The Devil's Five Key Things

We're taking the five key things series and weaving it in with the Devil's Advocate series we did last year. Co-Authoring this segment will be my partner in crime Ty from the Lions in Winter. Check out his blogified 3-0 hot start here.

Hosting Today's Session


1.) Is Jim Tressel Der Sätanhitlër?

Jim Tressel is a "tragic hero" and by that I mean Der Sätanhitlër. He couldn't stop lying even after he got fired. I read somewhere he wouldn't take another job until he read 100 books. 93 days later he gets hired by the Colts for some crap position doing some crappy thing, probably telling people Payton Manning will be under center next quarter. I'd like to point out that's 1.075 books per day, I know if I had been the Godfather at a place like OSU for 10 years I'd have some stuff to do that had nothing to do with reading books. Like seeing family. So Imma go ahead and call Shenanigans. No way he read 100 books before taking that job.



Stop lying Jim Tressel, the world is a safe place.

Jim Tressel is black of heart and false of tongue, but it’s getting increasingly hard to believe he’s any worse than the majority of DI colleagues. Most AQ conference programs that have achieved year-over-year success in the last decade have been sanctioned, or are under investigation, or are technically following rules that very badly need to be changed (like 237 Alabama signees finishing their degrees at Too Bad You Aren’t Good Enough To Start at Alabama Technical Institute).

It seems like NCAA football has become NASCAR: If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’.

2.)You think this is the game Keshawn Martin does this thing?

I think this is the game where Keshawn Martin will do more of his thing. He's gone out of a couple games hurt now which leads me to believe he's a bit dinged up and spent very little time making people miss. Still, I don't think that running will come easy to us and the best way to help that out are with bubble and short screens to Keshawn. We're really missing a second receiving option right now to free Keshawn up to Keshawn his way across the field for the Make Glorious Keshawn!

I have a sneaking suspicion it is. Keshawn has a way of uncorking the huge return or the ridiculous reverse right when things are bleakest. Maybe it’s because Dantonio typically calls his number most when things are bleakest—but either way, I have to believe that if Keshawn is physically able to have a statement game, he has it Saturday.

3.) Should the Spartans try to stop the run, or attack the pass?

They should commit to stopping the run, I don't think Miller can beat us with his arm. If we can get up a score or two Fickell will have to think about Bauserman and I am all for creating the QB platoon of doom.

The Spartans unit that is the most better than the OSU equivalent is the downfield passing game. If the defense can rattle Miller early, and the Spartans can get a lead, I like our secondary to snag a couple picks in the second half—which should be an enormous advantage.

4.) How much more do we see of the unbalanced line?

I don't think we'll wheel it out again like we just found how damn awesome Tickle-Me-Elmo is and everyone's like dude that's so 1996. However, I rewatched bits of the ND game and was looking for the unbalanced line plays in particular. We ran four plays that I saw, there were probably a few more, but in the four I saw:

- 3 were run to the weakside. On two of the three McDonald the LG and he was functionally the tackle. He got beat at the point of attack and if he wins the point of attack on either of those runs Baker goes for like 9 instead of 1.5. On the run to the strongside the five left of the center go out to murder Notre Dame lambs.

So far, so good



The Weakside DE comes free, I mean not even slowed down.



Which ends up in TFL



So, I guess the long and the short of it is. It's not like the Unbalanced line is schematically broken. Had an OL gone back to seal off the backside that play maybe gets sprung for a few more yards. The formation has potential, and I think we see it again.

Out there on those things they call the Interwebs is a site called Smart Football, and it is about how smart people coach football teams smart. There’s an awful lot of reading material on Smart Football about unbalanced lines, and how smart coaches use them. The thing is, Mark Dantonio does not usually coach “Smart Football,” at least not by that site’s way of measuring.

Using an unbalanced line to get as many big bodies in front of Edwin Baker as possible isn’t just Smart Football, it’s smart football. Maybe Dantonio and his staff are too inexperienced in coaching it. Maybe they have a bunch of offensive linemen who were playing defense until recently and they’re having a hard time picking it up. Either way, I want MSU to keep using the unbalanced line, because when it clicks it’s going to be a powerful weapon.

