MSU football has chance for real progress

Two years ago, the MSU football team was in this exact same position.

Chris Vannini

MSU was 5-5 and bowl hopes were slim with looming games at Purdue and home against Penn State.

So has Mark Dantonio’s program really made any progress?

Well, let’s compare the 2007 Spartans to this year’s squad.

The 2007 team was quarterbacked by junior Brian Hoyer, who had a pretty good year with mostly average targets. Hoyer had an efficiency rating of 133, a completion percentage of 59 percent and threw 20 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions.

This year, the Spartans are led by sophomore Kirk Cousins, who has a 149 efficiency rating with a 64 percent completion percentage, 14 touchdowns and five interceptions. Although Cousins is just a sophomore, this year’s team is much more skilled at the quarterback position. Cousins has better targets, but he also has a better arm, is a great decision maker and is a tremendous leader — something that is undervalued.

The running back position is not even a fair comparison between these teams. The Spartans perhaps were the most balanced team in the nation in 2007, spurred by the duo of Javon Ringer and Jehuu Caulcrick. Ringer ran for 1,447 yards and Caulcrick ran for 872 with 21 touchdowns.

This season, the Spartans haven’t been able to find one guy — let alone two or three — who consistently can carry the load. Injuries on and off the field have hurt this team’s deep group, but sophomore Ashton Leggett’s performance Saturday was reminiscent of Caulcrick’s game against University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2007.

Although the 2007 offense and this year’s offense averaged about 420 yards per game, this season’s is much more explosive — and younger. The Spartans have made some young mistakes early in the season — see Cousins’ interception against Notre Dame — but both average about 30 points per game, so I would have to say the offenses are even.

The defensive struggles this season have cost the Spartans some games. Although the 2007 statistics look good, the Spartans didn’t play any good teams in the nonconference season.

Against the Big Ten, the 2007 Spartans gave up more than 32 points per game.

The Spartans this season are giving up 22 points per game, with a tough nonconference. So while the defense hasn’t been great this season, it seems to have improved as a whole from 2007.

The defensive side of the ball also is young, with just two senior starters in the front seven.

The biggest similarity between Dantonio’s first squad and this year’s Spartans is the ability to lose close games. The five regular season losses in 2007 were by an average of 5.6 points per game. This season, the five losses are by an average of 4.6 points per game.

But the biggest concern is that in three years under Dantonio, 12 of the team’s 15 losses have been by eight points or fewer. Last season, the Spartans won close games against Iowa and Wisconsin, but they’ll need to consistently win close games if the program wants to become one of the Big Ten’s best.

All the chips are in place. Following the 2007 season full of close losses, the Spartans went 9-4 last season and won the close games. The Spartans will return a ton of players on both sides of the ball next season, so who knows what next season holds in store.

This year’s team is much better than the 2007 team, which won its final two games en route to the program’s first bowl game since 2003.

While Purdue has beaten Michigan and Ohio State this season, its defense is dreadful and the Spartans easily could win the game. Although Penn State is good, the team is struggling and senior day at Spartan Stadium surely will be a motivator for the Spartans.

So while it may seem to some as though Dantonio’s program is not moving forward, the Spartans have a real shot at winning these next two games, as they did in 2007, and making their third straight bowl game. And that would be just as much of a program-booster as 2007 provided.