly rated Dion Sims, even after Sims showed plenty of skill against Montana State. Garret Celek has returned from an undisclosed injury to drop Sims to fourth on the depth chart and pricipitating Dantonio to now try him at DE. I would appreciate seeing more involvement from this group as receivers because in their limited receiving opportunities they have shined.

The receiving corps of White, Cunningham, Martin and Dell have performed better than last year, but still have issues with hanging onto the ball, especially the last two mentioned. Of the four I am most impressed with the improvement of Cunningham. He appears to have corrected the issues he was having with drops, and his leaping catches remind me of a young Lance Alworth (okay, I’m showing my age)

Now for the bad news.

For all the talk about the improved pass rush, let’s keep it in perspective. MSU’s front four was shutout against a respectable Wisconsin OL, while they feasted on the horrendous line play of UM and Illinois. Before I crown this defensive front as being improved, I want to see how they perform against the likes of Iowa and PSU. Anderson, Wilson, Worthy and Neely will need to show that they can more than handle their won against the upper tier teams.

MIA’s: Where the heck is Tyler Hoover? Unless this he is injured, he apppears to be the last option when MSU rotates DE’s. Strayhorn, a walk-on, Rolf, a converted linebacker, are seeing more time than Hoover. Even Mike Decker gets more playing time. Before the season started I wondered about Hoover’s ability and with each passing day he seems to be drifting more into obscurity.

These next three games (NU, Iowa, Minnesota) are going to detemine if MSU will contend for the conference title or possibly end up with a 6-6 record. Having a healthy Cousins and the defense front four stepping up will greatly improve MSU’s chances of achieving a eight win or better season. I am still trying to determine the mettle of this team. Can they actually compete in big games when it is absolutely necessary, or will they be roll over and play dead like they did against OSU and PSU last year and UW this year?

Some personal observations after three games

Last year MSU won a couple close nail-biter type games by making plays in the final moments (Iowa, Wisconsin). So far this year the shoe has been on the other foot against CMU and ND. The ball hasn’t bounced in their favor in the final moments resulting in painful loses. Until this group of players learns to come through in these crucial moments to close out games they will likely be on the short end in close games.

Hate to sound like a media parrot, but Kirk Cousins has earned the starting quarterback roll for this team. Aside from his poor decision on MSU’s last play, he showed poise and leadership for most of the game. Cousins has continued to impress with his accuracy and properly going through his progressions to find the open receiver.

Larry Caper has also earned the starting running back position. He is doing all the little things that are important for a running back to do in this system when he doesn’t have the ball in his hands. His blocking has been solid and he definitely appears to be a stronger runner between the tackles. It was a shame that Cousins over threw him in the endzone, as he ran his route correctly and was totally missed by the Notre Dame defense.

The offensive line of Cironi, Foreman, Stipek, Moss and Young appears to be the best combination used so far this year. Having a viable starting five going forward from here on out will be imparative if MSU is to more effective running the ball. Stipek has performed admirably in Nitchman’s absence, and is providing MSU with two dependable candiates. Ethan Ruhland also did a very good job in stepping in for Foreman after he left the game with a sprained ankle. Ruhland provided a nice block on Caper’s seven yard touchdown run.

The defense, especially the secondary struggle with playing in space and are horrible at wrapping up and making the tackle in one-on-one situations. The secondary, once thought to be a team strength has been pedestrian at best. The group as a whole has not played the ball well, and have been repeatedly burned on deep passes. The play of this group has been the most disappointing performance so far this year.

This team has very little wiggle room from here on out if they are to post a winning record. With Wisconsin, Illinois, Northwestern, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Purdue and Penn State left on the schedule it is difficult to find six wins based on the teams first three performances. Sadly, it has not been the loss of Hoyer and Ringer, but possibly that of Otis Wiley that has had the greatest impact on this team. Though the defense was not steller last year, Wiley was responsible for making the proper assignment calls for the secondary. With the breakdowns in the seconday one might begin to question if Hyde, Fortner or Robinson have the proper grasp of making these calls. The poor performance of what was supposed to be a strength, the defense, and the secondary in particular, has been the Spartans Achilles heel.