5.) Do you hate Ohio State for costing us the Rose Bowl?

The Jim Tressel answer is no. But the truth is yes. The last time we played in a Rose Bowl was 1988. I was 8. Jim Tressel is one of Mark Dantonio's dearest friends. So dear in fact that Jim Tressel agreed to suspend his guys for the first five games of 2011 so that way he could to a BCS Bowl in 2010. This was of course based on the idea that he or Pryor would BE around this year.

I wrote the game preview a bit sheepishly yesterday, but I was driving home and I was thinking to myself this year's slogan is P4RB- Prepare for Rose Bowl, but the damnedable misery of it is that the slogan should be GB2RB- Go Back 2 Rose Bowl. When Dantonio came to town his first commit in the 2008 class was a young man named Charles Burrell. He told Charles that Charles would play in a Rose Bowl if he came to Michigan State. I remember specifically the mocking from various Wolverine sites on the matter. Dantonio held up his end of the bargain and Jim Tressel went out of his way to make sure that OSU got it's BCS spot.

We owe them an asskicking, whether we give it to them or not. So to answer your question, I don't hate Ohio State. I have some choice words about Jim Tressel though.

YES. Forget everything I said before. He is Der Sätanhitlër.

Final Prediction from yesterday stands: OSU 21 MSU 20. I want to believe, but I need to see first.

Oh you doubting Thomas. MSU 27 OSU 23. Last week, I correctly predicted a defensive score. This week, I see two second-half interceptions.

Notre Dame: Five Key Things Revisited

Well here's where we pick apart the five questions Ty and I dissected on Friday afternoon. Bonus observations at the bottom as we obviously missed a few things that were key factors in the game. I'm going to try and keep the gnashing and wailing of teeth to a minimum, after all just Monday I posted about how this was still an 8-4 or 9-3 type to me.

This week's five burning questions.

1.) Will our defensive line be able to get penetration on an Offensive Line that is not comprised of high schoolers and ne'er do wells?

One sack by Pickelman to force a fumble. Nine tackles for loss. We only surrendered 275 yards of offense. That's far more consistent with 17 points(which is what the offense scored and wasn't gifted) than 31 points. The 31 points contained a Kickoff return* for a touchdown and a drive that started on the MSU 12.

How much of this is due to the defensive line? Eh, it's hard to say without film review. 4.5 of the TFLs came from D-Lineman which is pretty decent. You cannot pin this loss on the defensive line and the play of the defense is what kept us in the game at all.

*- More on this in a bit.

2.) Will Captain Kirk avenge the 2009 Kobayashi Maru at Notre Dame?

No. It wasn't even close. Two problems here. 1.) Our offensive playcalling did not put our players in a position to win. It's been a while since I've felt that way certainly not in 2010 probably not since the Cousins/Nichol merry-go-round of 2009. 2.)I don't think that Cousins trusts his line, I haven't had a chance to rewatch the game, but if I had a nickel for every time he checked down to the flat I would be rich.

3.) Who's gonna throw their beef around more BJ Cunningham or Michael Floyd?

If you would have told me prior to the game we'd hold Michael Floyd to 84 yards and no touchdowns AND BJ Cunningham would have 12 catches for 158 yards and also no touchdowns and that we lost convincingly. I would have tried hard to make a bet with you that would have involved money, humiliation and perhaps some real estate.

BJ Cunningham may not be better than Michael Floyd, but there's no way you can tell me they don't belong in the same conversation. Cunningham was getting double teamed just the same as Floyd and won the duel. He just lost the game.

4.) Brian Kelly: Can a person cause their own head to pop?

I don't know. Notre Dame came out and kicked us in the nuts. We responded by not kicking them in the nuts back. Then we changed our strategy to running trick plays that didn't work. Then we played catch-up the whole game. I'm not really sure what if anything Kelly had to be worried about.

5.) Do the Fighting Irish begin their season 0-3?

