ACHTUNG! ACHTUNG! This site will be forwarded on March 17th, 2012.

We've had a very exciting week over at Shaw Lane Spartans. You should join us if you haven't already.
Effective on Saturday, March 17th while you are killing your liver celebrating St. Patrick's Day between basketball wins we will be permanently forwarding the abeautifuldayforfootball domain name to a landing page at Shaw Lane Spartans.

I'll do you a solid and include the link to the RSS feed. But you should come to the new site, it's new, hot and honestly a tiny bit glitchy still. But we're going to grow us a fine MSU fan community there and we'd love for you to join us.

The End of the Beginning is the Middle or Something

The last couple of weeks I've not so subtly hinted at a massive project we've been working on. Today, that project has come to fruition. Effective immediately, we're moving. New website, new domain name. You can find us at http://www.shawlanespartans.com. Thank you Blogger home, it's been fun, but it's time to step up our game a bit.

Post OSU Ranting

You know what sucks? Losing. You know what sucks even more? Losing in a game where one or two more plays could have made the difference. This is the second time in just a few short months where MSU had things in hand and couldn't close.

I should be grateful that MSU was predicted to be as good as a turd sandwich this year and had to choke away the second half of a game to lose an outright title. At least it wasn't to Wisconsin, I'd be sacrificing gangly, pasty white dolls who shoot threes to the gods. I'm getting a little damn tired of being in a position to close these things out on MSU's terms and not doing it. Again, should be grateful, just not feeling it right now.

Speaking of ritualistic sacrifice, the twitters just said that Brandon Dawson tore his left ACL. That's a tough break for him and for MSU. Mostly for him, he's obviously all kinds of talented as evidenced by the fact that MSU pretty much went from running OSU out of the gym to looking lost as Dawson was out and Green was in foul trouble. The big 3 and 4 position were basically empty in the second half which drew extra defense into the paint to account for Sullenger which let Buford go off. The way Buford was shooting, MSU could have had six guys on him and it might not have mattered.

Unlike football, MSU still has a shot at redemption. Maybe the March Magic can kick in for Tom and he can find a way to work around all of this, but you have to admit after watching the Minnesota, Indiana and OSU games that it feels like maybe the 2012 version of the Spartans have their best basketball behind them for this year. Maybe the OSU resurgence of Appling will carryover into the tournament and MSU can right the ship with an improved perimeter game. Maybe not, I have no idea. I don't know enough to intelligently prophesy.

As always, the sun will rise in East Lansing tomorrow. There are worse things than being Co Big-Ten Champions or having to settle for a 2 or 3 seed in the tourney. There are even worse things for the team than having to deal with the loss of a valued freshman, although I do not envy Dawson the road ahead. March has been and will continue to be Izzo's time. No shit show against OSU or anyone else is going to change that. Tomorrow morning, Izzo and the boys start prepping for the winner of Illinois and Iowa.

See? A quick rant is good for the soul, I'm feeling better already. How about you?

Delvon Roe & The Fine Print of NCAA Bylaws

Yesterday, a fire burned hot, tall and bright to allow Delvon Roe to suit up for the final home game against OSU this weekend. He'd be conferred all Senior Day privileges of kissing the S, helping box out Jared Sullenger and that hilarious hug between Tom Izzo and a dude 11 inches taller than him. Immediately, Roe threw water on the fire tweeting:"Lol I love my followers u all r great. It's not about me lets worry about wrappin up this big10 title OUTRIGHT!!N let the NCAA do there job." Hollis later got out the fancy china to have a talk with us over twitter about the NCAA's non-involvement in the decision for Delvon not to play.

One of two things REALLY happened here. A decision for Delvon not to play was reached by Izzo, Hollis and Roe and no NCAA waiver was requested. This is possible, the decision for Delvon to leave basketball didn't appear to be easy, he might just not want to reopen old wounds or a host of many other reasons(loss of focus on the game, sacrificing a valuable Roe minute in what will be a tightly contested game, etc).

