Pre-Snap Read: Michigan State vs Rutgers​

By Jim Comparoni
SpartanMag.com


Piscataway, NJ - Three weeks ago, we had two programs - Michigan State and Miami - that we thought might be headed in opposite directions. And that turned out to be true.

Two weeks ago, a beaming Michigan State team was facing a hungry, angry, dangerous Nebraska team that needed to win more than the Spartans did. Michigan State played hard. Nebraska played just as hard, if not harder, just like we thought they would. But the Huskers didn’t play cleanly. Michigan State survived.

Last week, Michigan State faced a tricky Western Kentucky test and learned some lessons while passing a challenging little quiz. Along the way, we learned that Payton Thorne was back to his accurate, efficient self. And Jayden Reed is still Jayden Reed. And Jalen Nailor packs difference-making potential, despite not getting a touch a week prior.

This week, Coach Mel Tucker is continuing his campaign of angry diligence. Find something to be cranky about and correct it. Never rest. Remain relentless.


He’s done a great job of instilling tunnel vision with this No. 11-ranked Michigan State team (5-0). Fans are talking about the possibility of being 7-0 heading into an Oct. 30 showdown with Michigan. But waiting in the tunnel before all that is a collision with a team that embarrassed Michigan State in Tucker’s debut as a Spartan coach, Rutgers.


Michigan State gifted Rutgers with seven turnovers last year, and Rutgers earned some of them. Michigan State was beaten by a better team on that day. Now Michigan State has natural incentive as athletes to prove to Rutgers that they didn’t beat Michigan State at their best last year.

“It was a tough game to be a part of and really a tough game to see unfold,” said Thorne, who didn’t play in the game. “I’m not really too concerned about last year’s game. I remember it and we acknowledge it but we have a very different team this year.”

Michigan State wants to maintain its momentum and build on it. The Spartans look and seem like a focused, confident team with no sense of entitlement. That’s the best way to stay unbeaten when approaching a winnable game.

Rutgers began a season 3-0 for the first time since 2012, but got off to a poor start against Michigan, falling behind 20-3.

Rutgers came roaring back, trailed 20-13 midway through the fourth quarter, but was derailed by a false start inside the 10-yard line when the Scarlet Knights seems moments away from tying the game. Rutgers settled for a short field goal attempt, which the Knights missed.

Next possession, Rutgers was stopped on fourth-and-short. Michigan survived. Rutgers had reason to feel good about itself.

Rutgers played well, stopped Michigan’s running attack, rushed for 196 yards of its own, but probably took some bumps and bruises along the way. The Wolverines attempted 38 running plays in the game. Those can leave a mark, even when you’re stopping them.

A week later, Rutgers looked a step slower against Ohio State. The Buckeyes have a way of making a lot of teams look slow, but Rutgers looked like a Division III team at times against Ohio State, falling behind 24-0 in the first quarter and 31-6 two minutes into the second quarter.

Is Michigan State catching Rutgers at a good time? Those were a pair of physical games for the Knights, to their bodies and psyches.

Rutgers coach Greg Schiano was asked earlier this week if he feels he needs to monitor his team’s confidence after a pair of losses, especially a decisive TKO loss at the hands of Ohio State.

Long pause.

“I don’t know,” Schiano said.

Well, that was refreshingly honest, and possibly revealing.

Then he said this:

“I think they have shown in the short time we’ve been together that they can step up and play with just about anybody,” Schiano said. “But we haven’t done it over four quarters against the best teams we’ve played. That’s really our challenge.

“I know it’s corny and it’s coachspeak, but I happen to believe 100 percent that this is a one-game season. So we have to figure out, how are we going to win the Michigan State game and be 1-0 in that season.”

Then he took a deep breath and rubbed the stubble on his face when he said.

“I’m probably not looking as spiffy as I should because it’s been a little bit of a tough stretch here,” he said. “But it’s all about one thing: winning against Michigan State. We put everything we’ve got into it.”

Michigan State wants to continue on, achieve 6-0, and then get grumpy about the next challenge.

Rutgers wants to prove it can reside in the top half of the Big Ten East, ahead of Michigan State.

Motivation levels remain sky high. It’s going to be another double-mouthpiece game.



FINAL ANALYSIS FIRST

Rutgers bothered Michigan State with a solid, strong, athletic, tricky defensive front last year. Many of those components are still in pace.

A lot of attention has been given to MSU’s improved ability to avoid turnovers this year, and the problems the Spartans had with turnovers against the Knights last year.

That remains a big deal in this game and any game.

Right next to that, Michigan State needs to prove it can handle Rutgers’ tilted defensive tackle and its odd 30 front.

Rutgers’ d-line is good, not great. But they are just unorthodox enough to cause problems for some teams, like they did against Michigan. Michigan led the nation in rushing heading into that game, but Rutgers held the Wolverines to 112 maddening yards.

Michigan State needs to solve the defensive front first and foremost, to get the run game going, and then open up the passing attack with good down-and-distance situations against a soft, sometimes-slow secondary.

Rutgers’ secondary isn’t so bad when they get you in third-and-long, get into press coverage and send blitzes at you. They love that on third down. They are a completely different defense on first down.

But if you can establish the run, and get them thinking about the run on first-and-10, and hit up their softish zone coverages with play action passes, then it can be recess time against that secondary.

But you have to handle their defensive front, first. Crack that formula and you can ace the rest of the test.

Rutgers has a decent tailback, a decent WR with special teams ability, a faulty place kicker, an uneven offensive line, good linebackers who hit hard but maybe aren’t all that fast, and a mixed back of DBs. If they get into a rhythm and get fired up - as was the case in the second half against Michigan and Syracuse - they can give you some headaches.

But at a few positions, they still look like Rutgers. You know what I mean. I’ve said the same thing a few times over the years about some Indiana, Purdue and Northwestern teams. Rutgers has some of those mid-major traits. Their QB is a fiesty competitor, can facilitate elements of the option pretty well, but really struggles to throw with any consistency from the pocket, downfield. He’s inaccurate. He’s extremely limited.

The RB is pretty good, kind of an Elijah Collins type of good.

But their offensive linemen are slowish when they try to pull. Their defensive backs allow too much separation at times. Team speed isn’t that great in certain areas.

They are a pretty good team. They just have little areas here and there where they look like they are in quicksand.

Michigan State is not great. Michigan State has been playing good, sharp football this year, and is closing in on becoming a dependable team. Games like this are when you earn a dependable label, and harness a level of consistency by taking care of business in winnable games.

We need to see Michigan State do it a few more times before we can be as confident in this team as we were with some of Mark Dantonio’s championship contenders. That’s why this is such a good, intriguing little test. Rutgers is better than Northwestern, but not quite as good as Nebraska.

Michigan State stole victory against Nebraska by avoiding mistakes and playing great special teams. Michigan State won’t need as many magic tricks to win this game, but 60 minutes of good, solid meat and potatoes blocking and tackling should do the trick, if Michigan State is up to it.

The good news is that Rutgers’ lack of explosiveness at the QB position makes for less thin-ice precariousness than Michigan State experienced against Miami, Nebraska and even Western Kentucky. As long as Rutgers doesn’t find success with some sort of unorthodox option play, like they did against Michigan in the third quarter, the Spartans should be able to stay a step ahead in this one - provided that the turnover bug remains inoculated.


RUTGERS SO FAR

W Temple, 61-14
W at Syracuse, 17-7
W Delaware, 45-13
L at Michigan, 20-13
L Ohio State, 52-13


THE STATS: RUTGERS DEFENSE


* Rutgers is No. 11 in the Big Ten in yards allowed per play (Michigan State is No. 9).
* Rutgers is No. 10 in the Big Ten in yards allowed per rush (Michigan State is No. 6).
* Rutgers is No. 13 in the Big Ten in yards allowed per pass play (Michigan State is No. 7).
* Rutgers has 14 sacks on the year, No. 6 in the Big Ten (Michigan State is No. 3 with 18).
* Rutgers has allowed only six sacks all year, No. 2 in the Big Ten. But they don’t do much pocket passing, and the QB is a nervous nelly when he does. (Michigan State is No. 6, having allowed eight sacks).


THE STATS: RUTGERS OFFENSE

* Rutgers is No. 11 in the Big Ten in yards per play (Michigan State is No. 2).
* Rutgers is No. 9 in the Big Ten in yards per rush (Michigan State is No. 4 at 5.6)
* Rutgers is No. 10 in the Big Ten in yards per pass attempt (Michigan State is No. 4)


THINGS TO KNOW

* Rutgers is aggressive early in the game. They try to gain momentum with tricks and gimmicks and deep shots.

* Rutgers went deep on the first play vs OSU (drew pass interfence).[Schiano was asked why they didn’t do it more often. He said, “That’s a fair question.” Look for more deep shots in this game.]

* Rutgers attempted a throw back lateral vs OSU last year.

* Rutgers faked punt at the end of its first possession against OSU with up-back Matt Alaimo a former QB and former Michigan State QB recruiting target, throwing an INC.

* Rutgers tried a trick play on fourth-and-one against Michigan, with the RB getting under center at the last second while the QB acted like he was having trouble getting the signals. RB mishandled the snap, UM reduced to tight Bear front and stuffed it.

*Against Michigan, Rutgers went deep to WR Aron Cruickshank on the opening drive on a play that only ended up going for 24 yards, but it was a deep read.

* Next play: they tried a misdirection, fake toss and look for another deep shot right away, but the WR got held up on his route and QB had to check down.


AGAINST OHIO STATE

* OSU hit two explosive plays on offense (an inside run that went untouched for a 40-plus yard TD; and a crossing route that turned the corner and surprisingly went the distance against a vacant, slowish secondary) and then OSU returned a short INT for a TD and thing was 24-0 in the first quarter.


AGAINST MICHIGAN

* Michigan ran it down Rutgers’ throat on the opening drive, but didn’t do much on the ground for the rest of the game. Michigan had 15 rushes for 64 yards on the opening drive, which went for a TD. But Michigan needed four inside run plays to cover the final five yards, and the game kind of started to change right then.

Michigan netted only 48 yards rushing the rest of the day.

Michigan Running Backs vs Rutgers:

Blake Corum 21 rushes, 68 yards (3.2, long of 13)
Hassan Haskins 12 rushes, 41 yards (3.4, long of 11)


GAME WITHIN THE GAME: Key Matchup


NT Julius Turner (No. 50) was a big problem for Michigan State center Matt Allen last year. Allen didn’t play the rest of the season due to injury. Did he try to play hurt that day? We don’t know. But we know he needs to play better this time.

Sometimes, some players just match up well against others. Horses for courses. Turner has given more than one center problems through the years, and it’s probably a good bet he will be a problem for Michigan State in this game.

Turner isn’t a big guy (6-0, 275, Sr.) but he’s like a stump. He’s hard to move. He comes at you with that sideways tilt and usually transitions it into a two-gapping approach. He was HM All-Big Ten last year.

If Allen is struggling against him again, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Nick Samac gets the call.

Samac has mainly played with the second unit, as a complete unit, when seeing action this year. He hasn’t played a lot with DJ Duplain and Kevin Jarvis at the guard positions in games, but Michigan State might need to explore that mix in this game.

Samac has been pretty good this year, but not great. Not good enough to overtake Allen. But this week might call for more pitches out of the bullpen from Samac. Or perhaps Allen will gain a level of retribution. Keep an eye on it.


RUTGERS STYLE OF PLAY: OFFENSE

* Rutgers’ record is pretty good, but other than finding a rhythm in the second half on the ground against Michigan, the Knights’ offense hasn’t been good this year. I’m expecting MSU’s defense to stay sound against Rutgers’ little options and misdirection plays and their occasional deep shot and I’m expecting the Spartan defense to have a pretty good day.

Rutgers’ QB is extremely limited when trying to throw from the pocket. He’s a gamer. He tries to make up for it with some option keepers, and some roll-out passing, but he’s limited.

The WRs are okay, but not great. One of their top two WRs, Bo Melton, went down with a midsection injury last week. Schiano was noncommittal and whether he will be available this weekend.

Rutgers’ tight ends are also limited. Jovani Haskins turned in a 30-yard TD reception against Syracuse, on an X’s and O’s scheme. More on that in a moment.

Vedrals throws short, short, short and occasionally deep. He seems to lack confidence, or freedom, to throw anything between 8 and 20 yards downfield. HOWEVER, Rutgers has been able to draw up little scoring ploys in the red zone through the air - one against Syracuse and one against Michigan.

Against Syracuse, they got TE Haskins (No. 5) open on a seam route against cover-three. Rutgers occupied the left CB with an outside WR.

Initially I assumed Vedral did a good job of moving the centerfield safety to the right with his eyes and then throwing back to the left seam. But in watching it again, Vedral MIGHT have glanced a bit to the right, but nothing extraordinary. I think the safety just got caught watching the paint dry a little bit.

And the Syracuse LB did not reroute the tight end as he headed toward the seam. Bottle him up for a moment and get better awareness from the safety and that thing shouldn’t be as oen as it was.

MSU’s red zone defense has been good this year against good offenses. On the rare occasion when Rutgers penetrates the red zone, Michigan State needs to continue to rise and shine

Against Michigan, Rutgers hit a little inside wheel route to the RB for a TD, causing confusion with a power read option play action look and a jet sweep fake. The key to that is that Rutgers had established success with power read option prior to that play and Michigan was biting on power read action, to the point of losing the RB out of the backfield for the internal wheel.

Some of you may remember the problems Michigan State has had in the past on defense against wheel routes. That doesn’t apply as much anymore. The wheel used to be a weakness of MSU’s press quarters zone but Michigan State doesn’t play much press quarters zone anymore .

Rutgers doesn’t have a lot of firepower on offense, and an opponent needs to keep it that way if and when they happen to sneak into the red zone.


WHAT DID RUTGERS’ OFFENSE DO WELL AGAINST MICHIGAN?

Rutgers found success in the third quarter with a power read option, and built off of it with other tangents and elements.

Rutgers had success by putting two tight ends to one side of the formation and pulling the weakside guard to the two-TE side. From there, Rutgers left the play-side defensive end unblocked and optioned him.

QB made the read and either kept the ball up the gut, or handed it off outside. Rutgers began getting little chunk gains of 5, 9, 15, 5 yards.