No they didn't.

Bonus Observations

- Kick return coverage this year really needs to improve. Even minus the kick return for a touchdown the Spartans are averaging 84th in NCAA in kick return yardage allowed. I made a note of this during the FAU game but wanted to see how we did against a team that was all growed up. How we did is we gave up a Kick Return for a touchdown.

- Well. Our offensive line. It sucks. With Burkland out, it's probably going to suck even more. I didn't want to ask about it in the five questions because I thought I had spent too much time nitpicking it already. Apparently, trying not to nitpick something because I'm bored of it, doesn't mean that it's not an issue. I'll be rewatching the game this week and will be paying close attention to this.

- I do not need to rewatch the game to say I was disppointed with the MSU playcalling. The Fake Field Goal was neither successful or fake. I'm not a strong X's and O's guy although, I'm working on it. A shovel pass up the middle seems a risky proposition to me. If they fan out to defend the fake you might catch them napping up the middle, but if they're honestly defending the field goal isn't the middle of the line where all the BEEF is coming through? If you want to go for it on fourth and 3 on the 3, just line up and go for it. That would have made more sense to me.

- Further, Roushar said several times he wanted the offense to be MORE unpredictable. If he wanted to be more unpredictable by running the same plays over and over to the point where the Notre Dame Defensive Coordinator said: "He cannot possibly be running again on First Down!", Roushar succeeded.

Overall Assessment

It's important to remember for me that Roushar hasn't been in this spot as a coach since 2004 and that he's entitled to a few goofs too. That said, games like this make me crazy. I don't like losing, but I despise losing when I feel like we could have won. We got punched in the mouth early and responded by trying to outsmart the opposition by taking unnecessary and long chances.

I'm looking forward to Central next week and a chance to get healthy and work on some of our weak spots. I don't suspect we'll see another Central special, but we'll be talking more this week with Mike from The Chip Report on that later this week.

Notre Dame: The Devil's Five Key Things

We're taking the five key things series started last week and weaving it in with the Devil's Advocate series we did last year. Co-Authoring this segment will be my partner in crime Ty from the Lions in Winter. Check out his blogified Ndamukong madness here.

It's that time again, time to go over a few key things before our game this weekend. In case you have been living under a Spartan Sports rock, we are playing our rivals this weekend, Notre Dame. The game where we played Notre Dame in Fall of 1998 was my true awakening as a Spartan Football fan. I liked them before that, but it was on like Donkey Kong after that.

It was the first weekend I spent the whole weekend in my dorm, and I was watching the game. As we scored our first touchdown I realized most of my floor was watching it and as we scored a second and a third people all started piling into the kid's room who had the biggest TV and by halftime with the score 42-3 we were all watching as one drunken happy family.

This week's five burning questions.

1.) Will our defensive line be able to get penetration on an Offensive Line that is not comprised of high schoolers and ne'er do wells?

A principal concern of mine throughout the off-season has been the lauding of how great our Defensive Line has been. Well, who they are playing against has been a principal concern of mine too. Like it's easy to look great rushing the pass when you're playing against a backup or third string Offensive Tackle in McGaha and a converted Defensive Tackle in Dan France during Spring ball.

In the fall, we got little in the way of pass rush against Youngstown State because they were letting go of their passes so quick. FAU's Offensive Line was a train wreck so hideous it can only be represented by a picture.



And you will know us by the trail of dead...

So this is the first REAL test of how much our Defensive Line has improved. I expect to see a performance much closer to YSU than FAU. As much as I've picked on Brian Kelly in the past few days. His Offensive line will be prepared to play and I expect our front four to need some help generating pressure.

 

Ty: I think the defensive line’s well aware of their reputation, and I think they want to uphold it. Maybe it’s false hope, but I think we haven’t seen these guys’ top gear yet. The level of talent on the other side of the field is an order of magnitude better, but the stakes are an order of magnitude higher. I think the D-line shows us much more in this game than they have to date—but I also think Narduzzi will keep an uncapped bottle of linebacker hot sauce in hand, just in case.