Without a running game MSU is grounded offensively.

You want to know how to beat MSU?

Force them to run the football.

It’s that simple.

For the first two years of the Dantonio regime the running game was what carried this team offensively. It was a key, the bread and butter formula Dantonio instituted for playing winning football. If you could stop the MSU running game you more than likely had MSU beat.

Dantonio used the pieces and parts of an offensive line that was adequate in controling most opponents, and with two dependable running backs (Caulcrick and Ringer) to implement his plan it worked. Caulcrick left after the 2007 season, and MSU was unable to find a suitable replacement for him last year. Ringer had a successful 2008 season statistically, but his body took a pounding as he alone was the MSU rushing game.

This year MSU potentially has three, possibly four backs capable of putting up Ringer like numbers. Unfortunately for all these backs they are running behind an OL that hasn’t proven it can effectively run block. It is the most glaring weakness of the Spartan team this young season. To be fair the MSU passing game has looked good, but it is not going to take long for defensive coordinators to realize that MSU’s strength is passing and dropping seven men into coverage will shut down the offense. There is no longer a need to stack the box with 8 men, because an average four man defensive line is capable of thwarting MSU’s front five and neutralizing the run game.

Without a complementary running game it won’t matter who is under center because this offense is based on balance. Forget about the quarterback competition between Cousins and Nichol for a minute because the bigger issue is finding five linemen to stand in front of them and move defenders off the line of scrimmage and open holes. Don’t expect Dantonio to take the redshirts off of Barrent, Reynolds, Conway or Klatt. If they were anywhere near ready Dantonio would have them somewhere in the two-deeps. The same goes for Deyo, Hueter, and McDonald. If these three were ready there wouldn’t be the Deane/McGaha, Moss/Young merry-go-round.

I’m not saying that the Spartan OL is not able to improve, but the constant switching indicates that Roushar and Staten are not satisfied with the performances of the four vying for playing time on the right side. When you add the injury to Nitchman and the fact that Cironi is not 100%, the line has become the offenses weakest link. Hopefully Nitchman will be back soon and Ruhland can possibly throw his hat into the ring as a candidate for the right guard. Maybe that will help settle some of the issues before heading into conference play. The most troubling thing with all of this is that next year it might be even worse. Cironi, Moss, and Nitchman will all have graduated and there is a strong likelihood that MSU could be starting one junior, one sophomore, and three redshirt freshmen if Deane, Young and McGaha don’t improve. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, MSU has Notre Dame this Saturday.

Notre Dame typically runs alot of blitz packages, it is a Tenuta staple, however it wouldn’t surprise me if ND did less blitzing and have the Irish defense simply drop seven men into coverage. The longer it takes for for Cousins or Nichol to find an open receiver the more likelihood the ND front four will more than likely be able to get to either of them. One would hope that getting more helmets out of the box would increase the Spartans chances of having an effective running game, but so far that has not been the case.

If Notre Dame holds MSU to under 100 yards rushing they will win convincingly. If MSU’s OL miraculously finds an ability to run block and they rush for 150+ yards MSU has a decent opportunity at winning this game

Just a few observations from Saturday’s game against CMU.

Offensive Line:

First and foremst the offensive line is definitely offensive. If people believe that having Javon Ringer running behind this line would make a difference they’re wrong. It’s not who is carrying the ball that is the problem but the line and its inability to run block.

The staff has not been able to find decent replacements for Roland Martin and Jesse Miller on the right side of the line. Two games into the 2009 season and it is apparent the absence of Martin and Miller is having more of an impact than having to name a starting quarterback. The rotation experiment of Deane/McGaha at right guard, and Moss/Young at rigth tackle has not produced the desired results or even come close to the performance of Martin and Miller, who were often just adequate at best.

Depth is an issue especially when you consider MSU lost two possible linemen who would probably reshirt sophomores along with Joel Foreman and Jarred McGaha, Chase Dumphord and Arthor Ray. There is no way of knowing how these two would produce, but the fact is this would at least be their third year in the program. Instead MSU has four true freshman (Barrent, Conway, Klatt and Reynolds), and four redshirt sophomores (Deyo, Hueter, McDonald, and Ruhland) that are still a season or two away from contributing. If they were game ready they would probably have been tried, so to me this indicates that Deane. McGaha, Moss and Young are the best of the bunch. That’s not doesn’t give me a warm and cozy feeling.