OR

Izzo loves his kids, Hollis is a showman, I won't call him a PT Barnum of Athletic Directors, but the thought crossed my mind. If Roe is trying to get into acting and isn't a showman, he best think his career choice through. The NCAA said, "No, but we're gonna say no like when you try to hire a head coach and they say no. There's no offer and thus no refusal." We're going to say no because we're the Extraordinary League of No Fun it would contravene our bylaws.

So which bylaw would he be violating?

Luckily, the NCAA provides a summary of it's Regulations right there on the internets. I'll save you the trouble and just quote liberally since the NCAA should have no problem making it's policy on Student-Athlete Participation, clear, right? Riiiiiight.

Ethical Conduct - It's not salient, but clause A made me laugh out loud.

a.) You must act with honesty and sportsmanship at all times so that you represent the honor and dignity of fair play and the generally recognized high standards associated with wholesome competitive sports. [NCAA Bylaw 10.01.1

I have no idea what kind of Orwellian jackass wrote clause A, but he/she/they/aliens should be flogged publicly with a whip of nine tails as a complimentary theraputic healing activity to promote wholesomeness of the soul and the self. Also, unless Delvon Roe's Hobbled Knee is actually the name of his Speakeasy, he's in the clear here.

Amateurism – All Sports.

a. You are not eligible for participation in a sport if you have ever

(1) Taken pay, or the promise of pay, for competing in that sport. [Bylaw 12.1.2]

(2) Agreed (orally or in writing) to compete in professional athletics in that sport.
Exception: Prior to collegiate enrollment, in sports other than men's ice hockey and skiing, you agreed to compete on a professional team provided the agreement did not provide for more than actual and necessary expenses and you did not receive more than actual and necessary expenses. [Bylaws 12.1.2 and 12.2.5.1]

(3) Played on any professional athletics team as defined by the NCAA in that sport.
Exception: Prior to enrollment, in sports other than men's ice hockey and skiing, you competed on a professional team provided you did not receive more than actual and necessary expenses. [Bylaws 12.1.2 and 12.2.3.2.1]

(4) Used your athletics skill for pay in any form in that sport. [Bylaws 12.1.2 and 12.1.2.4]

Exceptions:

(a) Prior to collegiate enrollment, you accepted prize money based on place finish or performance in an open athletics event from the sponsor of the event and the amount of prize money did not exceed your actual and necessary expenses to participate in the event; or [Bylaws 12.1.2 and 12.1.2.4.1]

(b) After collegiate enrollment, you accepted prize money based on place finish or performance outside your sport's playing and practice season and during the summer vacation period in an open athletics event from the sponsor of the event and the amount of prize money did not exceed your actual and necessary expenses to participate in the event. [Bylaws 12.1.2 and 12.1.2.4.2]

b. You are not eligible in a sport if you ever have accepted money, transportation or other benefits from an agent or agreed to have an agent market your athletics ability or reputation in that sport. [Bylaw 12.3.1]

c. You are not eligible in any sport if, after you become a student-athlete, you accept any pay for promoting a commercial product or service or allow your name or picture to be used for promoting a commercial product or service. [Bylaws 12.5.2.1 and 12.5.2.2]

d. You are not eligible in any sport if, because of your athletics ability, you were paid for work you did not perform, were paid at a rate higher than the going rate or were paid for the value an employer placed on your reputation, fame or personal following. [Bylaw 12.4]

Well there it is, in section c. Roe has been auditioning for gigs and has even been in a movie called AWOL. He's represented or does work for the Okemos Talent Agency(that annual trip to the mall was good for something!). An argument could be made for or against d. as a higher rate of pay but I think it would be inconclusive either way. An argument could probably also be made for b. NOT THAT (b).  but it seems to apply to athletic agents as opposed to Big Fancy Movie Star Agents.

The Russell Wilson/Brandon Weeden/Drew Henson Argument

So why was it cool for these guys to play Pro Baseball and then be college QB's in the fall? They accepted their money as professional baseball players so they were eligible to play College Football. So if Delvon Roe had left college and become a Professional Competitive Eater or a Professional Golfer, it'd be cool for him to suit up on Saturday.