2.) Will Captain Kirk avenge the 2009 Kobayashi Maru at Notre Dame?

This depends more on the defense than the offense unfortunately for Captain Kirk. In 2009, the offense moved in fits and starts because of the quarterback platooning. That said, we scored 30 in 2009 and 34 in 2010(I'll refrain the Little Giants drop for the first time this week.)

If we can drop 35 on them again, I do not think they have the tools to keep up in a shootout like that though. So I guess my answer to the question is really more was it ever really a Kobayashi Maru to begin with? If your offense scores 30 points, it did it's job.

Yeah, ND can score, but if it becomes a track meet I like our quarterback and receivers to outlast theirs. The Spartans have more targets, and Rees is more prone to turn it over than Cousins. SILLY PREDICTION: the game turns on a third-quarter Rees interception.

3.) Who's gonna throw their beef around more BJ Cunningham or Michael Floyd?

Well, Floyd outweighs Cunningham by 10 lbs, has 100 receiving yards more and an extra touchdown already in a two game season. Of course the Tommy Rees decision making tree for who to throw the ball to reads like this. *

1.) Michael Floyd.
2.) Michael Floyd.
3.) Throw it away.
4.) Michael Floyd.

In case you haven't heard BJ Cunningham became the all-time reception leader at Michigan State last week. Last year we held Michael Floyd to 81 yards by giving up Theo Riddick and containing Kyle Rudolph. This year, the replacement for Rudolph is nowhere near as good yet.

In short, I think we concede yardage to Riddick to lockdown Floyd and BJ Cunningham continues his career as MSU's most reliable target. Cunningham wins this duel.

* - As I reread this article one more time, I thought this was too close to the FLOYDFLOYDFLOYDFLOYD of MGoBlog to not provide a link. So link provided. Doesn't change the fact that Rees has no idea what option two is.

I’m a big Floyd fan.

Wait what? Oh, MICHAEL Floyd. Yeah, the kid can ball. I expect him to do some damage, even with constant attention from the MSU secondary and Rees’s decision tree that doesn’t branch. I’m not sure I like Cunningham in a pure statistical duel because, again, Cousins has more targets and is better at finding them.

4.) Brian Kelly: Can a person cause their own head to pop?



Stay tuned to find out after this 2.5 hour NBC Commercial Break

You know, one of these two coaches literally had a heart attack after Little Giants. How was it not this guy?

5.) Do the Fighting Irish begin their season 0-3?

I said it yesterday, I think the Irish have the talent to play ball and even beat us. They have too far to have come since last Saturday to pull it off this Saturday. They COULD beat us, but they have to avoid beating themselves first. They're not ready to do that yet.

MSU 28 ND 17

While watching Notre Dame play Michigan, I couldn’t help but feel that MSU is better than both of them. In fact, it felt exactly like watching last season’s Michigan – Notre Dame game: the drama, the crowd, the hype, the pressure, the huge plays, the terrible football. The level of play was definitely better this season than last, though, and that makes me nervous. The Dame looks better in 2011 than they did in 2010, and I’m not yet positive the same is true of Michigan State. As close as last season’s game was, it’ll have to be for the Spartans to come out on top.

MSU 34 ND 30

P.S. Hate The Dame.

The Devil's Five Key Things: FAU Revisited

MSU Smash Rating: 8. 10 points for the fact this is as badly as a team can be beaten, minus 2 for the fact that if FAU wins a game this year I'll be very surprised. How about our defense? They gave up 48 total offensive yards including only 26 passing yards for their lowest total since the 1984 Cherry Bowl. This was simply put as whoopy as whoopy whoopiness gets. The team looked to be playing on par with their mid-season 2010 selves right now.

I'd say this team is bound for another New Year's day bowl except that's true of half the Big 10 now, so I don't know if it's really all that special. Even the damn backup kicker was kicking field goals.

1.)Left tackle by committee, what could go wrong?