Cironi is another OL that is struggling, but that is probably more due to his shoulder not being completely healed. It’s a statement to the lack of quality depth of offensive linemen when an less than 100% healthy player is a better option than one who is healthy.

The loss of Nitchman is troubling because of his leadership and understanding of blocking assignments and making the proper line calls. I am not saying that having him against CMU would have changed the outcome due to the issues with the players on the right side and Cironi, but not having makes the MSU OL that much more of a liability.

Quarterback:

What I am about to say will definitely spark some debate and result in more than a fair share of comments questioning my mental capabilities. Cousins and Nichol in my opinion, played to impress and not to win.

I have no arguement that both are extremely talented, and are capable of leading this team, but until a starter is named, each is trying to out do the other to the detriment of the team. On Saturday both quarterbacks threw what I considered ill advised/low percentage, deep, passes. What was the reason for throwing deep to receivers when a five to seven yard completion would have resulted in a first down, other than they were trying to make that “Wow” play to impress the staff? Both Cousins and Nichol almost forgot about looking at intermediate routes being run by the TEs that would have kept drives alive. By my count only two passes were thrown to the TEs, one going for a touchdown to Gantt. The quarterbacks have to understand that one of the strengths offensively is TE.

The trial period is over. Name a starter and move on. I don’t care who it is but name the starter this week before the Notre Dame game to allow this team to come together.

Defense:

This is the first time that I actually questioned Narduzzi’z defensive scheme. The first two years MSU has been undermanned or inexperienced defensively that resulted in a great many breakdowns. I tolerated those occurrences, but against CMU the defense was outplayed and on more than one occassion, confused.

I did not see any push from the interior players Wilson or Worthy, and the same goes for edge pressure from Anderson, Neely or Hoover. Was it Narduzzi’s idea to play a read and react style rather than an aggressive attacking style? It appeared that MSU was more concerned with stopping CMU’s running game than pressuring LeFevour. The CMU OL, especially the tackles were nothing special, but the MSU DL had difficulty getting around them, made it seem like this was the Penn State or OSU OL.

The secondary was also another group that appeared to be more concerned with making the “Wow” play rather than just playing fundamental football. Rucker was beat three separate times on deep throws, while Ware, and Hyde kept allowing receivers to gain extra yards because they went for the big hit instead of wrapping up.

MSU looked slow defensively and I could only attribute that to being tentative and thinking rather than reacting. In any case it was simply a poor effort all around by staff and players.

Focusing on CMU

Okay, the MSU staff now knows what they have to focus on this week to correct the mistakes made in game one as well as prepare for Central Michigan.

The Chippewas fell to the Arizona Wildcats 19-6 on Saturday night in Tucson. Dan LeFevour, their “Tim Tebow of the MAC” had a less than steller night as the AU defense held him to 18 yards rushing and 108 yards passing, no touchdowns and one interception. After the game LeFevour and his coach mentioned the speed of the Wildcat defense as being a major factor in CMUs offensive difficulties.

The young, inexperienced, CMU OL struggled to keep the Wildcats out of the backfield and pressuring LeFevour. AU was only able to record two sacks, but LeFevour was under pressure most of the evening and not allowed to sit in the pocket. This does not surprise me as CMU was starting a redshirt freshman at one tackle and a converted TE at the other. These two as well as the rest of the Chippewa OL can expect the same treatment this weekend from the MSU front seven. The Chippewas were only able to manage 74 yards rushing on 20 attempts.

The Spartans front four had several breakdowns against Montana State that allowed them to gain four plus yards. Narduzzi spoke about this during his post game press conference, so I would expect that this will be a point of emphasis this week during game preparation. Anderson, and Neely are two veteran ends that should be able to take advantage of the inexperience of the CMU tackles and get pressure off the edge. Anderson is MSU’s most effective speed rusher, and I expect CMU will be forced to slide a TE to his side to assist with pass blocking. This should allow the interior linemen to face one-on-one blocking and favor MSU with their rotation of Wilson, Worthy, Johnson, Jordan and Pickelman.