Pretty soon, they began working RPO and play action passes off of it.

I went back and watched that game for a third time last night to try to detect exactly when Rutgers “found” that play. It wasn’t until the second drive of the third quarter.

I don’t think it was a case of Rutgers saving the play for the second half. I didn’t see them use it much against Syracuse. I think they just happened upon a play and then stuck with it. Michigan’s defense is good, but their coordinator is a young coach with an NFL background and might have had trouble coming up with answers.

Seriously, this one play - and some other tangents off of it - turned a 20-3 game into a 20-10 game, then a 20-13 game, and it was about to be 20-20 with 7 minutes to go if Rutgers hadn’t stalled themselves with a false start at the 7-yard line on second-and-medium. (Then they missed a field goal).

Rutgers got the ball back with about 5 minutes to play but was stopped on third-and-one and fourth-and-two.

But Rutgers kind of did it wrong.

On third-and-one, they didn’t run the play as an option. They ran it as point-of attack power. They pulled the backside guard toward the two-TE side and tried to put a hat on a hat rather than optioning the play-side defensive end. They had run this play earlier for a few yards, but they didn’t seem to trust the option at crunch time, maybe expecting safeties to be more aggressive in helping.

Anyway, Michigan’s sophomore DT (No. 94) stood firm against a double team at the point of attack, and Michigan’s replacement MLB shot the gap quickly for a firm tackle for loss.

On fourth-and-two, Rutgers went with too many tight ends, on both ends of the line, made it easier for Michigan to crowd the box. Rutgers went with its jumbo QB, 235-pound Johnny Langan, on that play and in my opinion he is less of a threat to execute a handoff and more of an obvious keeper threat. He kept it and Michigan stopped him.

A week later, Ohio State destroyed that power read option play right away by sending the unblocked defensive end right into the pulling guard, and scraping hard with speed to attack the mesh while also winning the edge.

Soon, Rutgers was down 24-0 and the power read option game was kind of out consideration.

Rutgers will undoubtedly present Michigan State with this power read option look to the two-TE side. Michigan State has had time to work against it. I would expect Michigan State to be solid against it. It will be interesting to see how Michigan State asks its unblocked defensive ends to play against this look. Do they take on the pulling guard, or go out with the tight ends like Michigan’s did for awhile, or try to play the meshpoint like Michgan’s did for awhile?

Login to view embedded media
RUTGERS’ RUNNING GAME:

* Vs Syracuse: 42 rushes for 107 yards in gains (57 yards in losses) for a net of 50 yards rushing 1.2 per carry.

* But against Michigan’s vaunted defense, Rutgers rushed 42 times for 196 yards (4.7 per).

Figure that one out. (I just did. They got it going in the second half with power read option).

* Against OSU: Rutgers rushed for 111 yards on 31 carries. Their top RB, Isaih Pacheco, had only six carries for eight yards. QB Vedral had eight carries for 34 yards.


RUTGERS PERSONNEL

QB NOAH VEDRAL (6-1, 200, Sr., Wahoo, Neb.)
* Nebraska transfer.
* Last year against Michigan State, he was 18 of 29 for 169 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT.
* Had no interceptions in the first four games. Threw three picks last weekend, including one returned for a TD.
* Started seven of Rutgers’ nine games last year.
* Feisty QB with some phone booth quickness. Has some Lewerke type of quickness on downhill keepers but not the Martinez speed to make you worried about him going 60 yards on you.
* Last year vs Michigan: 29-43 381 yards passing, 3 TDs, 1 INT. All career highs. I have no idea how he managed that. He shows none of the passing ability right now to put up numbers like that.

In going over the highlights from a year ago, he had 100 yards on two deep balls, 61 of which came on a severe Michigan bust. There had to have been a lot of busts because this guy can’t do that.

* But he is a creative, energetic player. His overhand lateral after crossing the line of scrimmage at Michigan in the first quarter was a right-brained play.

* Weak on intermediate routes. They don’t trust him to throw intermediate routes (based on all the all-curl route combinations) and he doesn’t seem to trust himself.

* They have a lot of plays where he pumps and looks deep, or some other gimmicks when trying to look deep, but he often looks deep and checks it down short.

* He consistently misses the intended receivers, usually high - including the one that resulted in the pick six against Ohio State.


VEDRAL VS MICHIGAN THIS YEAR:
* He was 18 of 31 for 156 yards with 1 TD and 0 INTs against Michigan with a long of just 24 yards (to Cruickshank).
* 11 rushes, 46 yards (4.2) against Michigan).

VEDRAL vs SYRACUSE
22 of 28 for 145 with 1 TD.


That’s an average of just 5.1 yards per pass attempt. (Penn State’s defense leads the Big Ten in allowing 5.4 yards per pass attempt. Syracuse’s defense, statistically, was better than Penn State’s league-leading average, even though Vedral was 22 of 28. It was short, short, short.

* Vedral averaged 6.6 yards per completion. I think that’s one of the lowest averages I’ve ever seen. But he avoided mistakes and hit the one open receiver for the TD and got the win.

VEDRAL vs OHIO STATE
16 of 26 for 152 yards with 1 TD and 3 INTs

* INT second possession vs OSU (pick six).
Bad INT on double slants vs off coverage. He hesitated before he threw and I’m not sure why. The window looked clear to me, then missed high.

- Seems to know his limitations. Doesn’t push the envelope on third down, is willing to check it down.

- Slow release. Too long of an arm circle on his release.

- INC too high on third-and-five out route in 3Q vs Syracuse.


21 QB/TE JOHNNY LANGAN (6-3, 235, Jr., Wayne, NJ)

* Tyler Hunt type of athlete. Former QB.
* They use him on short yardage designed keepers. Kind of built like Tim Tebow for that role.
* Plays some tight end. Had a reception for a gain of 2 last week on a naked half roll.


RUNNING BACKS

RB 1 ISAIH PACHECO (5-11, 215, Vineland, NJ)
* Is averaging 3.8 yards per carry this year, averaged 4.4 per carry last year.
* Last year he rushed for 61 yards on 19 carries against Michigan State.
+ 20 carries for 107 yards (5.4) against Michigan.
* Has had seven 100-yard rushing game.
* Good RB, capable of going the distance if you screw up and give him a big crease. Good RB but I wouldn’t say he’s a difference-maker.

RB Kyle Monangai (5-9, 195, Fr., Roseland, NJ/Don Bosco Prep).
* 5.5 three-star recruit, ranked No. 26 in New Jersey.
* 5 rushes, 22 yards (4.4) against Michigan.
+ Powerful leg drive on a short guy.
* Good receiver, and they go to him as a primary receiver on little swing passes.
+ 11-yard TD on a buck sweep at Syracuse. LG and RG pulled. LG slow, but managed to kick a guy out. RG slow and RB kind of ran him over to get to the end zone without any resistance. This TD was slow vs slower (Syracuse). RB is solid, though.
+ Had two rushing TDs against Temple.

4 RB Aaron Young (5-10, 205, Soph., Coatesville, Pa.)
* Former Michigan State commitment.
* Three catches, 35 yards against Michigan.
* Has 16 carries for 60 yards on the year (3.8 per)
* Has 5 catches on the year, with a long of 21 yards.

QB Vedral is Rutgers’ second-leading rusher with 138 yards (3.5 per).
Short-yardage QB Johnny Langan has two rushing TDs.


RECEIVERS

Leading Receivers:
Bo Melton 24 catches
Aaron Cruickshank 17 catches
Shameen Jones 11 catches
Brandon Sanders 11 catches


WR 2 ARON CRUICKSHANK (5-10, 170, Brooklyn, NY)
* Was a three-star recruit
* Wisconsin transfer. Was an impact return man at Wisconsin.
* Had 37 receptions last year.
* Has game-breaking talent but Vedral doesn’t have great skill to utilize it consistently.
++ 75-yard TD pass against Ohio State, catching it at 10 yards on a short slant off an RPO read. OSU blitzed a CB and the remaining safety didn’t pick up Cruickshank soon enough. Cruickshank turned the corner and was gone down the sideline.
* Rutgers went deep to him on the first play against Ohio State, drew a pass interference.
+ Deep back shoulder fade on third and long on opening drive vs Michigan gain of 25.
* 4 catches, 32 yards against Michigan, including the 25-yarder and three short ones. Got the ball to him on an RPO “now” route (looks like what used to be called a WR screen) for three yards to move the chains in the 2Q last week.
* 4 catches for 22 yards against Syracuse (with a long of 7).

WR 18 BO MELTON (5-11, 195, Sr., Mays Landing, NJ)

* Went down and was in street clothes in the second half last week.
* is questionable for this game. If he’s unavailable, a choppy passing attack loses considerable RPMs.
* Was honorable mention All-Big Ten last year by coaches while leading team with 47 catches.
* 4 catches for 26 yards against Michigan.
* Team-high 8 catches for 43 yards (with a long of 9) against Syracuse).
* Six catches and 125 yards against Delaware.
* Six catches including a 40-yard TD against Temple.

WR 17 SHAMEEN JONES (6-2, 185, Sr., Bronx, NY)
* Was a 5.6 three-star recruit, ranked No. 6 in New York.
* Has 11 catches for 75 yards (6.8 per).
* Had two catches and three rushing attempts against OSU.
* Had two catches against Michigan.
* Had 34 catches last year.


TIGHT ENDS
* They aren’t good blockers on their own, but with the way they can stretch you out horizontally on Rutgers’ power read option, they have some effectiveness.
* I’ve not seen Rutgers use the TEs much in their passing attack, which is a surprise considering how often Vedral wants to throw short.

TE 5 JOVANI HASKINS (6-6, 250, Sr., Bergenfield, NJ)
* Has only three catches on the year, all against Syracuse.
* Had six catches last year.
* Was a four-star recruit, ranked in the Top 10 in New Jersey
* Signed with Miami, transferred to West Virginia and now Rutgers.
* Big lumbering type of TE but made a big play at Syracuse:
+ 30-yard TD vs Syracuse late in the 3Q to put Rutgers up 14-7. As a split out slot WR, he ran a seam route against cover-three. Syracuse didn’t reroute him. Vedral did a nice job of glancing to his right and moving the middle safety. Left CB was occupied to the outside.
* Tight ends Alaimo and Haskins graded out as Rutgers’ best run blockers against Michigan, at 65.2 and 62.3 (C+).

TE 10 Matt Alaimo (6-5, 245, Jr. Paramus, NJ)
* Former QB prospect whom Michigan State recruited for awhile.
- Terrible in pass protection while allowing a sack to Syracuse in the third quarter.
* Has only one catch on the year.


OFFENSIVE LINE
* Mediocre offensive line. Pass protection isn't bad, partly because they rarely pass from the pocket.

The norm:
* LG isn’t mobile, but they try to pull him anyway.
* The C/RG tandem beaten by a stunt on a third-and-one for no gain on an inside zone at Syracuse. Next play: (fourth-and-short stopped when the left tackle didn’t gap hinge when the LG pulled on a power. LB happened to be blitzing into that gap).
* LG beaten by a one-gapping DT on third-and-one in the 3Q against Syracuse. (Picked up fourth-and-one with Wildcat QB Langan keeping on an inside plunge).


OFFENSIVE LINE

LT 71 RAIQWON O’NEAL (6-4, 305, Jr., Conway, SC)
* Honorable mention All-Big Ten (media) last year.
* This is his third year as a starter.
* Questionable with an injury.

LT 69 BRENDAN BORDNER (6-5, 305, Sr., Columbus, Ohio)
* Graded out at 72.2 in pass pro last week (B-minus).
- Graded out at 52.0 by PFF in pass pro against Michigan (D).
+ On the 24-yard deep go route to Cruikshank on the opening drive against Michigan, he had pass pro against Aden Hutchinson. Hutchinson came with a bull rush. Pierce barely withstood the pressure and the pocket was caving when Vedral released. Vedral didn’t have much time to throw on that one but didn’t need much; it was one read and let it fly deep.

LG 54 CEDRICE PAILLANT (6-4, 310, Jr., New Rochelle, NY)
- Did not look good as a pull guard on a front side pin and pull.
- Graded out at 30.1 (failing) in pass pro last week by PFF.
* Graded out 65 (functional/C) in run blocking last week.
* Graded out at 77.8 in pass pro vs Michigan (B).
* Started seven games last year.


C 66 NICK KRIMIN (6-5, 315, Sr., South Amboy, NJ)
- looked slow as an attempted pull guard on a pin and pull in the 1Q.
* Graded out at 64.9 in pass pro last week against OSU (C).
* Graded out at a team-best 81.8 (B+) in pass pro against Michigan.
- Graded out 54.8 by PFF in run blocking against Michigan (D).
- Plays a little high after the snap, which got him in trouble against a Syracuse stunt when he got bashed from the side and allowed a TFL.


51 RG TROY RAINER Fr RG 6-4, 315, Fr., Bridgeport, Conn
* Started vs Michigan, first career start did not play last year.
- Graded out at 34.1 by PFF in pass pro last week (Fail).

- Graded out at 42.2 by PFF in run blocking last week (Fail).
+ Graded out 77.8 by PFF in pass pro against Michigan (B)
- Graded out a team-worst 43.1 in run blocking vs Michigan (Fail).


(58 RG David Nwaogwugwu Soph., 6-5, 310, Jr., Bronx, NY)
* Transfer from Temple. Started two games for Temple last year.


RT 72 HOLLIN PIERCE (6-8, 325, Fr., Trenton, NJ/Fork Union Prep)
* Was a no-star recruit coming out of Fork Union Military Academy. Oops.
+ Graded out at a team-best 82.6 in pass pro last week (B+).
* Functional in run blocking last week at 69.7, the best of the starters (C+)
- Graded out 35.9 in pass pro by PFF against Michigan (Fail).


GAME WITHIN THE GAME: Rutgers’ Defensive Approach

* Will Rutgers be as conservative, passive and respectful on defense this week as they were against Ohio State? They were afraid of OSU’s big play ability and tried to play bend-but-don’t break with soft zone coverages. Problem is, they broke anyway - early and often.

Will they show that much respect to Michigan State? MSU has a good amount of skilled talent to be concerned about if you’re Rutgers. But last week’s ploy worked so poorly that I wouldn’t be surprise if they scrapped it and challenged their guys to get after it with more man-to-man and pressures this week.