Against FAU nothing went wrong at Left Tackle or anywhere else for that matter. I didn't notice France's play, I also do not recall him receiving any penalties so I'm left to assume he played well. That said I was juggling kids most of the game and couldn't really zero in on dudes as well as I liked. There was a respite near the beginning of the second half where both kids wanted to be in the concourse so I did get to watch some reps of Fonoti at tackle. He looked late to his blocks and during the one run play that went his way he was not able to block his guy out of the picture.

France is obviously not Bryan Bulaga or Jake Long, but if he goes down that side of the line definitely gets weaker.

2.)FAU's Superior Pass Defense

"Last week FAU picked off John Brantley and the Florida Gator Swamp Folk three times. Without watching the game, it's hard to know if this came from superior defensive scheme or the installation of Jabba the Charlie's new offense. Maybe both? Regardless, three picks is plenty-pickin'-good on a team like Florida."

How in the blue hell did Florida throw three picks on these guys? I think there's a good chance that the installation of Jabba the Charlie's offense has something to do with it. There was simply put, nothing to their pass defense yesterday, Cousins was outstanding, Maxwell was 6 of 9 for 63 yards including probably the most impressive incompletion I've seen in a long time with his 50 yard SCRAMBLEBOMB to B.J. Cunningham which he of course caught too, just two yards out of bounds. *

Maybe our passing game is that much better than Florida's. Maybe FAU had a bad day in pass defense. Maybe both. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if Charlie was doing more with less in Gainesville. That said, our Quarterback's are for real.

Peter Badovinac did get to play significant minutes in the fourth quarter. I had suspected third string duties would fall to Nichol in a temporary situation or Cook if a long term situation arose, I still think that's true, but good to see Badovinac get some minutes yesterday.

* I dropped my cell phone this morning and BJ Cunningham ran into my house and caught it before it hit the ground. He's really amazing.

3.)Can I get an Amen? I mean a sack.

Well yesterday we got three sacks. 2.5 of them were credited to Defensive Lineman. Yesterday I felt like we definitely opened the defensive playbook a bit more, probably to get the guys ready for Notre Dame. There was definitely more blitzing, less vanilla coverages. So the front four had a bit more help than in the first game, but I don't think we've seen the bulk of their fancy playbook.

I felt like our D-Line played a lot more like the unit we kept expecting to see coming into the season. Gholston is starting to develop the mental ability to compliment his freakish physical gifts. Worthy is starting to nail his snap count timing again. All in all the unit looked much improved.

4.)How will our linebackers do in TE pass coverage?

Well amazing. We gave up one first down. So I'm pretty sure everyone was amazing in pass coverage all the time. Watching Notre Dame last night, I'm not sure we have to worry about TE passes like we did last year when they had Kyle Rudolph. Denicos Allen played a more complete game yesterday in my opinion. I think the linebackers are coming along nicely.

5.)Nick Hill: The Next Great Kick Returner?

Well, the crappy thing about shutting someone out is that you only get to return one kick. Nick Hill brought his back for 31 yards and looked great doing it. More data is required.

However, he did get to play some fourth quarter "run right and don't go out of bounds for the love of all that is holy" time. He rushed 14 times for 56 yards in spite of the fact the entire stadium knew he was going to be running right behind our third string line. I watched him run up the backs of his blockers a couple times, it's just a patience thing. He's gonna be fine.

The Good

- Everything.

- Seriously Everything.

- Arthur Ray saw more than a ceremonial snap, he played left guard in the fourth quarter. IMO, this makes him the third string left guard behind Foreman and John Deyo.

- Taiwan Jones looks like a man among children in his mop-up duty. When things start clicking for him look out.

- Not excited for Maxwell's debut as the starter to be against Boise State next year, but they lose Kellen Moore too.

- B.J. Cunningham got the school record for receptions yesterday laying down.

- We gave up one first down, that's...



- This team looks ready for Notre Dame, who will run the same 3-4 type defense next week. I think FAU could be like Notre Dame light. They're like ND without the talent, neither team has the drive to win.