A One-Day Retirement Clause

It's too late for this and won't help Delvon Roe for Sunday, but would it really be such an awful idea to have a One-Day Retirement Clause? All of the professional sports are allowed to sign guys to one day contracts so they can retire as a member of "their team". In just the list above, there are two exceptions to six rules, would it really be so unwieldy to add a One-Day Only Retirement Clause? Update 3/2 9:34AM: The idea being allow the person to dress with the team, warm-up, be a player in every sense except actually playing the game. This was implied, but it was late when I finished the post and I think it needs to be spelled out. After all, this isn't corporate tax law or anything.

As far as Delvon goes, don't feel sorry for him. Delvon Roe is a great kid who seems to have found acting makes him happy. There are worse fates to befall someone than realizing your original goal was really just a waypoint to a different path. Hell, some of us should be so lucky as that. While there might be a sting for him not playing Sunday, he has a whole career of proud memories to look back on as a Spartan. He's welcome home anytime he likes.

Grumpy Snowmen, Odds and Ends

This morning on the way to work I heard a story on NPR about a game called Grumpy Snowmen. It's an "Angry Birds" type game that allows you, Sparty, to go around blowing up snowmen wearing other Big Ten opposition scarfs with footballs, etc. It's free, developed by MSU Gaming, Entertainment and Learning(GEL) Lab and can be downloaded to your Jobs device, played in a browser and can be downloaded to your Windows or Mac machine.

No word on an Android version, Oatmeal Holy War Cellphone Drop goes here.

The Dancing Bear takes on a Million Candy Stripers.

This was a bit like the How Many Five Year Olds Can You Take in a Fight quiz? (Hint: The number goes way up if you are willing to use one as a weapon.) Except they aren't five year olds, they are massive young men who have done a phenomenal job protecting their home court. It's hard to think from the outset of this season that any State fan could possibly have been disappointed with the idea of only needing a win on Sunday to claim the Big Ten title outright, yet I was a little bit. Also, Tom Crean looks a bit like Tom Arnold and despite being an Izzo disiciple, no one like losing to Tom Arnold at anything.

Mish Mash

Green Thoughts asks Why Draymond Green Isn't In National POY Consideration? Trenton Robinson had a good combine, Jerel Worthy did not do as well. Future MSU player, Gary Harris hit a buzzer-beater on Tuesday night as the Spartans were losing in Bloomington.

Blog will be back in full swing sometime next week, and thensome. Download that game, you get to be Sparty, even if you're not between 5'10" and 6'2".

Here's Your Shield, R.J. Shelton

The Spartans picked up their fourth commitment Sunday from Wisconsin running back R.J. Shelton.  Most of the recruiting sites haven't yet evaluated .  Only 247 has a rating for him -- 3 stars.  It also looks like the Spartan coaches got out ahead of other programs.  MSU was the first B1G program to offer Shelton, shortly thereafter he was noticed and offered by Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.  It appears that Bielema personally called Shelton to try to keep him instate, but MSU's early interest seems to have paid off.

Shelton has good size (5'11" and 185 lbs), and he is listed as running the 40 in 4.5 seconds.  That seems about right; he looks like a 4.5 guy in his video:

The immediate reaction is to see Shelton as the next Edwin Baker, as they move in a similar way.  If you look at this next video of Baker (at the 1:15 mark), you can see that Baker was bigger and more powerful in high school.  He may also have been faster -- according to Scout he ran the 40 in 4.4 seconds. 

Shelton was only a junior in his video, so some physical improvement seems likely. Nonetheless, Shelton already shows some excellent talent and athleticism.  He's another guy who makes you realize that it's too early to panic about recruiting.  After all, how can anyone be upset about taking a running back with competing offers from Iowa and Wisconsin?

Shelton's commitment should wrap up the running back recruiting, between Shelton and Holmes the Spartans have secured a speed/power back combo.  The Spartans now have 5 young guys who could step in for Caper after 2012 or Bell should he leave early for the draft.  

Here's Your Shield, Jalyn Powell

The Spartans have picked up their 3rd commitment from Ohio safety,  Jalyn Powell.  Powell attends Warren G. Harding high school, home of former Spartan DB Chris L. Rucker. Once again, it looks like the Spartan coaches have jumped ahead of most of the recruiting services, so the information on Powell is limited, and in some cases conflicting.  Only 247 has a rating for him, and they consider him a 3-star guy.  Otherwise, Scout says that Powell received offers from Michigan, and West Virginia, and that Ohio State is showing interest in him.  All of the other sites, however, list MSU as his only offer.

