The Mid-Season Review

With four games in the books, it's time to step back for a minute and see just what we've learned so far this season. The non-conference schedule is tough, not because it is actually tough as in you work really hard at it. It's tough because four games in, it's hard to tell how good you are or aren't.



This guy never works hard at it.

Four games in we've played a 1-AA team that made us look kind of crappy in the first half, an FAU team that looked kind of like the crappiest team I've ever seen us play, we played crappy at Notre Dame and then polished off the non-conference season by showing the world how crappy CMU is this year. So we can we surmise from all this? Pretty much crap, but we'll give it the old college try.

Donald Rumsfeld once got made fun of for saying: "There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know." I think this might be an apt way to approach dissecting our team's performance so far.

Known Knowns

- Our Offensive Line is going to struggle this year. We've been crushed for years by injuries at the Offensive Tackle position and it's finally caught up with us. They might at some point in the Big 10 season congeal to not be a weak spot for our team, but I think that's the best case scenario.

- Our defense is going to be solid this year. Michigan State is currently tied for eighth in the NCAA scoring defense giving up only 11 ppg. This defense will keep us in some tough games later on this season. They might have only played one good team and three bags of crap, but so have most teams at this point.

- Our rushing offense has underperformed so far this year. We're currently ranked 65th in rushing yardage. A point that came up on the Friday game preview is that the last game we lost where we outrushed our opponent was Minnesota in 2009. Our offense depends on us being able to run the football.

- Our Special Teams are not as Special as last year. Michigan State is still giving up 25 yards a kick return, good for 107th in the nation. Mike Sadler is averaging 39.67 yards a punt (although he had a great game Saturday) which would put him around 57th nationally. We're 69th in punt return coverage. Conroy and Nick Hill have been bright spots. The rest isn't bad, it's a little below average. Last year was outstanding and wonderful and all that Special Teams could be. Last year relatively speaking, was Beamerball.

- BJ Cunningham is a man among boys. He's ranked in the top 20 in all NCAA reception yardage type statistics. He moves the sticks, he gets first downs and then sets up the running backs to punch it in from 3 yards out. We knew he'd be good and he's still been a pleasant surprise.

Known Unknowns

- It concerns me mildly that I have yet to see our defense do it's magic on a mobile quarterback. With Denard "Mr. September Heisman" Robinson and Taylor "I quit the team while having a temper tantrum and then came back" Martinez still on the schedule this is a hole in our defense's sparkling resume.

- It goes almost without saying that we have yet to see how this Offensive Line holds up against a Big Ten defensive line. Ohio State scares me a bit because they traditionally have a very good defense and a good POWER defense at that. We have not had the success to impose our will just running the ball as we like, so a team like OSU might just outPOWER us. Further, a defense like Michigan gives me a bit of the heebie-jeebies. If Mattison can get that blitz home, it's going to give us problems. If not, we'll be fine.

- In order to lighten the load in the passing game, a true second target needs to emerge in the passing game. Nichol seems to be good on the slant routes or a quick curl, but I think we're missing a true second receiver to take the heat off B.J. in the passing game. This will matter more against teams with more disciplined defenses than we have seen so far.

- Will Kirk Cousins continue to have DERP moments at key times in games? I really debated about whether to include this point because I think Cousins has been the steadiest hand we've had at QB since I've been watching MSU football. So picking on him about his occasional DERP moments seems unfair, but, this is supposed to be an MSU football blog and not a "Kirk Cousins boy-crush" blog so, anyway, I digress. When Cousins is pressing from behind he occasionally does things that boggle the mind at critical times. It's not just a Notre Dame thing, it's taking coverage sacks on 3rd and 8 like he did against YSU, or throwing an ill-advised pick on 3rd and 2 against CMU. With a murderer's row of October games coming up, will he be able to risk losing a 3rd down to win the game?

Unknown Unknowns

Obviously this section will be short because if we had any idea what they would be they would tend to be in the category above.

Covered in this category would be the things like Micajah Reynolds showing strong at LT during the CMU game. Skyler Burkland being lost for the year, etc. Not really much to see here.

Overall Thoughts

Coming into the season, I thought this would be a 9-3 or 8-4 type team and I see nothing that changes any of that. I think that comparatively speaking we're a little behind where we were at this point last year. Our offense seems to move a bit more in fits and starts, our rushing attack is not as reliable, our special teams are not quite as crisp. Plus there's the October schedule. I think this year will go on to prove one thing though, Mark Dantonio in spite of the Angry Offensive Line Hating God and in spite of one of the nastiest schedules I've MSU ever play has prepared this team to be an 8-4 or 9-3 type team. That's a breath of fresh air around these parts and I'm excited.

Yes, But Who Watches The Watchmen?

When I started watching football in 1996, I was of the thread that all you needed to be successful in any game was a quarterback. Give me a quarterback that is high and mighty, noble in his reads and I shall deliver you a championship. While this is very occasionally true, more often than not a QB requires some assistance. Apologies to any Northwestern QB reading this, you are sewn of the skin of Satan and never got any help at all. As my knowledge of football changed, I don't want to say progressed, that would imply I know more than I did in 1996 that grew to include WRs, RBs and eventually OL.