The Bad

- Conroy missed another field goal yesterday off the goalpost. This makes him 2/4 on the season. I know that the first one was a Marino hold issue, but the second one looked to be all him. I don't think this is BAD, I didn't really expect Conroy to go 14 of 15 on the season again, but if there is some kind of kicking fail later this season, the seed of suspicion was planted back here. Probably nothing to worry about too much though.

The Uncertain

- Lawrence Thomas I believe was a healthy scratch yesterday. As a recruit who had a single offer redeemable at any school in the United States I have to suspect that he was hoping to see the field this year. I think if he didn't make it in yesterday, he'll probably get redshirted this year.

Update: Our friend LVS over at The Only Colors pointed out that Thomas was injured for all but the first couple days of fall camp and thus missed the installation of the defense. I had envisioned Thomas maybe seeing the field this year in a Greg Jones circa 2007 type way even with the injury. "What do we do?" "Kill the Quarterback!" "Why do we do it Greg Jones?" "Because quarterbacks need murderin'!". However, missing the defensive install was probably enough to warrant a redshirt.

- In fact, Taiwan Jones is the only 2011 recruit to play to date. I really hope that is a sign of strength in our depth chart and not a commentary on our recruiting class. With the defensive line and secondary due to lose some serious type star power last year I was hoping particularly on D-Line to see someone be good enough to warrant some consideration for the field this year.

- It seemed like our defense played a LOT more aggressively yesterday, I just hope not so much so they're overconfident for next week. ND's season is on the line and they're going to play us tough. Plus, you know, I'm sure Brian Kelly is still really excited about...



The Certain

- Best wishes for Jerry Kill. May you continue on the epoch-long quest to make Minnesota great soon.

- Both Michigan and Notre Dame have some serious holes in their game, but like all rivalry games, I'll celebrate the win after it happens and not take them for granted.

- I have jury duty tomorrow, so no Monday post. Have a good Monday.

Final Predicted Score: MSU 38 FAU 7.
Final Actual Score: MSU 44 FAU 0.

Florida Atlantic: The Devil's Five Key Things

We're taking the five key things series started last week and weaving it in with the Devil's Advocate series we did last year. In short, Bullets with Banter. Co-Authoring this segment will be my partner in crime Ty from the Lions in Winter. Check out his blogified Ndamukong madness here.

1.)Left tackle by committee, what could go wrong?

So as I'm sure you've heard by now, or maybe not, Jared McGaha has been bumped as the starter from Left Tackle to second string Right Tackle. Again, if last week I came across down on Jared McGaha it's nothing personal and he's about the only survivor of a whole hell of a lot of Offensive Tackle attrition.

I have to think that the gap between France and Fonoti is at this point more than a little bit. France is two inches taller, twenty pounds heavier and has a whole spring and pre-season of football at the Left Tackle position. It's my understanding Fonoti exclusively played Right Tackle until a couple of weeks ago. While France's experience at the position is not sufficient to give him an experience advantage, experience and a little bit better physical stature might be enough.

This position doesn't need to be perfect by Notre Dame, but improved would settle my mind a bit.

Ty: this may be apocryphal, but remember reading someplace on the Internet* that when Dantonio recruited McGaha, he told him of the famous Archimedes quote, "Give me a place to stand . . . and I can move the Earth." McGaha, so I read, was so impressed by the saying he made it his personal motto. Unfortunately, there's an important bit in the middle there about having a lever of sufficient length and rigidity, and, well, McGaha's clearly fell short. Or limp.

I was impressed by France's tools at the spring practice, though to my eyes he struggled with things like stunts and zone blocking, stuff you'd expect a newbie LT to struggle with. Physically, when asked to mash France can mash. But, as you say, benching a starting LT due to a poor performance against your supposed tomato can cannot be a good thing.


* The Googles, they do nothing.

2.)FAU's Superior Pass Defense

Last week FAU picked off John Brantley and the Florida Gator Swamp Folk three times. Without watching the game, it's hard to know if this came from superior defensive scheme or the installation of Jabba the Charlie's new offense. Maybe both? Regardless, three picks is plenty-pickin'-good on a team like Florida.