Powell has great size for a safety (6'1" and 185 lbs.).  If you believe ESPN, which is the only site that has a 40 meter time for him, he seems to be a little slow (at 4.86 seconds).  But folks, you tell me if you believe this guy is slow:

In this video, Powell looks like the best athlete on the field.  There are several moments where he makes everyone else look like they're standing still.  On defense he shows some pretty good instincts and he brings the lumber when he tackles.  I have to say, this is some of the best highlight video I've ever seen.  That makes Powell one of the most exciting prospects I've ever reviewed.

Powell is being recruited as a safety, but to me he looks like a guy that could excel at many other positions, including wide receiver, linebacker, and running back. He fits the mold of a Dantonio safety and will be a great addition to the class of 2013 for the Green and White.

Programming Note beginning 2/23.

Friends, Countrypeople?, Spartans.

The folks at A Beautiful Day For Football need a break and we're going to take it. Six months after the blog sprung to life, we've posted 171 times since August 9th and that's a lot of hours in front of a computer and on twitter. We need to catch up on some other things and come back in a week or two.

Quick Game Previews:

- MSU by a Jordan over Nebraska.
- MSU needs five points to guarantee home ice in the first round of the CCHA playoffs. They get four.(I have no idea what the hell I'm talking about here.)
- Indiana is omitted, because if MSU and Michigan win this weekend, I'll do five questions with Jamie Mac from the Just Cover Blog. Jamie is an Indiana and Michigan Hoops fan. Lots at stake for him next Tuesday.
- MSU over OSU. By 90. Draymond beats Jared Sullinger with his own arm at midcourt before tip-off. Derrick Nix and Adrien Payne actually combine into one person like Voltron and are 12 feet tall with appropriately sized lungs.

When we come back.

MSU has some business to attend to in New Orleans. We want to be ready to knock it out of the park for you guys.

Golden Gopher Recap, the Combine and Junior Day

So, that happened. MSU was due for a brain fart of a game and they had it. They were lucky to escape with a win and that Brandon Wood found his superhero cape just in time. Keith Appling had a rough game, Sophomore is Greek for "wise fool". Draymond "B1G Player of the Year" Green had 17 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 steals in the win.

In my first eerily accurate basketball prediction, ever. A broken clock is right twice a day, even I guess.

MSU is on a tear right now that could rip small planets in half, but these numbers suggest that Minnesota will not be an easy out. Search your feelings using your best Jedi technique, you know this to be true.

Four Factors

Gross.

So what kept MSU in the game? Getting and converting lots and lots of free throws, which you knew. Also, MSU's turnover percentage was ridiculously good. Finally,  Minny got all Cameron Fry at the end of the game instead of all Ferris Bueller. Izzo, "The only thing I would give this team credit for is, if you’re in a championship-type run, you’ve got to steal a game somewhere. … I feel very fortunate to win it but proud we found way to win a game we didn’t deserve to.” Truth.

The NFL Combine

The Combine starts today for MSU players. You can follow the athletes live-tweeting the experience of traveling to the combine, BJ Cunningham "Detroit got real life birds flyin around in the airport" and Kirk Cousins, "The Grand Rapids airport has to have one of the slowest security lines in the country for the # of ppl passing through. 20 min wait at 6 AM". Was that a complaint Mr. Cousins? Today is indeed a special day.

The Little Brother Blog has a rundown of who reports when and when their drills will be. Today's arrivals will be Edwin Baker, Kirk Cousins, B.J. Cunningham and Keshawn Martin, but they don't workout until Sunday. Follow John Kreger on twitter for twittable combine updates.

A Word on the Upcoming Junior Day

If you follow recruiting at all, you know UM filled up half their class with top 250 players last weekend. If you're a bit high strung about recruiting, you know that MSU has a junior day coming up this weekend and Mark Dantonio will not be present for it.

