MSU Football Blog
The SN football reporters take you inside the MSU football team with news, notes, opinions and other items of interest.
Recent posts
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Spartans prepared for weather
If you’re planning to make the 470-mile trip to State College, Pa., this weekend, be sure to keep an eye on the weather just like MSU’s football coaches.
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Coaches hit recruiting trail during bye week
While MSU football players were resting, healing and studying last week, MSU coaches were hot on the recruiting trail.
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BCS bowl scenarios
If you’re an MSU fan but a BCS hater, you might change your mind after reading this:
"Five for Thought" - Northwestern Edition
A few notes before this week’s version of “Five For Thought” following the newly minted No. 20 Spartans’ 37-20 victory over Northwestern:
— It was obvious that MSU coaches went deep into their depth chart against Northwestern, but the sheer numbers tell an incredible story. Of the 70 players that dressed for MSU this weekend, 59 saw game action. For a game that was never completely out of reach, such a statistic is stunning.
“We needed for them to move forward because of some injuries or some depth issues and they’ve been able to get experience and do that,” Dantonio said of the backups seeing time.
— In his first career start, cornerback Jeremy Ware tied a school record with five pass deflections. Filling in for sophomore cornerback Chris L. Rucker, who suffered what looked to be a serious elbow injury but dressed for the game, Ware had eight tackles to go with his five deflections.
— Coaches put an emphasis on getting more speed on the field against Northwestern’s spread offense, which led to big games from backup linebacker Ryan Allison and starting linebackers Eric Gordon and Greg Jones. Allison, a former wide receiver and a high school 100-meter dash champion in Michigan, had 11 tackles. Senior strong safety Otis Wiley also saw time at a linebacker-type position as the defense often featured three safeties at one time.
And now, five lingering thoughts from MSU’s win on Saturday:
1. This week’s nonspecial teams unsung player of the game: Blair White. He only had three catches for 29 yards, but each grab was for a first down and two helped contribute to scoring drives. White has been the Spartans’ most dependable set of hands for an up-and-down MSU receiving corps this season with 13 catches for 154 yards. He has yet to haul in a touchdown.
2. If Brian Hoyer plays like he did against Northwestern for the rest of the season, MSU will go to a New Year’s Day bowl game. The much-scrutinized senior quarterback displayed pinpoint accuracy and superb decision-making during his 14-of-20 outing. Most notably, Hoyer didn’t come close to being intercepted once. He needs to start getting credit for not giving away the ball considering only 13 teams have thrown fewer interceptions than Hoyer.
3. For the second straight week, I’m questioning a fourth quarter play call by the opposing coach. Down 17 points on the MSU 4-yard line, facing a fourth-and-1 decision, Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald opted for a field goal. Kicker Amado Villarreal connected on the chip shot, but how many more opportunities were the Wildcats going to get inside the MSU 5-yard line, let alone the red zone? In front of a home crowd, you’ve got to go for the six points.
4. All the hype coming into the season around MSU’s freshman receiving class surrounded Detroit product Fred Smith, but Keshawn Martin is proving to be the gem of the group so far. Martin’s speed and quick moves in the open field provide MSU with their best big play threat outside of running back Javon Ringer. Coaches talked up Martin at the start of the season (I thought it was just to deflect attention from Smith), but he has earned playing time over Smith, who, for what it’s worth, caught his first pass of the season Saturday.
5. It’s still hard to judge exactly how impressive this team is because of its competition. Northwestern may have been undefeated heading into Saturday’s game, but its win came against Syracuse, Duke, Southern Illinois, Ohio and Iowa. This weekend’s home throwdown against No. 12 Ohio State, a consistent Big Ten stalwart, will be the truest barometer of whether MSU is a conference championship contender. (Also FYI, ESPN College GameDay will not be in East Lansing this weekend, choosing to stay in Texas for a second week as the No. 1 Longhorns play No. 11 Missouri.)
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