* On defense, Rutgers has been conservative on defense against Michigan and Rutgers on first and second down.


RUTGERS DEFENSE OBSERVATIONS AND TRAITS

* Rutgers’ rush defense is the big mystery. They stacked up Michigan pretty well, and stuffed Syracuse. OSU put up 206 yards rushing but that’s OSU.

- Rutgers allowed a 44-yard run to OSU on OSU’s second play of the game. On a counter behind OSU’s RG and H pull. Rutgers LBs were flowing fast to the backfield, play-side LB got hooked, MLB got cut off by down blocking play side tackle. Safety was charging down hard got kicked out by pulling H-back. With LBs in tight and getting erased and that safety coming down hard and getting kicked out there was no one over the top to pursue. Other safety was influenced out of the play by the fly sweep fake the other way.

* Syracuse rushed for 109 yards in gains (42 losses) for a net of 67. Syracuse averaged 2.2 yards per carry. Their top tailback averaged 4.2 yards on 13 carries.

* OSU rushed for 208 yards on 37 carries (5.6 per).

* When Rutgers subs on defense, they get noticeably slow. 32-yard TD to OSU’s Garrett Wilson on a shallow crosser made the defense look slow in turning the corner and getting up the sideline. Playing quarters zone, there’s no way a shallow crosser should get out, untouched, like that. They had a couple of back-ups on the field as it was a few plays into the drive.

* On third down, they become aggressive. They will stand everyone up in a “chaos” look and threaten anywhere from four to seven rushers.


DEFENSIVE LINE
* Solid guys across the board, but they don’t have any plus pass rushers.


DE 97 MIKE TVERDOV
* A slightly watered-down Jacub Panasiuk type.
+/- Good job crashing inside to get some penetration but missed a tackle as a 25-yard TD run got out for Syracuse in the third quarter. Linebackers and safeties got caught in the wash and seemed passive, uncertain.

50 DT JULIUS TURNER (6-0, 275, Sr., Meridian, Miss.)
* Two-star recruit, also visited Louisiana Tech.
* Honorable mention All-Big Ten last year by coaches and media.
* Team captain.
* Tilt nose tackle
* Ejected late in the 1H vs Michigan for late hit targeting on the QB.
* Not bad vs double teams
* 1.5 sacks vs Delaware.
* 1 sack against Syracuse.
* Had a TFL against Temple.
* Had eight tackles against Michigan State in 2019, with a sack.
* Spends most of the day two-gapping the center off of that tilt angle and is hard to move, and then he changes it up with a one-gapping slant and creates problems with that (like he did with a TFL against Michigan in the red zone).
* He’s a quality player, but his body type is the type of thing you find on the Rutgers roster. His size and stature isn’t perfect for the position, but he makes it work. Rutgers has had to recruit some “defective” players like this, but some of them work out extremely well. They don’t have a lot of “defective” recruits, but that’s part of the deal when recruiting near the bottom of the Big Ten for a few years. This guy is good. But Rutgers has some defects at QB, and with some of their speed on defense.

(45 NT Jamree Kromah, 6-4, 275, Jr.)

* Played the second half vs Michigan and wasn’t bad.


92 DT MAYAN AHANOTU (6-4, 285, Jr., Tampa)
* Solid player.
+ Sack caused a fumble in the fourth quarter at Syracuse and was a huge play in cementing victory. He did it with a bull rush, put the left guard on his heels. Poor pass pro by the Syracuse guy on that one.


88 Ifeanyi Maijeh, 6-2, 280, Sr., Far Rockaway, NY
* Two-star recruit offered by Temple, Maine, New Hampshire.
* Quality player when he turns it on.
* Started seven games last year for Temple.
* Two TFLs vs Syracuse.
* Not bad as two-gapper.
+ Good job two-gapping the UM LG Keegan, setting him back a yard and gumming up a third-and-one inside zone late in the quarter for a stoppage, helping Rutgers gain momentum.


DE 26 CJ ONYECHI (6-1, 250, Sr., West Orange NJ)
* Three-star recruit, No. 28 in New Jersey.
* Lively player. Lays out, gives effort. Kind of runs around like a big running back.
* Started five games last year. Had a TFL against Michigan State last year.
* Had a sack against Delaware.

(DE 58 Mohamed Toure, 6-2, 235, Soph., Pleasantville, NJ)
* 3-star recruit, ranked No. 31 in New Jersey.
* Inconsistent, but flashes ability and toughness when he wants to.

Average take-off, kind of got swallowed up by the OSU LT on a third down in the first half.

+ Good movement vs OSU TE in the red zone in the 1H last week on an inside zone, bounced the play.

* Stand-up DE.

* Not great at the point of attack as a stand-up DE.

+ Sack vs Syracuse on a third-and-10, four man rush, he stunted inside and the Orange center was late in seeing him. Rutgers played cover-three zone behind it.

+ Pretty solid setting the edge vs a Michigan pull guard on a buck sweep in the 2Q, stacked it up for no gain.

* Had six tackles against Michigan.

* Had a sack against Rutgers and a TFL against Temple.


LINEBACKERS
* Solid, hefty, maybe a little slow. No. 3 is very tough vs blockers.

MIKE LB TYSHON FOGG 6-2, 245, Sr., Baltimore

* Started the first five games this year. Like a lot of the players on this defense, looks like he is carrying about 5 to 10 unnecessary pounds.

- Looked kind of weak tippy-toeing into Michigan RB Haskins and failing to make a tackle when he had chest and two arms on him on the opening drive.

* Thick guy, maybe too thick.

* I seem to remember him being quicker and more forceful last year.


MIKE LB 9 Tyreek Maddox-Williams (6-2 ,235, Sr, Philadelphia)

* Could get the start over Fogg this week.

* Good in pass defense. Graded out 85.1 in that category against OSU.

+ Made a nice 4-yard TFL in the 1Q last week, shot the gap behind the tilted DT to stop OSU RB Henderson.

* 39 tackles last year, one start.


WLB 3 OLAKUNLE FATUKASI (6-2, 240, Far Rockaway, NY)

* Heavy legged, hits hard.

* Can really take on blockers with pop. I’ve seen him bash some offensive line pullers. That’s good for business.

* Butkus Award Semifinalist (one of 16).

* Led Big Ten in tackles with 101 last year, which is a free entry to first-team All-Big Ten by the media.

* Was second-Team All-Big Ten by the coaches.

* Had eight tackles against Michigan.



DEFENSIVE BACKS

* Not impressive at safety when converging to support the run defense, or with open-field tackling. They seem slowish and uncertain.


PASS DEFENSE

* They will make errors more frequently than most teams. For example, LB 3 Fatukasi and DB 5 Abraham had a miscommunication on a 2TE switch release on the first play of Michigan’s second drive, and a TE was wide open for a gain of 24. I've seen open windows in their coverage pretty frequently, too open. And they don't converge quickly.

* Syracuse QBs were 19 of 32 for 191 yards with 0 TDs and 1 INT (last play of the game).

* Ohio State’s CJ Stroud was 17 of 23 for 330 yards with 5 TDs and 0 INTs.

* Michigan’s QB McNamara capitalized on some open areas in the first half, but was inaccurate in the second half.


SS 0 CHRISTIAN IZIEN (5-10, 200, Jr., Far Rockaway, NY)

* Honorable Mention All-Big Ten by coaches and media.
* Had four interceptions last year and three fumble recoveries.
+ Good open field tackle out of man-to-man coverage on a third-and-eight in the second quarter against Syracuse, but he didn’t look like he had plus speed while converging. Another thick-legged guy. Maybe too thick.


FS 2 AVERY YOUNG (6-1, 205, Jr., Coatesville, Pa.)

* Not much of an opinion on him but he made a nice aggressive downhill tackle on UM RB Haskins for a third-and-1 stoppage in the third quarter.

* Was honorable mention All-Big Ten by media last year.

* Forced three fumbles last year.



CB 24 PATRICE RENE (6-2, 205, Sr., Ottawa, Ontario)

* Was a four-star recruit ranked No. 7 player in Virginia while attending prep school there.

* Grad transfer from North Carolina.

* Had six starts for UNC last year.

* Looked thick and slow when getting beat by WR Roman Wilson on a simple RPO slant for 39 yards during Michigan’s second drive. Rene gave him a big cushion and then looked slow for a cornerback when trying to chase him from behind.

CB 5 KESSAWN ABRAHAM, 5-10, 185, Jr., Brooklyn
* Two-star recruit with offers from Rutger and Stony Brook.
* First-year starter.
+ Good play in the 1H vs OSU, defeating a WR block and making a tackle.
+ Good open field tackle on a waggle throwback to the TE vs Michigan to force a punt in the 2Q.


CB 21 TREY AVERY (5-11, 190, Sr., Baltimore)

* Three-star recruit, No. 29 in Maryland, signed with Ohio State. But enrolled at Toledo in 2016. Then transferred to Rutgers in 2017.
Transferred to Rutgers in 2017.

* Mixed bag with this guy.

* good coverage on slot fade vs Michigan for a pass break-up, forcing a field goal and holding UM to a 17-3 lead.

* Third team All-Big Ten last year

* Transfer from Toledo

* 18 career starts at Rutgers.

* Michigan really targeted him in the first half. Safety help is so deep, not much help.

- Playing the slot, allowed a 51-yard deep go route against Syracuse. In man-to-man, he was really heavy on his heels as he got into his hip turn, and slow coming out of his hip turn.

* Loafed during a 25-yard TD run by Syracuse.

+ Had a pass break up vs Michigan TE (who had split out as a WR) on a comeback vs off coverage. QB McNamara was late with the ball, TE was waiting, 21 came up and knocked it away. Opening drive.

- Allowed a lot of separation on a square-in to UM WR Cornelius Johnson in quarters zone for about 20 yards. Easy throw for QB McNamara.

- Allowed a cushion and then wasn’t quick enough to react to UM WR Sanristil on a crossing route at the end of the first half that went for 51 yards with :13 left in the first half. That resulted in a field goal and a 20-3 halftime lead.


SPECIAL TEAMS


Michigan’s AJ Henning had a 29-yard punt return against Rutgers.

Rutgers’ Aaron Cruickshank was Big Ten returner of the year last year. He’s a threat. Coghlin needs to keep banging ‘em.

He had one punt return for 8 yards against Michigan. Aaron Young was the primary punt returner last year, and was a pretty good one.

Rutgers punter averaged 40.5 on two punts against Michigan. (Michigan punted five times).

Rutgers kicker Valentine Ambrosio missed a short field goal in the fourth quarter against Michigan that would have cut the lead to 20-16.

He missed a 29-yard FG in the fourth quarter at Syracuse.

Had an extra point blocked last week; low snap was part of the problem.

* Rutgers blocked a punt at Syracuse. Nearly blocked another one late in the third quarter.


ADD IT ALL UP

* Michigan State has the edge at QB, Michigan State has a better offensive line. MSU’s defense has had some shaky statistical moments this year but I think this is game in which MSU’s stats and averages SHOULD get well. Rutgers does some herky-jerky interesting things with the read option game and with some RPOs. Not the easiest task in the world for Michigan State, but that’s life in the Big Ten. I expect Michigan State to continue to hit hard, play square with all 11 men and continue to harness a level of same-pageness that has improved throughout the year (even while giving up a lot of yards last week).

Michigan State might not be as much of a bend-but-don’t-break team against Rutgers. It will be interesting to see if Michigan State comes out of that softish zone philosophy against this Rutgers team that is not threatening with intermediate passing. Or do you play soft, take away the deep shot and MAKE them throw the intermediate pass? Good question. You’ll learn when I learn.

Rutgers’ defensive interior can be firm and tricky. Michigan State MUST show it can handle Rutgers’ unique look.

Pass protection shouldn’t be a big problem, other than third-and-long. Thorne should have time to throw. He should have big, open windows on first down if Michigan State can establish the run.

Rutgers’ secondary is shaky. Michigan State can match up well there, attacking No. 21. He earned some postseason awards last year, but teams are attacking him this year.

As long as Michigan State avoids turnovers, I think MSU’s B game is 10 points better than Rutgers’ B game. But it will take some knucklebusting and bloody noses to get there. It’s not a cakewalk. It’s a double mouthpiece Big Ten game. MSU’s chin should be strong enough for this. Rutgers just doesnt’ have enough punches.

Gather 'round

The quotes on the defensive program as a whole are interesting, especially the quotes at the bottom of the story when Burton was responding to a question about if anything is different with this year's construct compared to previous years. Interesting quotes about working for what he calls an NFL coordinator:

I grew up a hockey fan in the 70s and 80s, but lost interest. My go to info source for all hockey news was The Hockey News magazine.

During Covid I rekindled my interest in hockey and I’m wondering what your go to info sources for everything hockey?

Hey guys! Rich Schnyderite here, publisher of The Knight Report aka the Rutgers-Rivals site. Just wanted to drop by and post our video from Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano's press conference today.

There is a couple of solid Michigan State questions / answers in there.

Login to view embedded media

A new batch on the front.

Once again, it went a little long, so I didn't have time to do a Dot Comp. But there are some Dot Comp remnants in this 3-2-1.

Now I have to get some sleep

So, we are playing the U18s on Saturday night. It looks like you can get tickets for $12 including parking. I'm torn, stay home and watch the football game or head out to Plymouth. Anyone going?

The Pre-Snap Read: Michigan State vs Western Kentucky​

By Jim Comparoni
SpartanMag.com

East Lansing, Mich. - Western Kentucky is better than Northwestern.

Heck, WKU (1-2) was almost better than Indiana and Army.

I’m not sure Michigan State is better than Indiana or Army, but we’re about to find out if the Spartans are better that Western Kentucky.

That sounds like a silly statement for a game that carries a 10-point spread, but there are some unknowns in this game that make for uncomfortable but intriguing test for No. 17-ranked Michigan State (4-0).

You’ve heard all about WKU’s Air Raid offense. They’re good at it. The QB is sharp, accurate, smart, quick with his release. Michigan and Wisconsin would love to have this guy on their roster at QB. He’s shortish at about 6-foot-1, but he can sling it quick and accurately.

QB Bailey Zappe threw for 365 yards (31 of 44) last week against Indiana. I would expect him to go over 300 yards again against Michigan State.

Zappe ranks No. 8 in the country in completion percentage (.731).