Here's my take. At the beginning of every Roland Emmerich movie(The Day After Tomorrow, 2012, Independence Day), some small and insignificant event happens that foreshadows the impending Ice Storm of Doom. Brady Hoke got a huge jump on closing out his class of 2013, which is not a huge deal, but this gives him more time to work on the class of 2014, etc. Dantonio will be in LA this weekend, doing something for the Nike Coaches tour, whatever the hell that is. So not only will MSU not have a committ-a-palooza with the overpriced food, water and beer like Hoke had, they likely will not have a single commit. MSU rarely takes commits when Dantonio isn't around. It's a long haul from here to Signing Day and MSU will get theirs, but, if MSU recruiting starts to get snuffed out by UM and OSU in the coming years, people will point to things like this as a reason why.

Bonus Bits

Additional postgame dissection from Green Thoughts, The Only Colors and Hey, Joe! The Munn Minute has a post on how nice ND's new arena is.

Game Preview: Michigan State vs the Golden Gophers

The Tubby Smith School of Puppy Obidience

When: Tonight, 8:30pm
Where: The Barn, Minneapolis
Channel: Big Ten Network / 94.9 FM

Michigan State 22-5(11-3) takes on Minnesota 17-10(5-9) at the Barn. For MSU, a win gets them one step closer to an outright Big Ten title. For Minnesota, a win is necessary to keep their tournament hopes alive.

For Tubby Smith, a win might be necessary to keep his 2012-2013 employment hopes alive, this is the school that fired Glen Mason after all. Although with that mean look he has, he would be a puppy trainer for the ages.

Four Factors in Conference



Uh-Oh. MSU is on a tear right now that could rip small planets in half, but these numbers suggest that Minnesota will not be an easy out. Search your feelings using your best Jedi technique, you know this to be true. Minnesota is deep, 41.2% of their total minutes come off the bench, good for 11th nationally.

MSU is a smidge better at the four factors on offense, but where they really dominate the Gophers is on defense. MSU is holding their opponents to a stingy 41.9 percent eFG% while the Gophers are giving up 47.9 percent. MSU is holding their opponents to 28.1% Offensive Rebounding while the Gophers are allowing 33.2% Offensive Rebounding.

How To Achieve World Domination

•  The Purdue/OSU Blueprint Won't Work Here - MSU can't just tire out the Gophers and get away with sloppy execution. Minnesota is Diet MSU, but similar enough in build and depth that simply running them out of the gym will not be enough to win the game.

•  The Above is Not Completely True - Minnesota is thin in the frontcourt. Ralph Sampson and Elliott Eliason are the only players seeing significant minutes that are over 6'8". Eliason's stats show that he is basically a placeholder, Sampson is much better. A well utilized Derrick Payne will command the low post tonight.POUND GREEN POUND.

• Which of course means - Minnesota is going to try and play small ball. So the keys there, keep Appling out of foul trouble, set up Draymond as the mismatch and rotate the guards often since that's what Tubby will be doing to MSU.

•  Austin Thornton, Keep Doing That Voodoo That You Do So Well - Austin Thornton is currently has an Offensive Rating of 128.2, but obviously doesn't play TONS of minutes. It means when he is in the game he is ruthlessly efficient on offense. Keep being ruthlessly efficient on Offense, Austin Thornton.

Prediction of Ho-Hum Accuracy: MSU by 6. MSU looks unstoppable right now and this isn't a Brain Farty team, but, this game smacks of a Brain Fart loss in the making. Also the Law Of Gus.

Bonus Bits

Little Brother Blog has a good overview on how this week's Combine is put together.The Only Colors wins, if you can call it that, the world's best pun award in it's Game Preview. ISportsWeb has a Game Preview too.

Film Review Outback Bowl: 4 Offensive Questions

This is part two of our Outback Bowl Film Review. You can read part one of our review here and Heck's fantastic film review over on The Only Colors.

1.) Senator Cousins threw seven picks in thirteen games and three from the start of the fourth quarter in the Outback Bowl. What happened?

Well, the obvious suggestion would be that he was pressing, although he threw the first pick down only 16-14 with 11:21 left in the game. The way MSU's season went most games were only half over at this point.