This game will provide a great tune-up for Cousins going into the Notre Dame game next week. FAU runs a 3-4 designed to stop or slow the pass just like ND. If FAU can generate some pressure expect their pass D to be the one thing FAU can do that will make us have to work for this a bit. The other facets of their team look pretty anemic.

Ty: Any time a college team runs a 3-4 I get suspicious. A true two-gap nose tackle, by physical definition, must be a grown-assed man. Either they've found a truly precocious manchild, or they're planning on stopping the run at the second level. With FAU's talent, it must be the latter, and that's good news for the Spartans.

Ideally, the ball won't have to come out of Captain Kirk's hands, and even if it does I'd hope experienced targets like Cunningham and Martin can get open enough for any crafty zone stuff not to matter. Failing that, just play jumpball to Dion Sims; he'll be a man amongst boys in their back seven.

3.)Can I get an Amen? I mean a sack.

Well, last week we got no sacks on YSU. They are a quick release, spread type offense and that's not the kind of offense that lends itself to lots of sackin'. FAU however runs a more pro-style look. I suspect you'll see some sacks get home this week. With luck not so many that our fans then start thinking that we sack ND's quarterback 83 plays out of 85 and anything else is equal to failure of a sort that is unparalleled since Nero.

That said, if the pass rush doesn't hit home this week it's not time to worry about the defense yet, but it may be time to start the undocking procedure for the USS "Our Front Four Will Generate All The Pressure We Need Without Any Assistance From Their Linebacking Friends".


Like this



Not this




Ty: With the size and speed MSU has up front, there'll be no excuse if they can't bring down FAU's quarterback(s) at least a couple of times. If Narduzzi has to dial up the blitz to generate heat, it could be a very long October—and some very large, very fast defensive linemen will have to take very long, very hard looks in the mirror . . . or maybe at Dantonio's celebratory pile of broken cinder blocks.

4.)How will our linebackers do in TE pass coverage?

FAU throws to their tight ends. A lot. Well, relatively speaking a lot insofaras they actually complete passes. Last week two tight ends finished in the top 3 receiving for FAU. Since Denicos Allen and Chris Norman appear to have outright won their LB positions this should be a good chance for them to tune up on the pass coverage.

This is an area where we will continue to miss Eric Gordon. Gordon was an excellent pass-covering linebacker and I think I'd like to see if these guys can develop into that.

Ty: Let's take the optimistic view here, and re-title it: How hard can our safeties hit their tight ends shortly after they catch the ball? I don't expect FAU to be a legitimate threat across the middle. Still, as you say, these should be very good practice reps for young Allen . . . Jake Stoneburner looms.


5.)Nick Hill: The Next Great Kick Returner?

Nick Hill has been promoted to the number one kick returner as a way to make sure he gets on the field. I think he has the stuffin's to be a permanent replacement at this position.

Ty: I like the cut of Nick Hill's jib. I don't know if he'll ever be a feature tailback but I know that kind of quick-twitch running can be absolutely lethal at this level. Get him on the field, I say, however you have to do it.


Final Score: MSU 38 FAU 7.

5 Key Things: Youngstown State Revisited

"Youngstown State. This damned well better be a case of MSU SMASH." It wasn't. Point of fact, analogies of old people fighting for a glass of ovaltine with their canes and walkers came to mind. Analogies of going to the dentist so you have healthy teeth for the next six months come to mind. It was pretty much as unsatisfying as a win of the 28-6 variety comes to be. Our offense was somewhere between ineffective and brilliant. Our defense. I'll get to that.

1.) Offensive Line Smash: McGaha looked completely overwhelmed at LT. The rule of thumb applies, if you can't beat YSU at LT, you will not beat OSU. He was yanked in favor of Dan France during the game and I suspect that arrangement will be permanent. France looked raw and had his own issues, but I think given that he is a RS-Soph I'd rather have him in at LT even if McGaha is like 6 percent better. McGaha is a five year program guy and the only offensive tackle recruit from the class of either 2007 or 2008 who's contributed at OT.