WKU is No. 2 in the nation in pass offense at 426 yards per game, trailing only Virginia.

Who did they amass those numbers against?

W, 59-21 vs Tennessee-Martin

L, 38-35 at Army

L, 33-1 vs Indiana

Army is 4-0 with four mid-major wins.

Western Kentucky is not Mike Leach’s 2008 Texas Tech team. But WKU’s coaches are from Leach’s lineage. They’re in their first year of the Air Raid, and they’re good at it. It’s not necessarily the best way to conduct offense in today’s college football, but it CAN be a great equalizer if the opponent gets a little foggy.

When Michigan State went to a 4-2-5 defense, it was to be more adaptable to offenses like WKU’s. This will be the first time we’ll have a chance to see Mel Tucker’s program go against an uptempo, spread-to-pass team like this.

Michigan State defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton came from Kansas State where spread-to-pass systems were more commonplace. It will be interesting to see how his team does against this WKU outfit.


THE LATEST ON MICHIGAN STATE

On paper, this is a classic trap game. The world of college football has been full of surprises thus far in the season. Michigan State at No. 17 in the nation and No. 4 in the nation losing to Western Kentucky would fit right into that narrative, and that outcome really shouldn’t shock anyone.

Michigan State has been good. Last week, the Spartans faltered but perhaps the most impressive thing about the Spartans’ victory was their tunnel-vision belief. They didn’t get flustered, and they found a way to tip the scales on special teams while their defense barely kept them in the game.

Tucker strained to get his players to avoid patting themselves on the back after the Miami game. It kind of worked. Now the Spartans have to avoid the possible letdown of taking a week off from Big Ten play in order to face a mid-major team that most of the Spartan players didn’t know much about, prior to this week.

Meanwhile, Western Kentucky, which has played in minor bowl games in each of the past two years, is hungry and excited for this opportunity to beat an unbeaten, ranked Big Ten team on the road.

WKU showed last week that it could hang with Indiana, and might have won if not for a couple of strange decisions in the kicking game late in the fourth quarter.

Now, they want to finish.

They beat Arkansas two years ago when head coach Tyson Helton was in his first year at WKU.

WKU revamped its offense during the off-season in going with the Air Raid, hiring a young offensive coordinator from Houston Baptist, who brought with him his QB from Houston Baptist and some receivers.

Michigan State’s problems last week against Nebraska will help the Spartans this week. It has snapped them to attention.

Nebraska exposed some weaknesses and shortcomings within the Spartans. Nebraska proved that the Spartans won’t be able to pound the run against any and every opponent this year. However, WKU won’t be able to replicate exactly what Nebraska did on defense. So those shortcomings of a week ago won’t apply to this game.

As for mental preparedness, Minnesota lacked it last week against Bowling Green (losing), and Iowa lacked it against Colorado State (almost losing).

Auburn lacked it against Georgia State (should have lost, were it not for a save from SEC officiating).

When you play conference games on Labor Day weekend, that means you have to play a mid-major opponent or two sandwiched inside of the conference schedule. That’s asking for letdowns, trap games, upsets and near-upsets. Michigan State is squarely in that category this weekend, against a team that has already gotten its feet wet against a good Big Ten team and is salivating at Michigan State as low-hanging fruit.

“It was a great lesson for us last week that as close as we got, if we put all the pieces together, we can beat anybody,” Helton said.


FINAL ANALYSIS FIRST

I would be impressed if Michigan State is able to hold WKU under 25 points. Thirty-plus has been the norm, whether you’re Army or Indiana.

Michigan State hasn’t allowed an opponent to score more than 21 points. Michigan State has given up yards, but not a lot of touchdowns or points.

Michigan State’s defense has been effective. Now, Michigan State is expected to be without Drew Beesley. And the Spartans will be without a pair of key second-stringers in linebacker Chase Kline and cornerback Kalon Gervin entering the transfer portal.

I’m not sure if there is ever a good time to lose transfers, but with the way WKU plays, you need your second stringers in this game almost as much as you needed them at Miami.

I’m expecting a more than 50 percent chance that WKU will be within 10 points of Michigan State when this game ends. I would give WKU a 20 percent chance of winning outright.

Even if Michigan State plays an excellent game and is up by 17 or 18 with 10 minutes to go, WKU has the type of offense that can backdoor the scoreboard against a soft zone in the fourth quarter.

If Michigan State goes ahead and wins by 12 or more, I would be impressed, just as I was impressed in game one when Michigan State took Northwestern apart. We learned something about Michigan State that night, and we will learn more with each game.

In this game: Can MSU’s defense play hard and smart and tackle in space when tired? Can Michigan State rally to the ball quickly enough to prevent first downs, and then continue to play good red zone defense against this style of play?

Will Michigan State try to vary its reads and cause Zappe to pause long enough to upset the timing of their offense, like Hazelton says they will attempt to do? Will it work? You’ll learn when I learn.

Will Michigan State have to give 10 or 12 snaps to new second-stringers such as LB Ma’a Naoteote and cornerback Marqui Lowery (or walk-on Justin White)? If so, can Michigan State remain on the same page from a communication and assignment standpoint while playing fast and tired against this offense? You’ll learn when I learn.

It’s only Oct. 1, but we are getting into the physical taxation point of the season. Michigan State has played physically expensive back-to-back games against Miami and Nebraska.

Western Kentucky had a week off prior to the Indiana game. This would be a slightly different construct if WKU was coming off consecutive weekends against Army’s cut blocking and Indiana.

Indiana hits pretty hard on defense. Michigan State will hit harder. WKU had a handful of dropped passes, but could that become a bigger norm in this game with the way the Spartans hit Nebraska and Miami? Can Michigan State continue to hit like that against a spread/space team like WKU? Sure, Michigan State will get its hits in, and they will register.

On offense, can Payton Thorne get back to his surgically effective ways? He was good in the first three games, good in the first half last week, and then admittedly had a substandard second half against Nebraska. He took some hard shots in that game and I think that’s the most logical explanation as to why he was inaccurate in the second half. You have to hope he gets back to the sharpness he showed in the first three games.

Michigan State will need Thorne to be sharp and need him to be good at pre-snap reads and getting Michigan State into the right play against a WKU defense that does a few things well but can become compromised if you can decipher at pre-snap what they’re going to do (more on that later).

Can Michigan State get the run game churning again? Against some of WKU’s defensive fronts, yet. And then some. Against other WKU fronts, like when they go with a Bear front on first-and-10, probably not. That’s when Michigan State will need to get into the right play OR establish that they can move the ball on the ground with Bear beaters.

Overall, MSU’s B-plus game is 14 points better than WKU’s B-plus game. Whether or not Michigan State is mentally and physically ready to match WKU’s motivational level will be an interesting factor in this game.


WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WKU

Head coach: Tyson Helton. Third year at WKU.

Helton has coached WKU to two bowl games. They lost to Georgia State in the Lending Tree Bowl last year and finished 5-7.

Last year, they lost to Louisville 35-21 and BYU 41-10, but that was before revamping their offense for 2021.

In 2019, Western Kentucky went 9-4 and beat Western Michigan 23-20 in the First Responder Bowl in Dallas.

WKU also beat Arkansas (45-19) and Army (17-8) that year. Helton was Conference-USA Coach of the Year.

* He is the brother of Clay Helton, recently fired at USC.

* WKU offensive coordinator is Zach Kittley, 31 years old. You need to know his background when you start seeing this offense whirring.

Kittley was a graduate assistant at Texas Tech when Patrick Mahomes was the quarterback for the Red Raiders. Kittley learned the Air Raid system under Kliff Kingsbury, who played for Leach at Texas Tech.

Kittley didn’t play college football. He went to Abilene Christian to play basketball, and then transferred to Texas Tech to become a football student assistant (his father is the long-time track head coach at Texas Tech).

* Right out of college, he became offensive coordinator at quarterbacks coach at Houston Baptist, and his offense did some pretty good things from 2018 to 2020. Zappe was his quarterback.

Against Texas Tech last year, Houston Baptist lost 35-33. Zappe was 30 of 49 for 567 yards. Houston Baptist entered the game as 40-point underdogs. The 567 yards were the most ever by an FCS team against an FBS team.

* WKU brought in 19 transfers this year, including Michigan State cornerback Davion Williams. He is a second-stringer for the Hilltoppers. He played 19 snaps last week.


WKU’S OFFENSE

I’ve heard people on The Underground Bunker compare the style of play to the lightning attack Utah State brought to Spartan Stadium a few years ago. That’s a good comparison. This team isn’t quite as good as that Utah State team, but they’re in the same ballpark. (Ironically, the head coach of that Utah State team is now head coach at Texas Tech. Different lineage, but same philosophy).

WKU will spread you out, find the free-release receiver, and shoot it out to him in an instant. The ball will arrive accurately and with zip, and the receiver will be able to turn upfield and get that extra five to seven yards on you and move the chains. Over and over.

They operate their offense fast. Uptempo. Sometimes ultra fast. I’ve seen them snap the ball at with :32 left on the play clock. That’s running a play in :08 seconds. That’s as fast as humanly possible.

Utah State was among the fastest teams I had ever seen run it. Faster than the Chip Kelly offenses at Oregon when uptempo football really came into vogue.

WKU is faster at times, by about a half-second or second.

* Some defensive coaches believe it’s not worth trying to disguise anything on defense when a team is going that fast.

Michigan State defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton said this week one of MSU’s goals is to get the QB to hold it a beat longer while he tries to figure out what Michigan State is in.

“The key for us is going to be trying to not let him know what we are in even though we are limited in what we do and what we show,” Hazelton said.

I don’t know if Hazelton said that as a means of disinformation, or if Michigan State genuinely plans to disguise coverages and believes it will have time to do it. I’m not saying it’s impossible. I’m saying you will see the results the same time I will. I’m not sure what it will look like.

* Pat Narduzzi used to say the No. 1 thing when facing an Air Raid team is to stop the run. He always wanted to do that first, maybe to the point of spiting his own face via free releases to the slot receiver (see Baylor in the 2014 Cotton Bowl). But Michigan State stopped the run cold that day, and that helped Michigan State make an improbable comeback in a satisfying root canal of a victory.

WKU will zip the inside run game at you when they have a numbers advantage or equality in the box. The Narduzzi (and Tressel) defenses never used to allow a numbers advantage or equality in the box, so Baylor and Utah State rarely tried. But they found plenty of success with the short, quick passing attack.

Last week, WKU had success against Indiana’s zone coverages. Dink and dunk, catch and run. Tempo. Defense gets tired. Chains keep moving.

Later in the game, Indiana tried to go with more man-to-man, and some press. That kind of worked. But WKU also hit a stutter-and-go for a TD against it.

Traditionally, Air Raid teams love it when you blitz. WKU last week burned Indiana on the blitz a couple of times.

Login to view embedded media
Indiana blitzed twice during WKU’s last offensive drive and WKU answered with positive plays.

So getting heat on this QB is going to be hard to do. He makes fast reads and fast releases. If you blitz, they hit you quickly in the area you vacated.

Does Michigan State have a plan for blitzes that the Air Raid can’t handle? I don’t know. You’ll learn when I learn. I would be impressed if any blitzes work against them. We’ll see.

WKU’s plays are the normal Air Raid variety. Bubble screens, flares to the slot, slot-outs, RPOs. And then they will try to get behind you with a deep post or a stutter-and-go when you start to bite up on the short stuff.

Thankfully for the defense, the QB run hasn’t seemed to be part of WKU’s operation. If it were, they would be a complete headache.

* Indiana went with at three-man rush on the first third-and-long WKU faced. Later in the game, Indiana blitzed on third-down passing situations and it didn’t work out as well.

* If you play zone, and WKU knows you’re in zone in the red zone, they’ll outnumber you by flooding the short side with four receivers:

Login to view embedded media
The trick, like Hazelton says, is to disguise what you’re doing before the snap. But that can be difficult to do with a tired defense against an offense that is capable of snapping the ball in :08 seconds.


WKU’S DEFENSE

This is the part of the game no one is talking about or has researched. But this is where the game may be won or lost for Michigan State. Michigan State needs to put up 30-plus points against these guys, and that’s do-able, but it’s not a given.

Michigan State won’t be able to just steamroll the run against these guys. Michigan State MIGHT have success on the ground, but it will take some intelligence.

* Last year, WKU ranked No. 28 in the nation in total defense (348 yards per game). That was against a C-USA schedule, and they lost a good bit of talent from last year, but some remnants remain.


WKU RUN DEFENSE

* IU had with success on counter to the weak side.

* Indiana RB Stephen Carr had 109 yards on 25 carries (4.4 per).

* Indiana had 179 yards in rush gains (39 in losses, including 25 lost on sacks) for a net of 134.

* If Michigan State can avoid sacks and get into the right play, the door should be open for the Spartans to get back over 200 yards rushing.


THE KEY TO MSU’S OFFENSE

Payton Thorne must get Michigan State into the right play.

WKU is multiple on defense, and pretty aggressive at times. When they shift to a Bear front, Thorne needs to get them out of an inside run play and into some Bear beaters.

When WKU shows blitz (and they aren’t all that great at disguising it), Thorne and center Matt Allen need to slide the protection correctly, get into a good play, and have hot routes available (something that didn’t happen during one of the sacks last week, and one the week before. I’m not sure if the lack of a sight adjust hot route is the fault of pre-snap calls, communication to the wide receiver or what. We’ll learn more as we go).

Sounds simple, sounds elementary, but this is a game in which QB checks at the line of scrimmage will be extremely important. Western Kentucky’s defense isn’t great, or even all that good, but it can be good if they keep you off-balance and in the wrong play for the type of overloaded defenses they will shoot at you.


GAME WITHIN THE GAME

I wouldn’t be surprised if Michigan State does more checks to the sideline in this game than usual. Michigan State has done some of that this year, but this might be a matchup that calls for more.

Why?

1. Because WKU operates in extremes on defense. Their blitzes are good, their zone coverage is not so good. If you can figure out what you’re going to see before the snap, your chances of success increase a ton. That’s true in most games, and very true in this matchup.

Get to the line of scrimmage, check with the sideline, see if they can pick up the tells. WKU doesn’t seem like they try to disguise all that much.