Cousins Pick 1

MSU lines up in the shotgun and Georgia lines up in their 3-4 and shows blitz from the defense left or a slightly delayed blitz from defense right. The blitz ends up coming from the area in yellow. This is probably as good a job as Georgia did masking the blitz all day.

The play snaps and the defense right starts dropping back into coverage while two blockers on the left come completely unblocked. Obviously, Cousins is all "Oh Balls!". The left side of MSU's offensive line was expecting the blitz to come from the defense right and so they're left with no one to block.

Bell can't block both defenders, I mean he probably could if he was all hulked out and pissed like he is in the first quarter. Seriously, he can't block both guys. Foreman isn't blocking anyone, but doesn't look around to see if the blitz is coming from the other side.

Bell picks his poison, but ultimately he was just trying to make Cousins feel better about the fact that he had less than two seconds to get rid of this ball. Cousins is about to get smeared by number 19.

He throws the ball to what looks like a B.J. Cunningham who is in single coverage and has gotten himself some separation.

But the safety makes a great play and jumps the route and runs the other way with the ball. Which sucks.


Cousins Pick 2

MSU lines up in a Two Tight End I formation. Georgia has got nine in the box. MANBALL is about to ensue. right? RIGHT?

Wrong. The play snaps in some "Oh sir, you've bested me with your trickeration" fashion, Linthicum and Sims take off on verticals downfield. Cunningham runs a wheel route past the sticks.

Both Tight Ends are deep into the secondary and it looks like here comes another catch on Linthicum's already amazing 115 yard day.

I means seriously, Linthicum is stupid open. Except Alec Ogletree does his best Woodson imitation and leaps up in the air to tip a ball that he really had no business getting to.

He tips it down and it's a Fat Guy Interception. I'd try to screencap it, but the glory of a Fat Guy Interception is not meant to be beheld by viewing instrument less ornate than that of the simple human eye.

 Cousins Pick 3

MSU is in it's 5 WR package and Georgia lines up in a 3-4 Over. The blitz comes from defense right this time. The corner actually gets sent on a corner blitz, but because he's a few yards off the line of scrimmage it comes as an unblocked but slightly delayed blitz.

The play snaps and he begins his attack.

He's still coming while his friends are trying to kill Kirk. Note, if Keshawn Martin, WR at the top-right of the screen cuts his route short there's a good chance this isn't a pick.  Number 9(also top-right) is in man coverage on Cunningham. He still would have been short of the sticks but would have had a great chance to make a play.

Bell is open out in the flat but Cousins heard all of you guys screaming at him in the first half and knows that he should not throw short of the sticks.

Nichol is open way downfield, but Cousins got pressured into a bad throw and throws to his most reliable target, Cunningham.



2.) Nichol touchdown.

MSU lines up in a 5 WR shotgun set. Georgia lines up in it's 3-4. Georgia is guarding the endzone fiercely as evidenced by the three deep safeties right on the goal line.

The play snaps and Georgia brings four, the remaining four that are up on the line pick a man and drop into coverage.

The red represents the actual routes run by the Wide Receivers. In a moment you'll see this was obviously a designed clearout for Nichol from the outset.

Here the yellow routes are what MSU ran and the red routes are what the respective routes by Georgia defense was. The concern that Keshawn Martin caused for the Georgia D is what allowed Nichol to get open. Martin ran right at the deep middle safety and dragged both the safety and his linebacker into double coverage. Cunningham who ran the quick out, had the job of taking his guy out of the play, which left Nichol in single coverage in the endzone. Nichol can outmuscle a safety because even his muscles have muscles.




3.) Safety Play

Keshawn Martin has the red line over him. He is about to be safetied for safety's sake.

The blitz is coming from the area in yellow. That is a lot of blitzing. Sugar jets!

The play snaps and Cunningham starts on his route. The red route was the route he ran, the yellow route would have probably prevented a safety. It would have caused Boykins to square himself in the wrong direction, which would have given Martin time to at least get out of the endzone.