Here's why your Left Tackle is one of the most important dudes on the field. Here's why:
As previously discussed in the Assume The Position: Quarterbacks series if that happens to Kirk Cousins, that will spell DOOM for this season.

The Right Tackle position is less important regarding the health of your quarterback, but it is imperative for running the football. Running right is what the big ten does best, isn't it? A good right tackle is like a fullback on steroids. Note: It is not actually a fullback on steroids. A good Right Tackle can John Henry their way down the field felling punier creatures of 230 while swigging a can of red bull.

So finally I come to the point, in the most successful run of MSU football since I started watching, how in the hell are we starting a two-star Redshirt Senior with two starts prior to this year and a Redshirt Freshman at Left and Right Tackle respectively? Did Mark Dantonio forget to recruit guys at this critical position?



Forgot? He didn't forget. Mark Dantonio gets angry about forgetfulness.

Let's take a look at what happened with our OT recruits in the 2007 - 2011 classes.

2007

Jared McGaha - The only OT recruit of the class. Currently starting for the Spartans although we'll see about next week. In pretty much any other situation he'd be a depth chart guy, though due to the thinness of the position right now he's starting. It's hard to get after a guy being asked to play above his ceiling, to say nothing of the fact that he played RG until last year.

2008

John Deyo - A two star kid with offers from CMU, EMU and MSU. He seemed like a kid with boom or bust potential. Obviously things have worked out less than ideally in terms of his development. He has seen the field in a special teams role and occasionally in mop-up duty.

Zach Heuter - A referral from the outgoing UM staff under Carr. Would have been wasted under Rich Rod. A pure Right Tackle if there ever was one. He took a medical DQ earlier this year after spending like 3.5 hours healthy during his three seasons at MSU.

Anthony Woods - NFL body, Special Ed mind. Left MSU after his freshman year due to a combination of grades and disciplinary stuff. Apparently he disappeared into the ether since even the googles cannot determine where or why he left.

2009

David Barrent - Flipped his commitment from Iowa to MSU and seems to be the only logical piece in a mysteriously deep-seated hatred of MSU by Iowa football fans. David Barrent took a medical DQ this spring after dealing with a back thing since he got here. This one hurt. David Barrent was supposed to be our NFL Left Tackle playing where Dan France is this season.

Henry Conway - Rumors have been persistent since Conway came to campus that Adonis chiseled a statue of Henry Conway in his living room. Then he done fractured a vertabrae a couple years back. He saw mop-up time on Friday, but I really doubt he's a starter this year.

2010

Skyler Burkland - Current starter. I'd guess four year starter at RT. He looked the part on Friday, but the part for a Redshirt Freshman is still some fairly frequent mistakes. Look for massive improvement from him this season and beyond.

Michael Dennis - Dennis is/was and may always be a project kid. At 6'7 and 260 he'll either put on the 40-50 lbs needed to be a dominant LT or he won't. If he's gonna see the field much, it'd be next year or the year following.

2011

Fou Fonoti - Was a JC transfer and expected to compete for the starting LT spot. He looked a bit undersized still on Friday night. He's another guy who might enter the conversation as the season progresses, but I wouldn't expect much out of him soon.

So of the 9 offensive tackle recruits of the Dantonio era six were recruited from 2007-2009. One is a starter, three are no longer with the program(two medical DQs), one has a spine that has been cracked open and one despite all that appears to have no shot at seeing the field.

The guys recruited in 2010 and 2011 are Burkland, Dennis and Fonoti. Fonoti could see significant time this year, as I said before Burkland I think will be a four year starter.

Bonus Observation!

The football gods have not been great to the non-OT positions either. From 2007, Arthur Ray struggled with the aftermath of his cancer, Chase Dumphord arrived on campus and was homesick in about 2 days. From the 2008 class Ethan Ruhland has had a difficult time cracking into the two-deeps(he hasn't been able to find a home either, bouncing between center and left guard). Nate Klatt a four star center has been passed by both Blake Treadwell and Travis Jackson. Look at his 2012 future to be at guard. Micajah Reynolds has been bounces between the OL and DL like Carmen Sandiego eludes me yet again.

Bonus Observation Part 2!

Dan France was recruited as a DT but Rivals had indicated his biggest upside might be at OT. This was prior to his arrival at MSU and not something they posted last week. Unfortunately, I don't think this is the situation you wanted that to come to fruition.

Conclusion: MSU's Position Group God of Destruction without question belongs to the OTs specifically for the years 2007, 2008 and 2009. McGaha is in part the starter because he's pretty much the only intact survivor of those three years. Help is on the way with Burkland, France and Fonoti but I don't think it will arrive in time to make a significant positive impact for the 2011 season. The good news is that the recruits of the 2010 class look to be wins across the board and France if he pans out has two more seasons after this one. Even if OT is a train wreck in 2011, it SHOULD improve going forward.

Unless Shiva gets angry again.