If speed was a major contributing factor in the CMU loss, the Spartan linebackers should provide a “Deja vu” feeling for the Chippewa offense. Jones is displaying the traits that one would expect from a player who was selected as the preseason conference defensive player of the year. I expect CMU to try and get as many hats on him as possible to keep him away from the ball, but as the old saying goes, “You can’t hit what you can’t see.” Jones has the quickness, speed, and overall understanding of the game that allows him to play fast. Gordon and Denson both run effectively, and should be disruptive forces as well by not allowing LeFevour the opportunity to run.

In three short years Dantonio has transformed the MSU secondary from being a liability to being a unit of unquestioned strength. Secondary coach, Harlan Barnett has numerous options when deciding on his starting four, and the luxury of knowing that there will be negligible drop off in performance between his first, second and third team players. Everyone on this unit can run and is capable of locking down receivers man-to-man. CMU has two solid receivers in 6′5″ senior Bryan Anderson, and 5′10″ junior Antonio Brown who will test and be tested by the Spartan secondary.

This will be another good early season test for the Spartans. The offense, especially the play of the offensive line has to show much improvement and open holes for the talented trio of Ray, Baker and Caper. Now that all three have gotten their feet wet, and appear to have gained confidence in their ability to play at this level. Cousins and Nichol have an arsenal of receivers in White, Cunningham, Gantt, Linthicum and Sims that will hopefully force CMU to pull players out of the box and allow for the running backs to have more room with which to operate, but this will only happen if the line comes through.

Spartans still have work to do

Boy was I wrong about the opener against Montana State. I thought Dantonio would concentrate his offense on running the ball in an effort to get his offensive line use to working with each other. I predicted MSU would throw 25 passes or less between Cousins and Nichol (they threw 35), and I expected MSU to have several runs of forty yards or greater, they didn’t. About the only thing I did get right was expecting the defense to dominate.

The concerns I had going into the season remain, that being the OL struggling. With having to replace the entire right side of the line, Cironi coming off of shoulder surgery, and Nitchman being a serviceable center at best (my opinion only) this unit would have to show marketed improvement to just reach last years level (which was average at best, again my opinion). The 175 yards rushing looks impressive, but MSU should have easily eclipsed 250 yards rushing, especially with the threat of the passing game. One would think that a strong passing game would force defenses from stacking the box, making it easier for MSU to run. If that was indeed the case against Montana State then that would create even more concern. In any case the OL is still a question mark, and improvement is required.

Neither Cousins or Nichol dissappointed in their collective debut as each showed their abilities by throwing three and two touchdowns, respectively, without an interception. The arguement as to who should be named the starter will continue for at least another week. I get the feeling that Dantonio is waiting for one of them to blink so that he can make a final decision. Cousins was my choice before camp started because of his performances last year, and the comments made by Hoyer regarding his film study and always asking questions of the coaches. The kid is a cerebral QB with an outstanding arm and quick release.

The trio of Ray, Baker and Caper had a respectable showing, and has potential to be great if the OL gets its act together. From the photos I have seen of Saturday’s contest, Ray looks strikingly similar to Ringer. Caper and Baker will likely remain the second and third options behind Ray unless one has a “Wow” type performance. Also, don’t overlook the re-emergence of Glen Winston. Though I have a personal issue with his reinstatement, he displayed a few Caulcrick type moments during his limited playing time.

Greg Jones showed why he was selected as one of the captains. The guy was all over the field and making plays. The defensive backfield had a respectable performance, but I expect this group to come up with a take away or two each game. The DL was adequate but in order for MSU to be considered a strong contender they need this group to pressure the quarterback without the aid of blitzing from the linebackers or the secondary.

This is far from a polished product and Dantonio and his staff have a great deal of work to do if anyone wants to entertain the notion that MSU will challege for a conference title.

 

 

MSU vs MSU: Projected Starters

When Michigan State is on Offense…

When Michigan State is on Defense…

Analyze away.