2. Michigan State might not want to run uptempo as much in this game as we’ve seen in the other games. Michigan State doesn’t run uptempo all the time, but they do it more than ever this year. But in this game, you might want to rest your defense. No hurry to get your defense back on the field. This might be one game in which checking with the sideline at pre-snap provides more than one purpose. Get into the right play, keep WKU’s offense off the field.


WHAT’S A ‘BEAR’ FRONT?

A Bear front is when the defense covers the center and both guards. Usually, this is done with three defensive linemen, crammed inside over the G-C-G trio. Usually, one of those three offensive lineman doesn't have an opponent directly across the line of scrimmage from him. But a Bear front puts a defender one-on-one against all three. That's a lot of congestion.

WKU will occasionally create a Bear front with a linebacker up at the line of scrimmage, or by coming down to the line of scrimmage immediately after the snap.

It’s called a Bear front because this was the interior that the Chicago Bears used as part of its vaunted 46 defense in the mid-1980s.

Bear fronts are used from time to time in the college game, but only as an occasional change-up.

Most famously, Virginia Tech surprised Ohio State with a Bear front during its 2014 upset of the Buckeyes.

Those Virginia Tech teams under Bud Foster would occasionally snow a Bear front as part of a 6-1 look.

In today’s era of three-WR formations, a Bear front usually comes with a five-man defensive line (not all of them with their hand in the dirt, of course).

You will see WKU in some 5-1 alignments, which is the modern equivalent of some of those 6-1 Virginia Tech defenses.

**

WKU began the game with a Bear front on Indiana’s first first-and-10 of the night.

WKU routinely went to a Bear front on the first play of Indiana drives.

If they think it’s a running down for you on first-and-10, they will show you a Bear, and either stuff your run or try to take you out of a run play.

Do they have the coverage in the back (and the QB rush pressure) to play pass defense behind a Bear front?

A Bear front usually means you will be lighter in pass defense, and better be able to play some tight man-to-man. WKU is a bit hit and miss in pass defense.


**

Indiana tried to run a speed option on a first-and-10 against the Bear, and lost 3 yards.

Then they tried to run a counter with the backside G and T pulling against the Bear, and an unblocked edge man run-blitzed and stopped it for a loss of 3.

Why is the Bear front effective vs the run? For one thing, you can’t double-team any interior defenders.

What’s one way to run against a Bear? The manual says to pull the front side guard and have him kick out the end man on the line of scrimmage. If you pull a guard, that leaves one of the interior Bear defenders with no one to engage with. You can downblock a tackle with that guy and maybe get a crease.

But, for the most part, you check to a pass play when you see a Bear front. That’s one way to limit Kenneth Walker III’s impact, unless you pass it to him vs the Bear because the defense has committed to a five-man defensive line (even if they don’t all have their hands in the ground). With a five-man defensive line, they are going to be light in pass defense somewhere.

* WKU ran the Bear front only a handful of times against Indiana, often on first-and-10. I wouldn’t be surprised if they ran it a little more often against Michigan State. The Spartans will try to be prepared to give them the other poison, through the air.


WKU’S BASE DEFENSE

When WKU wasn’t in a Bear front, Indiana was able to blast some inside runs.

WKU is a team of defensive extremes. Bear front on first-and-10, blitzes on second-and-long. Blitz on third-and-long. Blitz in the red zones.

If Jay Johnson and Thorne can get a bead on when WKU is blitzing, then the screen pass came and counter throwback passing that we saw against Miami could come back into play, including in the red zone.

When WKU plays zone, it’s not the best zone you’re going to see. There are open windows. Indiana’s Michael Pennix found those windows over and over.

Pennix was 35 of 53 for 373 yards against WKU.

Prior to that, Pennix had been faltering a bit this year.

Pennix was 17 of 40 against Cincinnati. Pennix threw six INTs through three games, which led the nation at the time.

But he sliced up WKU pretty good, and the Hoosiers needed him to because Indiana’s defense couldn’t be trusted against the WKU Air Raid.


THE INDIANA GAME

* WKU trailed 26-24 and was rolling on offense when WKU inexplicably punted on fourth-and-one at the Indiana 49-yard line with about eight minutes to play.

Indiana then drove 86 yards for a TD drive to go up 33-24 4:27 to play.

Indiana converted a third-and-long early in the drive with a curl to the TE, and a third-and-six with double slants.

Any of those plays goes sideways and I think Western Kentucky wins.

WKU came back and scored to make it 33-31 with 2:48 left and then, again, inexplicably WKU didn’t attempt an on-side kick. Instead, WKU kicked deep … and out of bounds.

Indiana picked up a first down on a third-and-eight crossing route and the game was over.

Indiana never really satisfactorily stopped WKU in the fourth quarter. WKU chose to stop itself on fourth-and-one with the punt, and with the decision to kick deep in an on-side kick situation. It baffles me that such an aggressive-minded coach like Helton would go conservative in those situations. I’m sure he regrets it.


STATS VS INDIANA

* No turnovers for either team.

( Indiana 2 punts, WKU 3 punts (a shootout).

* Yards: Indiana 499, WKU 458.

* Rushing Yards: 136 Indiana, 93 for WKU.

* Indiana (3.5 yards per carry, including sacks allowed).

* WKU 365 yards passing (Zappe: 31 of 44)

* Pennix had time to throw vs zone on the opening drive, and was 5 of 6 on that series as Indiana took a 7-0 lead and set a tone.

* WKU has been getting off to slow starts, including throwing INTs on the opening possession of the games against Tennessee-Martin and Army.

* On the opening drive, Indiana ran a reverse flea flicker, WKU didn’t bite, played the deep choice and Indiana hit the tight end for about 20.


WKU DEFENSE: A DEFENSE OF EXTREMES

When Tulsa played at Spartan Stadium a few years ago, the Hurricanes took extremes to a new level. They either rushed three and covered with eight; or brought the house on blitzes.

WKU isn’t quite like that. They are extreme in some of their schemes, but also extreme with the abilities of their personnel.

Examples:

No. 10, their defensive end D’Angelo Malone (6-4, 240, Sr., Atlanta), is a very good pass rusher. An NFL prospect. Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year last season. 26 career sacks. The rest of the d-linemen are slow with their take-offs and aren’t a problem in the pass rush. Extremes.

No. 10 is questionable as a run defender. Run right at him. Make him take on a double-team and see if you can wash him out like No. 0 last week. He’s not a good tackler. Extremes.

No. 10 played 73 of 95 snaps last week. He had a minor injury and missed some plays because of it, but returned to play and maybe wasn’t quite 100 mph for the final minutes.

Basically, he’s on the field most of the time, when he’s able. When he’s out there, he’s a legit threat as a pass rusher. But even the best pass rushers only have their best stuff for a couple dozen snaps per game.

On occasion when he’s off the field, WKU’s team pass rush is non-existent without blitzing. Extremes.

Their inside LBs are VERY firm against o-line blocking. There are plenty of Big Ten teams that would love to have these linebacker’s ability to take on o-linemen. However, their sideline to sideline speed isn’t great and, surprisingly, their tackling ability isn’t great. Extremes.

The d-line and LBs are firm against blocking, but if you can get to the LB level and safety help and DBs, they are substandard tacklers. Extremes.

The DBs look decent in man-to-man, but No. 21 looks shorter than the 5-foot-10 he’s listed at. Short. Extremes.


UNCOMMON TRAITS ON DEFENSE

WKU will frequently run-blitz their inside linebackers, but they will do it into a two-gapping technique.

Usually when you think of blitzing linebackers, you think of them one-gapping, and trying to knife their way into gaps and get into the backfield for disruption. But WKU will blitz their inside linebackers for the purpose of getting into the grill of the center or a guard, head-up, and control that offensive lineman at the line of scrimmage. When they do this, two or more defensive linemen will be one-gapping and possibly slanting. I didn’t see any stunting (which Nebraska did and caused problems for Michigan State).

But it’s strange to see LBs who are strong enough and hefty enough to consistently bang head-up with offensive guards and centers. Secondly, it’s uncommon to see a defense scheme it that way.

I’m not saying it was super effective against Indiana. It’s just an interesting twist.

WKU played it that way on a third-and-7 in the red zone on Indiana’s opening drive last week. But it left them without much LB pursuit sideline-to-sideline. The RB made No. 10 miss a tackle in the hole and then broke a tackle and took it 15 yards to the 1-yard line.


WHERE MSU SHOULD HAVE AN EDGE

* WKU’s DBs aren’t great at getting off of blocks. MSU’s wide receivers are good blockers. Michigan State needs to ride this advantage and turn 5-yard runs into the occasional 20-yarder.

* No. 10 is a terrific pass rusher for WKU. But he’s questionable against the run vs blockers and as a tackler. Run right at him. Send double-teams at him and see if you can wash him out of the play and cut off the linebackers in the process.

* Get the right read at pre-snap. If you catch them in a blitz, make them pay with misdirection passing like you did at Miami. If you catch them in zone, then get No. 10 blocked and Thorne should have plenty of time to find open windows in that zone coverage like Pennix did.

“We have to apply more pressure on the quarterback,” Helton said. “We have to get home more. Pennix got to sit back there and picked us apart a little bit because he had too much time. That’s something we are trying to address right now, trying to see if we can get to the quarterback faster. I don’t know if we can or not. Michigan State is really good.”


WKU’S PERSONNEL

QB BAILEY ZAPPE (6-1, 220, Victoria, Texas)

* Was a Rivals.com no-star recruit.

* He is in his first year after transferring from Houston Baptist, where he was great in the FCS.

* Like I said, there are plenty of teams in the Big Ten that would love to have this guy. He is a Joe Tiller type of QB.

* Is No. 8 in the nation in completion percentage at .731.

* He led the FCS in TD passes last year with 35 at Houston Baptist.

Indiana coach Tom Allen: “Very, very talented quarterback who knows their system inside and out and put a lot of stress on us.”

Vs Texas Tech last year, Houston Baptist lost 35-33. Zappe was 30 of 49 for 567. They entered the game as 40-point underdogs. The 567 yards were the most ever by an FCS team against an FBS team.

* Against Indiana, completed 14 of his last 15 to end the first half (14 of 18 overall in the first half for 150 yards).

* Receives the shot gun snap and gets rid of it extremely, extremely quick. Sometimes he throws it with or without his fingers on the laces. Every split second count in the Air Raid.

* Last week, he found four different receivers for pass plays of 24 yards or more. And he found six different receivers for pass plays of 16 yards or more.


WIDE RECEIVERS

* WKU rotates 9 or 10 WRs.

* Four receivers had between 49 and 53 of the team’s 65 snaps last week.

* Five other WRs had between four and eight snaps. So they don’t play evenly, but they get their top guys some rest.

* In the red zone, just before WKU touchdown passes, WKU would sub three or four players into the game. I was stunned that Indiana didn’t take that opportunity to sub as well, if for no other reason than to get fresh bodies on the field and give the holdovers another 5 seconds of rest, and just to slow WKU down a bit.

On one occasion, Indiana called time out with 7 minutes left in the third quarter, seemingly just to give its defense a rest. WKU celebrated a morale victory after Indiana called that time out.

Most other teams would sub on defense. Last year, Indiana was marvelous in its ability to go 20 players deep, or more, on defense.

Last week, Indiana had only three second-stringers on defense who played more than 13 snaps. That’s a big departure from the way their previous defensive coordinator ran things. They’ve lost a lot of traction compared to last year. Indiana’s defense is not the same and I would anticipate the Hoosiers defense taking a bigger dip next year and the years ahead without their former defensive coordinator (who is now head coach at South Alabama).

18 WR DAEWOOD DAVIS (6-2, 195, Jr., Broward County, Fla.)

* Was a three-star recruit, ranked No. 97 in Florida, signed with Oregon.

* Transfer from Oregon.

* Legit major conference WR.

+ Stutter and go 24-yard TD in the red zone to cut the lead to 20-14 just before halftime last week. In the red zone.

* Explanation: Defense gets so accustomed to short passes coming out quick, quick, quick. At some point, they will try to get you to bite and squat on the quick out and go deep on you.

In this video clip you can see Davis fake the hitch at the bottom left of the screen before releasing deep:

Login to view embedded media
+ Had 40-yard reception on a post on the second play of the second half last week. Nice route, perfectly-thrown ball vs pretty good man coverage.

* Had nine catches for Oregon in 2019.


WR 8 JERRETH STEARNS (5-9, 195, Jr., Waxahachie, Texas)

* Was a two-star recruit with offers from Army, Navy, Princeton, Davidson, Houston Baptist. Signed with Houston Baptist.

* He put up crazy numbers at Houston Baptist. Has caught 10 or more passes in 10 games in his career.

* In 2019, he had 105 catches for 833 yards.

* He and Zappe operate on the same page extremely well.

+ 72-yard TD reception vs Army. Was the No. 3 receiver to the field vs two-deep safeties. Ran a deep seam. Was the QB’s first look, did it in an instant.

* Had seven catches for 82 yards last week.

* Quick little slot receiver who is perfect for the Air Raid. Can threaten you deep, or kill you with the slot out, or the bubbles.

* I’ve been waiting for a talented slot WR to test Angelo Grose deep since the YSU game. Grose can expect at least one deep shot at him from a slot WR.


5 MITCHELL TINSLEY (6-1, 205, Jr., Lee’s Summit, Mo.)

+ Big play on fourth-and-seven late in the game with a curl and then a terrific run after the catch for 38 yards.

* Had 43 catches for 377 yards last year.

* Had four catches for 68 yards last week.


11 MALACHI CORLEY (5-11, 200, Fr., Orange City, Fla.)

* Was a two-star recruit with offers from mid-majors.

* Had a team-high nine catches last week for 70 yards.

17 WR Dalvin Smith (6-3, 190, Fr., Glasgow, Ky.)

* Only six snaps last week, but he hauled in a 13-yard TD pass on a short wheel route as part of a red zone flood against cover-four zone.


RUNNING BACKS

* They rarely run outside. They ran a reverse with WR Sterns once last week (16 yards), but they are mainly a quick-hitting dive team. If they run the ball, they want it to have a surprise element to it. You’re on your heels playing the past, boom, here’s an inside zone right up your gut.

They do it pretty well. Baylor’s teams with Art Briles ran the ball real well.


20 RB NOAH WHITTINGTON (5-10, 190, Fort Valley, Ga.)

* Was a two-star recruit with no other offers.

