Youngstown State: 5 Key Things

Here at A Beautiful Day For Football we're still finding our feet a bit. This is a series I'd like to do on the Friday before a game.

Youngstown State. This damned well better be a case of MSU SMASH. I'd drop an App State highlight here, but you know until a lifetime of games have been played where MSU doesn't lose to it's 1-AA teams, let's keep the hubris to a dull roar. Still, some value can be gleaned from watching us SMASH.

1.) Offensive Line Smash: We return Joel Foreman and Chris McDonald at the Left and Right Guard positions. We are starting new blood at LT, C and RT. So there are two obvious questions. How's our running between the tackles? I think keeping your guards should help with this a bunch, but we shall see. Then the real and more serious question, how will Jared McGaha protect Kirk Cousins blindside? If he can't save Cousins from the Penguins how will he do against Nebraska?

2.) Defensive Line Smash: Narduzzi has said that a lot of the pass struggles in 2009 could be directly tied to the DLs inability to get pass rush with the front four. Much about our DL has been praised and promoted. I think that praise is just and this line is for real. Still if you take our Gholston, Rush, Worthy, White line and compare it to the Lions VandenBosch, Suh, Williams and Avril. The Leos average D-lineman goes 290. The average Spartan D-Lineman 289. Our defensive line has NFL size. But how does the speed carry over? If the speed is even sort of there. Please look out Big Ten.

3.) Does Nick Hill Fit the Bill? A lot of positive scuttle has come out of fall camp about Nick Hill. With YSU in particular this should be a great place to see Nick Hill get a lot of carries. I'd really like to see a strong effort from him today. And I think we will.

4.) How badly are we going to miss Greg Jones and Eric Gordon? Tonight, probably not a lot. I like many others think that Max Bullough has a chance to be BETTER than Greg Jones when he leaves MSU. For now I would settle for 80 percent as good. Tonight will tell how close we are. It sounds like we'll be platooning linebackers all night and seeing who does best.

5.) Can we run for 300 yards? We damn sure oughtta and I think we will.

Final Score MSU 45 YSU 10.