Instead Martin catches the ball two yards behind the goal line. ROUSHAR ALIEN HYPOTHESIS COMES NOW: If Martin can slip the tackle on Boykins, this is a minimum of a 40 yard gain. Likely six points. Number 9, Ogletree in the middle of your screen has a good angle, but is an inside linebacker and is likely not going to beat Martin in a footrace. Your next best angle belongs to All-American Safety Shawn Williams. Alas, instead of a well-disguised home run ball, Georgia gets two points.

I only bring this picture up because I want to show how hard Martin got hit. He's like three inches short of breaking the plane and doesn't make it out.

In fact, he got hit so hard he got knocked clean backwards for another yard loss on top of that. So that sucked.

4.) Brian Linthicum catches a 50 yard pass to set up the tying Touchdown.

Two things happened on this play that made all the difference. Georgia sent six on the blitz and it didn't get home. Thing number two is that in the still above, Linthicum had not yet caught the ball and Travis Jackson was a few yards downfield. I'm not saying that's an illegal man downfield, I'm just saying maybe be a bit more careful about that in the future.


I really wanted to do a workup on how and why Linthicum had 7 grabs for 115 and what gave him that success in this game. Unfortunately,  there really wasn't a typical play to chart on the matter. 115/7 is 16.3 yards per grab. He had two catches in the neighborhood of that a 17 yard pass from Cousins and an 18 yard pass from Martin, but his other catches were for -1,3,23,50 and 5 yards. So his day seemed to be largely feast or famine so it's difficult to use that as a framework to describe the whole day.



5.) I can't make this BieLOLema up.

I swore those were the Dr. Dre's Beats, but instead they're Bose. And as every audiophile jokes, "No highs, no lows, it's Bose". Crappy headphones and a pair of Officer Barbrady aviators. That's bi-winning!

Summation

Prior to the Outback Bowl all I heard from a couple of the Georgia bloggers that I follow is how afraid MSU should be of Georgia's D. It's absolutely true, their defense was excellent in getting Cousins to turn the ball over three times for the first and only time in 2011 and holding Bell to his lowest YPC of the season. For as much as I made reference in the MSU D vs UGA O post about how well MSU's D played, UGA's D did an equally impressive job.

The Offense as a result had kind of a feast or famine day and Dan Roushar got to wheel out his inner OC alien which always makes the denizens of Zerfgnax happy. In rewatching this game, we are going to miss Kirk Cousins next year. In spite of having a poor game, he had the poise and confidence to get in there and win MSU the game. People who think Maxwell will be an immediate upgrade will be lucky if they're right, as will we, the fans.

This is a great building block win for going into 2012. Georgia was a young and talented team who got the jump on MSU early and couldn't quite hang in there to close out the game. MSU beat a team when the two teams were on equal footing. It was a great way to close out the career for so many deserving seniors and set up our future seniors for their bowl game success.

Hoping for Good Surprises

Ever notice how much the outcome of a football season is influenced by surprises?  For example, how well would the Spartans have done last year if the play of our linebackers had not been a good surprise?  Honestly, I expected that unit to take a step back last year considering that the Spartans needed to replace Greg Jones and Eric Gordon.  Yet, the linebackers turned out to be one of the strengths of the team.

Surprises can also work against you, however.  For example, the running game was supposed to be the strength of the team, last year.  The "three-headed monster" (Baker, Bell, and Caper) was supposed to carry the team.  But it turned out that the offensive line struggled more than most of us expected.  I expected some struggle but not so much that the Spartans would end up last in rushing yards in the B1G and 78th in the country.  Clearly, that was not a good surprise.  If not for the surprising dominance of the defense (honestly, who expected the Spartans to finish in the top 5 in defense?), the weakness of the running game may have produced a losing season.

So what would be a good surprise for next year?  Well, as everyone knows, the Spartans are losing all of their starters from the passing game: Cousins, Cunningham, Martin, Nichol, Linthicum, and Celek.  That's pretty devastating.  So if we only get one good surprise next year, it would be nice if it came in the form of an explosive passing game.

It would be nice if Andrew Maxwell turns out to be Andrew Luck II, but I'm not greedy.  I would count it a nice surprise if Maxwell simply played as well as Kirk Cousins did in his junior year.  It would be spectacular if at least two of our talented receivers for next year would play as well Keshawn Martin and BJ Cunningham did this year.  But I would be happy if they played as well as Martin and Cunningham played in their junior years.