* Six carries last week for 41 yards (6.8 per).

* Functionally quick and tough. Gets north. Well-coached to hit the hole. Could become a Marc Renaud type some day. Looks good to me. Credit WKU with good evaluation, which is the first step for any mid-major to climb the ranks.


7 RB ADAM COFIELD (5-11, 215, Sr., Lee’s Summit, Mo).

* Transfer from North Dakota State.

* Was honorable mention all-conference for a FCS National Championship team at NDSU. Won three National Championships.

* 10 carries last week for 40 yards.


OFFENSIVE LINE

* They get rid of the ball so quickly, it’s almost useless to try to rush the passer. Indiana had one sack and one QB hit in 44 pass plays.

* The most underrated thing that WKU does well is run block.

Their o-line is good at getting movement with their double-team blocks and then getting one of those double-team blockers out to the LB level. They did it with textbook effectiveness a few times against Indiana.


70 LT COLE SPENCER (6-4, 300, Sr., Louisville)

* Honorable mention All-Conference USA last year.


78 LG QUANTAVIOUS LESLIE (6-3, 310, Fr., Rome, Ga.)

* No opinion. Didn’t see him as a weakness.

* Three-star recruit, No. 68 in Georgia. Had offers at one point or another from Michigan State, Florida, NC State.


53 C RUSTY STAATS (6-4, 310, Soph., Watertown, Tenn.)

* No opinion. Didn’t seem him as a weakness.


56 RG BOE WILSON (6-3, 305, Sr., Lee’s Summit, Mo.)

* Transfer from Nebraska.

* had 23 starts at Nebraska.

* Was honorable mention All-Big Ten at Nebraska in 2018. Why he transferred, I don’t know. Good for WKU.


77 RT MASON BROOKS (6-6, 305, Jr., Cedar Park, Texas).

* Honorable mention All-Conference USA last year.

+ Double-team block from Brooks and TE Joey Beljan (6-3, 250, Soph.) caved a tiring Indiana defensive end and cleared the area for a 10-yard run by RB Adam Cofield in the fourth quarter after IU had reeled for a handful of fast-paced plays.

* Tight end Joshua Simon was lost to a season-ending knee injury prior to the Army game. The 6-foot-5 Simon was honorable mention All-Conference USA last year as a sophomore.



DEFENSIVE PERSONNEL

DEFENSIVE LINE

* Pro Football Focus charted WKU with three sacks, two QB hits and six hurries.


10 OLB/DE D’ANGELO MALONE (6-4, 240, Sr., Atlanta)

* Was a two-star recruit with an offer from Boston College at some point.

* He is an NFL prospect.

* Voted C-USA Preseason Defensive Player of the Year.

* First-team All-Conference last year.

* Mature speed rusher. Is a fifth-year senior who played 11 or more games in each of the previous four years. He used the COVID year to come back for a full-fledged five-year career.

* Can really bend it at the end of his rush to get home.

* He said he was really driven in these two games against Big Ten competition to prove he can play with the best.

He has had at least 23 tackles in five straight seasons, including this season.

He has 265. career sacks. He had six sacks last year and 11.5 sacks in 2019.

- Missed a tackle in space when replacing inside vs zone read give. Indiana RB Carr 15 yard gain to the 1 -yard line on the opening drive.

+ Had success in the middle portions of the game against a mediocre Indiana LT last week.

* Had two sacks last week against Indiana. He wasn’t great at the beginning of the game or the end, for some reason.

* Good take-off, long strider. Not a lot of upper body strength or violent hands, but his wheels are pretty good. Michigan State could use a guy with his take-off. Probably has a better take-off than anyone at Michigan State.

- He ends up on the ground more often than is ideal. Run right at him, you can tip him over.

+ On this sack last week, he had the Indiana left tackle so worried about the outside rush that he left the inside open for Malone:

Login to view embedded media

34 DE JUWUAN JONES (6-3, 275, Jr., Sugar Hill, Ga.)

* Was a three-star recruit, ranked No. 62 in Georgia. Had offers from Army, Ari Force, Columbia, Georgia Southern.

* Three-year starter.

* Had seven sacks in 2019 and two last year.

11 DE Jaden Hunter (6-2, 240, JR., Atlanta)

* Will play some stand-up LB and do it with physicality.

43 Michael Pitts (6-3, 230, Sr., Stone Mountain, Ga.)

* Was a three-star recruit, had an offer from Cal.

* Cincinnati transfer

* Not much of a threat as a pass rusher.

+ Good sideline to sideline quickness reading a speed option and running it down.

* Seven tackles at Army.


0 DT JEREMY DARVIN (6-1, 300, Sr., Nashville)

- Struggled against double team blocking in the first quarter last week.


99 BRODRIC MARTIN (6-5, 320, Jr., Tucaloosa, Ala.)

* A transfer from North Alabama.

+ Good job one-gapping to beat the Indiana RB and stop the Indiana RB for no gain on third-and-five with 7:20 to play in the game.


97 DT DARIUS SHIPP (6-1, 305, Jr., Olive Banch, Miss.)

* Juco transfer from Northeast Mississippi CC

+ Good against double-team blocking.

* When Mel Tucker says WKU has some firm guys up front, he’s talking about this guy and the way WKU’s inside linebackers can take on offensive linemen. Not bad at all in this area, up the middle. Not quite Nebraska, but you’re not going to steamroll them. If Walker has a big day, he’s going to have to be schemed into some daylight, make some guys miss and break tackles. They won’t steamroll these guys.


LINEBACKERS

23 ILB WILL IGNONT (6-1, 240, JR., Huntsville, Ala.)

* Was a four-star recruit, ranked No. 17 in Alabama.

* Transfer from Tennessee. Had 68 career tackles with the Vols.

* Firm vs blockers.

+ He can come up and two-gap an offensive lineman.

- Average acceleration sideline to sideline

* With the way he can two-gap, they can create a Bear front with a LB inserting.

* In the Bear front, he will come up as a Sam on the line of scrimmage. If you try to run gap plays and pull linemen, he will run-blitz off the edge and tackle you in the backfield, like he did twice against Indiana.

* He’s tough against blockers, runs decently well as an inside linebacker, but isn’t a great tackler. Missed some tackles last week. Seems to short-arm it as a tackler, which is odd because he’s so good with his hands vs o-linemen. Extremes.

* PFF graded him out at 43.4 in tackling last week which was fifth from worst on the team.


28 MLB DEMETRIUS CAIN (6-0, 240, Sr., Princeton, Ky.)

* Good size on these inside linebackers. They are hard to move.

* I’m not sure WKU works on tackling enough.


DEFENSIVE BACKS

1 SS ANTWON KINCADE (5-11, 205, Jacksonville, Fla)

* Two-star recruit, had offers from mid-majors including CMU.

* Was honorable mention All-Conference USA last year.

* Third-year starter.


2 DB AJ BRATHWAITE (6-0, 195, Soph., Miami)

+ Aggressive in setting the edge on perimeter plays.


12 CB KAHLEF HAILASSIE (6-1, 195, Soph.)

* Was a three-star recruit.

* Signed with Oregon, played 12 games on special teams in 2018 then transferred to junior college (Independence CC) then WKU.

* Indiana targeted him with two completions on its opening drive of the game.


21 CB BEANIE BISHOP (5-10, 175, R-Soph., Louisville)

* Was a two-star recruit with mid-major offers.

- Looks smaller than 5-10

- Holding on a slant in 2Q vs Indiana.

* Little dude but he’s a good open-field tackler. Team was questionable overall with its tackling, but he had a couple of decent tackles.


13 RCB MIGUEL EDWARDS (5-11, 175, Soph., Fort Lauderdale)

* Transfer from Independence CC.

27 CB Omari Alexander

+ Good pass break-up on the last play of the first half, closing quickly on a short post, stepping in front of Indiana WR Miles Marshall.

CB 14 Davion Williams (6-0, 190, Soph., Belleville)

* Transfer from Michigan State.

* Was a three-star recruit, ranked No. 21 in Michigan.

* Started one game for Michigan State last year at Iowa, struggled. Struggled on punt coverage. Had excellent frame and athletic ability but never gained traction at Michigan State.

* Has played 89 snaps this year.

* Pro Football Focus lists him dead last on the team in pass defense with a score of 41.3. He’s been targeted nine time and allowed six catches.

* He played 19 snaps last week. He was targeted three times and allowed one reception.

* In limited snaps, he rated No. 6 on the team in tackling last week with a 75.1 grade.


SPECIAL TEAMS

K Brayden Narveson was second-team all C-USA last year.

* Their kickoffs are high and deep with good speed on the coverage units.

ADD IT ALL UP

Payton Thorne needs to play like an experienced vet, which I think is within his capacity to do so. The o-line needs a good bounceback game against a defensive front that is tough at DT and inside linebacker, and will show different variations which puts importance on pre-snap identification. Michigan State should be decently equipped to handle that area this week. Center Nick Samac started the overtime ahead of Matt Allen last week, but Allen’s experience might give him the nod again this week.

Get into the right play and the screens, and inside runs from Walker, and pocket passes from Thorne against zone could all find a rhythm. But it will take some work. It’s not a walkover on offense.

On defense for Michigan State, it’s an interesting test against a different flavor of attack, with a confident, veteran QB who is salivating at the chance to put up numbers against a Power Five team like he did at Texas Tech last season.

Inside-out pursuit from LBs is important. Cal Haladay is pretty good in this area. Quavaris Crouch can be good in this area, and he hits like a truck when he gets there, but can he play through the fatigue, can he play correctly, can his back-up come in and play as well as Chase Kline would have? I have some doubts there.

Can Ronald Williams and Chester Kimbrough keep things tight and tackle well in space? Chuck Brantley will probably get the most snaps of his career. Who will be the No. 4 cornerback?

We haven’t seen MSU’s defense go against a unit like this. MSU’s d-line is good, but not wrecking-ball-good-enough to just uproot everything WKU tries to do.

There will be some struggling moments for MSU’s defense in this game. WKU’s system is that problematic. It’s hard to cover everything, and they can shoot it out where it needs to go with quickness and precision.

After the Nebraska game, I predicted this game would be a struggle. There’s a chance Michigan State hits hard, jars WKU, and gets into a rhythm on offense and rolls. If they do that, then Michigan State indeed has the makings of remaining a Top 20 team. I’m not necessarily expecting that. That would be impressive. But we learn about this team as we go. This is good test, physically, schematically and mentally.

Here was go.

It's better than Bobby's World

Login to view embedded media

Here is my notebook from Hazelton's interview today.

Dominating 1st and 2nd teams

Jim,

I appreciate your overview of the impact on their decisions to transfer, but there was no information on 'why?' And tons of posters had an opinion or speculation, but I think these sting, as both seemed like OKG's (to use our basketball analogy). We have no specific or solid information as to the 'why'. And Tucker is a great quote, but never says or tells reporters anything, so we won't get any kind of answer from him. Welcome for your insider ability to get to players, SID, coaches, etc to help us understand why. Kline especially seemed so fired up after making a few plays on Sat night, that it seems very strange to decide to transfer 24 hours later.

Here we go. Stripes thing isn't looking real good from my vantage point.

Watch for yourself, ill get my annual little rant out of the way now and shut up. In the last 2 minutes he was asked about offense and lets just say i hope we have more pieces as he said and it translates. Its time to start showing something on that end of the ice. There are no excuses at this point, none.

Pre-Snap Read: MSU vs Nebraska​

By Jim Comparoni
SpartanMag.com

East Lansing, Mich. - Congratulations. You have football back.

And it’s real football this time, not like last year. And Michigan State is 3-0 for the first time since 2015, emerging as a potential surprise team in the Big Ten and possibly the nation, set to play an important game against an underrated, credible opponent at Spartan Stadium.

These are two pretty good football teams. It’s a shame Nebraska barfed corn all over its boots in that Week Zero game against Illinois. That was an expensive loss, and everyone saw it, and dismissed Nebraska as garbage. It damaged their season and their reputation. Nebraska had the better players that day but choked the game away.

Nebraska has played good football the last two weeks. Gave Oklahoma all they could handle last week, and manhandled a quality MAC championship contender Buffalo two weeks ago.

Nebraska vs Miami would be a pick ‘em game if they played this week.

Michigan State vs Nebraska is going to be physical in the trenches. Nebraska is a naturally desperate team. Mel Tucker is trying to get his team to remain desperate. It’s a battle of skill, will and - as Tucker sees it - motivation.

If Nebraska vs Illinois is the only time you’ve seen Nebraska play this year, you need to erase that from your memory - aside from some of the mistake-prone nature of the team on that day.

The difference between Nebraska on that day and the potential of what Nebraska could do on a different given day is similar to the way Michigan State looked against Rutgers last year and the way Michigan State looked against Northwestern last year.

Of course Michigan State had a terrible time harnessing that level of play for more than a week or two last year, for various circumstances. It remains to be seen whether Nebrasks can capture and repeat a level of winning football this year like they showed against Buffalo and for portions of the Oklahoma game.


WHAT TUCKER IS DOING

Tucker is on high alert for complacency this week. He said he is looking for any signs of it. He says his assistants and leaders are looking for signs of it too. He’s been searching, try to stamp it out, trying to fan these Spartans into the type of connected, collaborative flame that they had last week in the business trip to Miami.

He’s at a new chapter in his rebuilding job at Michigan State. He’s up to the consciencly competency part of it. He said last year if you don’t know how you had success, you can’t repeat it. That’s probably a concept he learned from Nick Saban, and Saban probably learned it in a business book. But it’s applicable.

Michigan State has had good success this year. Now comes the hard part. Harnessing it and repeating it.

“Success leaves clues,” is another favorite axiom of Tucker’s. Again, probably borrowed from Saban, who probably learned it in a book. But it’s also applicable.

The clues of last week’s preparation, and not just the week of practice but the months of culture cultivation which went into last week’s gameday performance, need to be repeated.

Now can Michigan State do it?

Saban, when he coached at Michigan State, used to lament that the Spartans had trouble dealing with success. Saban didn’t have axioms such as “success leaves clues,” and the quest to find “conscience competence,” maybe because he hadn’t read those books yet. But at some point Saban became a better coach than he was while he was at Michigan State, able to build firewalls and achieve a level of rinse and repeat. Recruiting better and better athletes and creating a collective, constructive level of everyday competition for playing time had something to do with it.