2.) Defensive Line Smash: Zero sacks. This is a dink and dunk team, the kind that generates a lot of yardage on us. Counting in the stands I usually didn't get past two seconds when the QB dropped back to pass before he let go. Still zero sacks. This is a difficult thing to decide whether to be disappointed about, we weren't really blitzing and when we were, there was no zone blitz, we weren't flooding a single gap. Still I was really hoping the DL wouldn't need help to generate significant pressure on Youngstown State.

3.) Does Nick Hill Fit the Bill? 2 carries for 7 yards. Both in the last couple of minutes of the game. He might well be as good as advertised, but I don't think good enough to see carries in front of Baker, Bell and Caper.

4.) How badly are we going to miss Greg Jones and Eric Gordon? Max Bullough tied Greg Jones career high for tackles in a game. Allow me to repeat, in his first collegiate start at Mike, Max Bullough matched Greg Jones career high for tackles in a game. This is simply put, better than anyone could have hoped for. It seemed like there was a lot of late and obvious communication about what play the defense should be running. I don't know if this falls to Bullough or not, but it would be good to see those calls made moments sooner so the D has time to read the plays. Jitters would be a fair assessment.

We're going to miss Eric Gordon this year. I didn't see anyone who obviously stepped up in his place. The season and the linebackers are young, let's see what happens.

5.) Can we run for 300 yards? Ouch. 159 yards is still not bad, but we threw a lot more than I was expecting.

Bonus Observations



Laces Out Dan

If that was anything other than a botched snap, I'll eat my hat. Conroy was drilling them pre-game from 50 yards out.

I like everyone else with a pair of eyes, felt like the defense played some sloppy football last night. Lots of guys were out of position. The tackling was sloppy. The tackling was frankly appalling at times. Still. They gave up six points and I am the biggest believer that is the only defensive stat that matters. More importantly, I thought they didn't open their playbook at all. Each blitz was straightforward, it was the linebacker coming through their obvious gap. It seemed like there was little or no stunting, the goal of the game was keep the plays in front of you and don't let up yardage and don't open the playbook. Mission accomplished. Still, tons of room for improvement here.

Secondly, I was really hoping that we'd be finished with the Kirk Cousins flailing against good coverage. He played a bulletproof 18 of 22 for 240 and a TD, but it concerns me that with good coverage he still cannot throw the damn ball away. Maybe this is a coaching thing, I have no idea.

I'm looking forward to a more even-keeled effort on both sides of the ball next week against FAU. If not, then we can all start to worry a bit.

Update #1: The Sunshine Piece

In re-reading the article this morning I realized I forgot to include some of the things I was really happy about.

If you haven't heard about it yet, Arthur Ray got the start at Left Guard on Friday night. This was purely ceremonial as I think the cancer has ravaged his leg beyond the durability needed for a Big Ten Season at LG. There's a lot of heartwarming going around here, to Joel Foreman for letting him start, to Coach D for not flipping his scholarship to Medical DQ a long time ago, but most importantly to Arthur Ray. I don't think this could have happened to someone more determined to make good on his scholarship. If he can get a medical redshirt and a sixth year of eligibility, I wouldn't count him out of playing next year. Not because the depth chart favors him, but because I won't bet against a kid who's been through that. The young man has a bright future in front of him.

B.J. Cunningham. I was talking with a friend on Friday morning who has Cunningham in a College Fantasy Football league. He said he started Cunningham on Friday night. I laughed condescendingly because I was thinking you silly bastard, they're going to run for 1400 yards on Friday night and throw twice. Not only did they throw plenty on Friday night, BJ Cunningham had half the catches. He looked like a man among boys.

Skyler Burkland. I think we may have a four year starter at RT folks. He looks like the real deal. We just have to keep him healthy now. We've been absolutely ravaged at OT during the Dantonio tenure.

Blake Treadwell. If Treadwell is the back-up, I cringe to see what Travis Jackson will be. Treadwell plays hard and runs angry. I like the cut of his jib.

3 Stars: Arthur Ray, B.J. Cunningham, Max Bullough

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.