How important is it for the Spartans to get a nice surprise from their passing game?  Well, I would go as far as to assert that if the Spartans experience no other surprises -- that is, if the O-line, D-line, running backs, linebackers, defensive backs, and special teams all play as well as I expect them to play -- then they could compete for a national championship.  Of course, things never work out so neatly.  If the universe surprises us with a great passing game, it will probably balance itself by taking away our D-line (perhaps Jerel Worthy proves irreplaceable), or something else.

Unfortunately, surprises are by definition unpredictable.  But they are so common that we might as well assume that some big ones are going to occur this fall.  The probability that all the surprises will fall our way are relatively low.  But you never know.

A BieLOLema To Cure A Case of the Mondays

Sometimes you get A Case of the Mondays. There's only one thing to cure that, for me anyway. I think at least our football coach is not Rob Riggle from the Goods.

Someday he's gonna get some and it's going to be amazing.

A happy Monday Evening to you.

Monday Hot Links Is Playing NBA Jam While Watching Glengarry Glen Ross

Photo Credit: MLive

It was A Tale of Two Halves in West Lafayette on Sunday as MSU demolished Purdue 76-62. Brandon Dawson had a double-double, scoring 15 points and 11 boards including this NBA Jam! Draymond Green also scored a double-double picking up 20 points and 10 boards in the effort.

In the first half of the game, Robbie Hummel went on a monster tear turning in 18 points to put Purdue up 38-35 in the half. Even in the first half, you could see Izzo starting to work the Matta blueprint by substituting in Kearney and Gauna to chip away at the Boilers recently eroded depth chart. In the end it was too much for Purdue as MSU outscored them 41-24 in the second half for the victory.

Four Factors



Obviously, MSU made it's hay in Effective Field Goal percentage and Offensive Rebounding Percentage against Purdue. Lately, the defense is getting lots of deserved dap from the lovers of MSU basketball but the offense has very effectively held up it's end of the bargain with an eFG of over 55 percent against Purdue and Wisky.

B1G Title Outlook

MSU moves into sole possession of first place(11-3) in the Big Ten after Michigan beat OSU 56-51 and MSU's win on Sunday afternoon. Michigan and OSU are close behind at (10-4). MSU has to win 3 of 4 to share a title with either OSU or Michigan. Michigan has the easiest path to winning their last four, they play no ranked teams, but three away games. MSU plays two ranked teams and two away games. MSU/OSU on March 4th will almost certainly decide the Big Ten.

If People Cared About Hockey the Way They Care About Football, Tom Anastos Would Be As Big A Deal As Brady Hoke Was In 2011

The Icers swept the Alaska Nanooks and defended East Lansing from it's YouTube demise over the weekend to move into fourth place in the CCHA standings. The last series of the regular season is this upcoming weekend at Notre Dame. The Spartans need to get five points at ND to clinch first round home ice. They've also improved their chances at an NCAA tournament bid and are currently projected as a #3 seed.

The parallels between Brady Hoke and Tom Anastos are significant. Both coaches inherited programs that wanted a return to core values. Both coaches inherited teams that were full of players that needed reworking to fit their new/old system. Both coaches were thin on experience. Only one is actually thin though, ZING! Both coaches have made great strides with their team in year one.

Speaking of Brady Hoke...

I think he got all liquored up and watched ALL OF THE GLENGARRY GLENROSS on his way to an eight commitment weekend. Here's some footage of Hoke's "Soft Sell".

MSU Junior Day is this upcoming weekend. Do not expect an eight commitment weekend. No one should ever expect that, your life would be a series of disappointing weekends. More info on who will be attending later this week. Little Brother Blog has a good post on how the Michigan recruiting bonanza helps clarify the MSU recruiting picture.

Bonus Bits

As it regards conference expansion, the hopes for the SunBeast conference aren't dead yet. The NFL Combine starts on Wednesday, lest you forget, and the Seahawks will be watching Kirk Cousins. The writer who penned the racist Jeremy Lin headline has been fired, but the ESPN anchor who spoke the words gets to stay, because he's Ron Burgundy?