Tucker has better athletes than a year ago, but a far cry from the talent pool at Alabama of course.

But Tucker isn’t trying to beat Florida, Texas A&M or Georgia this week. Michigan State doesn’t have a Top 10 opponent. But Michigan State has an opponent capable of playing Top 25 football on a given Saturday.

And Tucker is going to need to successfully challenge some of Saban’s philosophies of dealing with success and repeating it, and make them his own. That’s what he’s doing this week. You can hear it and see it.

On Wednesday when I walked into the Doug Weaver Indoor Facility following practice, I saw Tucker speaking intensely to group of 10 or 12 players. There were offensive players in the huddle, and defensive players. Tucker had their full attention, and was speaking fast and hard, like a third world dictator.

I couldn’t hear the conversation, but I have a good guess as to the subject matter.

Tucker wasn’t pleased with the team’s level of focus and rinse-and-repeat. Or maybe it was good enough, but he wanted better than good.

Whether or not Tucker can become a championship coach at Michigan State will depend in part on his ability to identify problems and get them fixed before we see them on Saturday. That’s the definition of quality control in this sport. To me, he looks like he has all the markings of a leader capable of attaining a winning level of consistent quality control. But that’s not a one-week job. That’s an every-week job. Saban is still on that task, and saw his juggernaut stagger and stumble a bit last week and almost lose.

That job changed a bit this week for Tucker at Michigan State after the win at Miami and the 3-0 start.

Last week was the first game of the rest of Tucker’s career.

Now this week is the first game of the rest of his career.

The variables have changed a little bit. Every team and every season is a fluid situation. The situation is good at Michigan State right now. But he has to continue building the firewall to protect what’s been build and set the foundation for more construction.

It’s a terrific test for the Spartans. I fully understand why Michigan State is a modest favorite in this game and why the likes of Rick Neuheisal have picked Nebraska and why Tucker is so paranoid. Nebraska is capable of spilling red-stain wine on MSU’s plush 2021 carpet before it gets fully installed.

Michigan State has been good this year. But good enough to be 4-0 and to rise up to something like No. 17 o 18 with a win this weekend? I’m not sure about that.

Football water often seeks its own level. Nebraska is better than a 2-3 team with a lame duck coach. Michigan State might not be quite good enough to be 4-0 and No. 17. But will the football gods allow it? Tucker isn’t going to wait and find out. He wants to take care of this himself, and he’s on it. And we’ll learn a lot about his leadership this week because this is a difficult task that he has, dealing with success and turning away this Nebraska team. In some ways it’s more difficult than last week. It’s a different type of motivation. It’s a motivation of trying to stay at the top of the hill in a game of king of the mountain rather than ascending it. Different leadership task. He’s on it.


THE INTANGIBLES

There is one big one in this game. In any game, I always give a big edge (not the overall edge, but a big edge) to the team that NEEDS to win the most. In some games, this factor is even. Last week, it was even.

This week, Nebraska is the team that NEEDS to win more.

Last week, Nebraska needed that win more than Oklahoma. Oklahoma was the team tasked with avoiding overconfidence.

Nebraska wasn’t mistake-proof enough to win, but the Huskers were within a bounce or two of putting of scoring a major upset as a 22-point underdog.

This week, Nebraska needs to win more than Michigan State. Nebraska is 2-2 and is better than its record. Nebraska head coach Scott Frost is severely on the hot seat. Internal opponents want him fired, that’s why they leaked information to the NCAA about Nebraska support staff members participating in unlawful coaching. Every program has quality control assistants who do more coaching than the NCAA allows. But unnamed people at Nebraska blew the whistle on Frost in August because they want him out.

He’s coaching for his job.

In some ways, he’s doing decently. But the mistakes they made against Illinois, and some that his team continued to make against Oklahoma, have curtailed his hopes of making a Major League moviestyle comeback.

He’s running out of scenes. He needs a turning point win at Michigan State.


WHERE NEBRASKA IS DANGEROUS?

1. The quarterback, Adrian Martinez, is a senior, a four-year starter and the author of some big offensive numbers through the air and on the ground.

There is something about his throwing mechanics and lack of wins that doesn’t sit well with me. His numbers are great, but he just hasn’t been able to get over the hump as a winner, largely through no fault of his own.

But he’s capable of catching fire and carrying a team on a given Saturday.

He was a four-star, Top 100 recruit out of Nebraska. Frost has pinned his early-tenure success on Martinez, which might mean he’s pinned his entire Nebraska coaching career on him. Saturday isn’t the very last stand for Martinez and Frost, but they can see it from here - which makes them even more dangerous than they naturally are.

2. Nebraska’s defensive tackles are good. They have three of them. Good rotation, but 99 and 93 are the best ones. They’re quick and strong, sturdy. They are mostly a two-gapping team. They are hard to move. When they one-gap, they are quick and can create TFLs (that’s when they blitz and occasionally in short yardage. But mostly they are a two-gapping front).

Michigan State will have a hard time running inside. If Michigan State can achieve a good running game while moving these quality DTs, then wow.

3. The Nebraska safeties are good, rangy. They support the run well. They hit pretty hard. I haven’t seen any mistakes from them. They are experienced and excitable.

4. Nebraska’s cornerbacks are talented, long, big, good. Their best CB, No. 5, Taylor-Britt, has been gambling a little bit in the flat and on intermediate sideline routes. He’s lost three of those gambles, for small gains. I don’t think he’s been playing at his best, but he’s dangerous with the gambles he takes, because he seems to be smelling a pick six at some point.

5. Nebraska has big, tall tight ends who try to play physical. They will line up with both TEs to one side and run smashmouth football inside or off-tackle. It’s the most power-oriented pistol spread Michigan State has faced yet. Nebraska is pretty good at it. Not great. The QB run threat is a factor, although he doesn’t do a lot in terms of zone read keepers, he usually executes the handoff on zone read looks when optioning a defensive end. The tailbacks are just okay.


WHERE IS NEBRASKA SHAKY?

1. The left tackle, No. 69, had a miserable game in pass protection last week. Drew Beesley has the capacity to capitalize and deliver more game-changing, or at least drive-changing plays against him.

2. The offensive line has been mistake-prone in terms of penalties. They had four penalties on the opening drive against Oklahoma last week. They had two false starts on the first two offensive plays of the game. Crowd noise had something to do with that, but this is an insecure group.

3. The place kicker, Connor Culp is a complete enigma.

The transfer from LSU was Big Ten Kicker of the Year last year. He was 13 of 15 on field goals. His career long is 49.

This year, he is a miserable 3 of 8. He is 1 of his last 6!

He missed a 50-yarder and a 35-yarder last week. Then he was yanked, they tried another dude for an extra point and that dude’s kick was blocked and returned for two points.

Asking a 50-yarder might be a bit much, but Nebraska basically left eight points on the field last week (the two field goals they missed, and the two-pointer they allowed to be blocked and returned. Eight points by the kicking game. Nebraska lost by seven.


THE UNKNOWNS

1. Nebraska is still trying to get settled at running back. They’ve been doing it by committee. No one has stood out, but they’ve all had some flashes - kind of like MSU’s RB situation last year.

Nebraska’s starting RB, a freshman, Gabe Ervin, was lost to an ACL last week.

2. Nebraska’s WRs are a bit of a puzzle to me. They look talented at times, on some broken plays and busted coverages and occasional digs and sit-downs vs zone on third-and-long situations. But they are a work in progress too. They aren’t a group that strikes fear into you, but there is potential there. I’m just not ready to say they are good or shaky.

Nebraska hasn’t seemed like a team that can riddle you with problematic route combinations and matchups.

Martinez puts up numbers and gets jobs done, and when he forces himself to sit in the pocket and read on third downs he found openings against Oklahoma and Buffalo. But Michigan State is a defense that is starting to establish a wide variety of coverages and disguises. Michigan State has become pretty good at it, but not great.

I feel like Michigan State is a good bet to continue to improve in this area (coverages, disguises, causing an opposing QB to pause). I feel like Michigan State is building in this area more rapidly than Nebraska is building in the passing game.

Last week, Miami threw for a lot of yards, and took nice intermediate gains on hitches and curls to the sideline. Michigan State played a lot of bailing zone coverages, bailing along the sidelines. Michigan State didn’t do much of that in the first two games. Michigan State respected Miami’s ability to create explosiveness in the passing game and was willing to play with that soft cushion along the sideline in order to contain deep shot passing opportunities and also to keep an eye on a scrambling QB. In the meantime, Michigan State made sure to dish out hard hits along the way.

It worked. Michigan State was the more physical team. Miami slowed down as the game progressed. The QB became compromised with dings and pain (and is doubtful to play this week). And Michigan State limited yards after the catch, prevented big plays and ultimately surrendered only 17 points while forcing four turnovers. It was Perles Ball on defense in some respects.

Michigan State won’t play that way every week. But Michigan State, under Tucker, is going to evolve into a program that may change the way it plays, slightly, from week to week, depending on the opponent. Last week was an example.

And I feel that last week’s rules against a dangerous scramble-to-throw guy like D’Eriq King can carry over to the rules they implement for Martinez. They are different types of QBs, but similar enough to Michigan State can “King” this coverage or that concept, as in “Play it the way we played King.” Not all day, just here and there. They’ve taught it, played it, reviewed it. That card is in MSU’s hand. MSU wasn’t/isn’t great at it, but played and proven card nonetheless.


NEBRASKA ROSTER COMPARISON

You, the reader, knows the Michigan State roster. So to give you an idea of what I see on film from the opponent, I like to attempt an apples-to-apples comparison within your frame of reference. How does their talent stack up to Michigan State’s?

MSU’s o-line won’t be matching up against Nebraska’s o-line, but it’s interesting to compare the two as known commodities.

* Nebraska’s RBs are not as good as Michigan State’s.

* Nebraska has some emerging talent at WR, but Michigan State’s are more established and reliable. Plus I think MSU’s offensive scheme is more varied and problematic for a defense than Nebraska’s favorite route combinations.

* MSU’s offensive line is better than Nebraska’s, especially at offensive tackle. Nebraska’s center is mobile and useful and perhaps better than Matt Allen.

* Nebraska’s tight ends are better blockers than MSU’s. But they don’t quite have a run-after-the-catch guy like Heyward has been on screen passes.

* Is/was Payton Thorne better than D’Eriq King? Probably not. But he stirs the drink and plays winning football. Most would think Martinez is better than Thorne, but I wouldn’t trade Thorne for Martinez for what Michigan State is trying to accomplish with its skilled players.

* MSU’s defensive ends are better than Nebraska’s, but Nebraska’s defensive tackles are better than Michigan State’s.

* Michigan State’s linebackers are improving steadily. Nebraska’s guys are scrappy, but I would give the edge to Michigan State.

* MSU’s cornerbacks are still getting settled. Nebraska’s are pretty good. Slight edge in established consistency to Nebraska.

* Xavier Henderson is better than either of Nebraska’s safeties, but Nebraska’s safeties as a tandem are a bit more reliable in that MSU’s talented Angelo Grose is still making mistakes. Those mistakes will subside at some point. Michigan State needs it to happen now.

* Give an edge to Michigan State in the place kicking department, although that could swing drastically on a given day.

* Both teams are solid in the punting department. Bryce Baringer has quietly improved. Former Michigan State punter Will Przystup entered the season as a back-up, but emerged as the starter last week due to injury and banged a 48-yarder and a 52-yarder. He will be jacked to punt against his former teammates. That’s an interesting side story to watch, Saturday.

We hear that Nebraska doesn’t recruit well enough. But you know what? They notoriously didn’t recruit all that great in the Tom Osborne days, per the recruiting rankings. They were the antithesis to the recruiting rankings in those days.

Of course Nebraska doesn’t have the strength training edge, walk-on edge, or state-of-the-art triple option X’s and O’s edge that they had in those days.

But they aren’t weak on the recruiting trail. Their QB was a four-star, Top 100 from California, their top RB was a four-star from New Jersey, their top d-lineman was a four-star from Arizona. This isn’t a sad sack outfit.

THE TAKEAWAY: If Nebraska had a more explosive tailback run game, a better left tackle, a better kicker, they wouldn’t just be a better team, they would be a Top 25 team.

The question is how long Frost can keep this team united, how long can he get buy-in from them if they lose this game and the seat gets hotter. I don’t know. But right now, this week, they are dangerous. Maybe last week was their last stand; I don’t know. But to me they looked like an improving team last week.

NEBRASKA’s RESULTS

L 22-30 at Illinois
W 52-7 vs Fordham
W 28-3 vs Buffalo
L 23-16 at Oklahoma

Those last three defensive outputs are good. Buffalo is a solid team, good running attack, MAC divisional champion last year, had won 11 of its previous 12 games going into that game. Nebraska handcuff them. Buffalo followed up with a strong showing last week against No. 16 Coastal Carolina, losing 28-25.

Note: Buffalo changed coaches after last year. Their head coach took the head coaching job at Kansas.

Oklahoma has been an offensive juggernaut in recent years. They’ve been a little slow getting going this year. Nebraska played a lot of two-deep zone, kept the throws underneath, surrendered decent yardage on the ground, stayed in the game, had a chance to tie on the final drive (but ended up with two sacks).

VS OKLAHOMA

* Nebraska punted only two times against Oklahoma. Nebraska had the ball nine times. Oklahoma punted four times. It was a game of long possessions.

* (Nebraska attempted field goals three times (missed two), had one INT).

* Oklahoma led 7-3 at halftime. Could have been 7-6 if Nebraska had it a 50-yarder.

* Classic Nebraska 2021: Nebraska out with vigor at the beginning of the 2H vs Oklahoma. Down 7-3, Nebraska took the second half kickoff and put together a respectable, pounding drive.

They utilized two-TE blocking for strong inside runs and off-tackle runs, a counter boot pass to the TE, some quality red meat Midwestern offense.

Had a dominant double-team block or two up front. But they missed a 35-yard field goal that would have cut the lead to 7-6 with 9:00 left in the third quarter. Martinez turned his head in disappointment after seeing that field goal, and the offense’s hard work, go to waste. Been that kind of year. Looking for a turnaround.

Stats:

First downs: Oklahoma 21, Nebraska 18
Rush Yards: Oklahoma 194 (5.5 per carry), Nebraska 95 (2.5 per carry).
Pass Yards: Nebraska 289 (11.6 per attempt), Oklahoa 214 (6.3 per attempt).

Martinez: 19 of 25 for 289 with 1 TD, 1 INT.
Oklahoma’s Spencer Rattler, the national preseason favorite for the Heisman despite never being a starter for the Sooners prior to this year: 24 of 34 for 214 with 1 TD.

* Nebraska was the better team through three quarters. Could have been Nebraska 9, Oklahoma 7 late in the third quarter.

Nebraska cut it to 14-9 on the last play of the third quarter, but Oklahoma blocked the extra point and returned for two Oklahoma points. That made it 16-9, when it should have been 14-10. Add two missed field goals and it might have been Nebraska 16, Oklahoma 14 on the last play of the third quarter.

* If Nebraska can eliminate their bone-headed mistakes, they’re pretty good.

* Nebraska had held seven straight opponents under 400 yards prior to the Oklahoma game, then the Sooner inched over with 406.

Penalties, turnovers, kicking game. A terrible decision by a punt returner resulting i a safety was the turning point at Illinois. The results remind me a little bit of John L. Smith’s Michigan State, although Frost is a stoic, quite polar opposite of Smith.

“If we play with speed and precision we have enough talent to be in every game that we play,” Frost said. “I do not think there is a team that we cannot play with and are not going to have a chance against. Mistakes get you beat. They have gotten us beat too often and we need to keep being intolerant (of mistakes).”

“I want kids to go into games expecting to win. And I think they did. They were disappointed after. So we have to balance that disappointment with the enthusiasm of how much better of a game they played and how much better of a team we are right now. But we have to prove that and we get another opportunity against another ranked opponent on the road this week.”

* Nebraska tried to do a lot of multi-TE, closed formation grind-it-out running attack against Oklahoma but they just don’t have the o-line or the explosiveness at RB to make it work often enough to really scare you with it.

* Nebraska attempted 27 runs and 15 passes through Nebraska’s first 42 plays of the game last week, midway through the third quarter.


NEBRASKA OFFENSE STYLE

* Nebraska is a pistol formation team. They go with two tight ends and one back quite often, trying to establish smashmouth ground game.

They’ll go to 3 WRs and 4 WRs like everyone else.

They try to pass once in awhile out of two-TEs, and try to run once in awhile out of 3WRs, but for the most part if they are in two TEs, they are 60-plus percent run. And if they are in 3 or more wide outs, they are 60-plus percent pass.

* They run some remnants that resembled old school Osborne Nebraska option, but they do it out of the pistol.

If you see a flanker orbit motion back behind the tailback, that’s usually a sign that they are doing a triple option. They put it in the belly of the tailback, make a read, and have the orbit motion flanker as a pitch man.

HOWEVER, in the two games I’ve studied, Martinez almost always leaves it in the gut of the RB, even if the DE being optioned stays low to play the run. Martinez doesn’t seem to like to pull it out and keep it.

This looks like triple option, but I haven’t seen Martinez utilize all three options. But it appears to be installed.

They will run speed option (without the belly freeze). He will pitch it on the option from time to time but it’s not like he is a complete headache of an option specialist. He isn’t Randle-El on this play.

They will run some counter option, with a counter step BY THE QB in one direction, then spin and come back the other way with the speed option and the pitch man available. This is completely old school. I haven’t seen it be completely effective. But it looks good. And I wonder if Frost as it in the offense partly to get a rise out of the fanbase and donors. Not sure. But it looks like Nebraska, although it’s from the pistol.

* Nebraska rushed for 231 against Buffalo on 41 carries (5.6 per carry).

* The most unique trait of their blocking scheme is when the center, No. 51, snaps and pulls. He is quick, he’s active and energetic with what amounts to pin-and-pull trap blocking, or pin-and-pull power.

* The passing game for Nebraska: I’m not sure the route combinations and the way they threaten a defense is all that intimidating. They just seem a little vanilla in that category. I would like to study it further but it just seems a little ordinary and forced, although Martinez’s completion percentages are high.

* As for Martinez, I think one of the reasons his completion percentage has been so high lately is because he’s just plain judicious. If a guy isn’t open, he tucks and runs. Seems like a novel concept.

On third down long yardage situations, he will sit in the pocket longer and longer, and gosh darn it he found openings in those Oklahoma and Buffalo zone defenses. The windows will be different this weekend, not necessarily more difficult than vs Oklahoma, but different. I think Michigan State has a chance to tie up his visuals a little more than previous opponents.


NEBRASKA DEFENSE STYLE

Nebraska is mostly a 30, two-gapping front. The DTs are good and firm.

Nebraska blitzed A LOT in the second half with the lead against Buffalo, but not much against Oklahoma.

In the secondary, Nebraska played a lot of two-deep coverages against Oklahoma. Played it soft and somewhat conservative in order to keep a lid on Oklahoma’s explosive offense. It worked pretty well but I thought Nebraska stayed with the two-deep TOO long, and should have come out of it when Oklahoma went into its four minute run offense at the end of the game. That cost Nebraska a couple of first downs and three minutes of clock.

Nebraska played more single-safety deep, press coverage against Buffalo. THey wanted to stop Buffalo’s running attack, and challenged Buffalo’s WRs to beat Nebraska’s CBs in press. They couldn’t do it.

Uncommon trait: They keep three linebackers in the game. Their slot LB, No. 13, isn’t small (at 6-1, 230). He runs okay, but I’m not sure he has the coverage ability of a 4-2-5 nickel like Dowell or Snow. But Nebraska chooses to stay a little bigger with the slot LB.



Guess The Gameplan I: Michigan State Offense vs 13

* Nebraska keeps three linebackers in the game in conventional down and distances. No. 13 (JoeJo Domann, 6-1, 230) plays the slot. You can match up a WR against 13 in zone defense without much of a problem to your advantage.

A WR should be able to get separation vs 13 in zone.

If Nebraska is in man, they will put 13 on a tight end.

If you move your tight end out widest of the formation and 13 goes out with him, it declares that Nebraska is in man-to-man (and likely to blitz).

Can you then attack Connor Heyward against 13? Kind of, but Heyward is a possession receiver, not necessarily someone who is going to get a step on 13 deep.

But any team that keeps three LBs on the field at all times these days, like Nebraska does, invites some interesting chess move opportunities for an offense. Michigan State just doesn’t have a mismatch type of TE to take advantage of it (unless Maliq Carr is ready to be that guy). If you catch them in man-to-man, that’s a potential deep shot opportunity for a guy like Carr.


GUESS THE GAMEPLAN II: Nebraska Defense

So will Nebraska treat Michigan State like Oklahoma or Buffalo? Most likely Buffalo. Most likely, they will want to stop RB Kenneth Walker III. But this is where Michigan State is difficult this year. Michigan State has the QB to get the Spartans out of bad plays and into good plays, and he has the throwing ability and the WRs to make you pick your poison. If you want to go single high safety and stop the run, Michigan State has the capacity to throw play-action and attack with quality WRs, and an adaptive offensive coordinator to scratch where it itches.

Michigan State will have a new test in this category this week, as Nebraska’s defense is pretty good. If Michigan State can put Nebraska into pick-your-poison mode and slowly kill them, then wow. No small accomplishment.


NEBRASKA RUN DEFENSE Vs Michigan State RUN GAME

* Last year, Buffalo averaged 287 rush yards per game, No. 2 in the nation.

Buffalo rushed for 135 (4.1 per carry) against Nebraska.

So if Nebraska rushed for 194 against Nebraska, and Buffalo rushed for 135, and both averaged more than 4 yards per carry, what does that mean for MSU’s hot running attack?

It means Michigan State has a chance, just like last week and the Northwestern game, to wrestle control of the game on the ground, and it’s priority one for the opponent to stop them.

Nebraska has the DTs to help get it done, and Nebraska has good run support at safety. Nebraskas LBs run a little hot and cold. I’ve seen all three of them miss tackles. They can be juked. That’s Walker’s specialty (along with vision, and speed, and power. He has a few specialties).

Overall, this is the best run defense Michigan State has seen thus far - but not a great one. And Michigan State might be the best running attack Nebraska has seen thus far, including Oklahoma. Fascinating matchup right there.


NEBRASKA’S PERSONNEL

ADRIAN MARTINEZ (6-2, 212, Jr., Fresno, Calif.)

* He was a four-star, national Top 100 recruit.
* 31 career starts; the first three-time captain in Nebraska history.
* Ranks in Nebraska history:
No. 3 in pass yards
No. 5 in QB rush yards
No. 2 in completion percentage
No. 1 in yards per game


GUESS THE GAMEPLAN III: Michigan State Defense vs Martinez

* Oklahoma spied him with LB Nik Bonitto (6-3, 240) all day. If you can get a pass rush with four, and feel good about multiple coverages in the back, you can afford to put a spy on him and take away his tuck-and-run threat on third down.

I think Michigan State has just enough at DE to make this work, especially with the occasional beatings of LT 69.

Coverages haven’t been perfect for Michigan State this year, but I think Michigan State can bet on the come in that category. It’s headed in the right direction.

Even if Michigan State gives up the soft cushion along the sideline like they did against Miami, Michigan State isn’t allowing yards after the catch, and they’re hitting pretty hard.

I would anticipate Michigan State using a spy scheme like Oklahoma’s on third down. Quavaris Crouch is similar to Oklahoma’s Bonitto. He has the speed to do it and the bash brawn to take receipts.


* As a runner, he is not as fast as D’Eriq King, not as much burst in the short area. A little more like a faster version of the Youngstown QB, who was an effective runner against Michigan State.

* Three-quarter arm slot delivery, held it and held it and held it against a 3-man rush and found big 6-foot-4 WR Omar Manning on a 20-yard dig vs Oklahoma. They looked kind of dangerous as a duo on that play, although Manning is kind of new for them.

* Quick release on that funky three-quarter delivery.

+ Perfectly accurate touch pass on a third-and-6 pass to the wide side of the field on an out route to the motion man, over his shoulder, in the bucket for an 8-yard completion on the opening drive against Oklahoma.

You think his delivery is kind of weird, and he might miss wild here and there, but then he throws a perfect one like that out route. Not an NFL pass. Just a perfect college touch pass.

* In four-down territory they will run QB power to cut into the yardage on third-and-medium. Designed keepers on third and long in four-down territory. Youngstown did something similar vs Michigan State and Michigan State was never quite able to stop it. Nebraska will see that and look to saddle up the QB run, perhaps even more than usual. They NEED this game.

* One of the reasons Martinez’ completion percentage is so high is that if no one is open, he is more likely to tuck and run than your garden variety pocket passer.

But on third-down, he will hang in the pocket, slide around in the pocket, pump and keep his eyes downfield and find people in the openings of zone coverages. He’ll look awkward doing it, but he does it often enough to get a nod of respect.

* Has more than 6,000 career passing yards and 2,000 rushing yards.

* He is playing the best football of his career right now. He is delivering the ball on time and he has explosiveness with his legs.

* Old school counter speed option out of the pistol gained 5 on the second play of the game last week.

* Gained 4 on a designed power vs Oklahoma in the first drive last week.

* Ran for 112 yards against Buffalo.

+ Really nice pass to 5 Omar Manning on a dig to convert third down on the opening drive last week. Time to throw, calmly surveyed the field and delivered a dart.

* Oklahoma blitzed him only three times the entire game, according to PFF. He was 3-for-3 when blitzed for 24 yards.

* Oklahoma was able to get pressure on him 18 times (Martinez was 4 of 8 on those plays for 60 yards).

(Michigan State blitzed D’Eriq King on 15 of 60 pass attempts. That’s a low blitz rate, and the stats show it was wise to play it that way.

(King was 12 of 15 for 125 yards [8.3 per pass attempt] vs Michigan State blitzes.

(King was 26 of 45 for 263 yards [5.8 per pass attempt] when Michigan State didn’t blitz.)

PFF charted that King was pressured 10 times on 60 attempts. He completed 50 pct of those passes (5 of 10) for 6.9 yards per attempt.

On the other 50 pass attempts, he completed 66 percent (33 of 50) for 6.4 per attempt.

The accuracy was much better when he wasn’t pressured (as you would expect). But the yards per attempt was pretty much the same. Why? My guess is due to Michigan State playing softer zones than usual, which - if played right - gets hats to the ball soon after the catch. Michigan State did this, and finished tackles. You didn’t see much yardage after the catch by Miami’s dangerous, shifty receivers.

* Michigan State blitzed Northwestern 18 of 52 dropbacks.

* Michigan State blitzed Miami 19 of 69 dropbacks. Michigan State blitzed Miami less. That’s part of wanting to put a fence around him.


GUESS THE GAMEPLAN IV: Michigan State Blitzes?

So how much will Michigan State blitz Martinez? Michigan State will go into the game prepared to do either. They’ll feel it out and see if they get pressure with four like Oklahoma did. Beesley vs No. 69 needs to produce for Michigan State. Then they can do like Oklahoma and rarely blitz him.

HOWEVER, he did have a good bit of passing success against Oklahoma. Like King did against Michigan State. Is Michigan State willing to take that exchange again this week? You’ll know when I know.


RUNNING BACK

* Nebraska has had a committee of starting RBs this year. Freshman Gabe Ervin was lost to a knee injury at Oklahoma. He had started against Illinois and Fordham.

“Ideally we have one lead guy,” Frost said. “It has not worked out that way. I think we have several capable guys. I was really impressed with Rahmir (Johnson) and how he played. He ran hard. He gives us a little bit of spark with his speed. (Markese) Stepp had some really good plays when he has been in there. Sevion (Morrison) has done some good things.”


RB 14 RAHMIR JOHNSON (5-10, 185, R-Fr., Oradell, NJ/Bergen Catholic)

* Was a four-star recruit, ranked No. 10 in New Jersey. Was a spring commitment.
* Started against Oklahoma.
+ Gain of 27 on a throwback screen last week when they caught Oklahoma in man-to-man.
* Gained 42 yards on 11 carries against Oklahoma.

“Rahmir (Johnson) and how he played. He gives us a little bit of spark with his speed. We gave him a shot. I thought he took advantage of the opportunity. He ran hard and fast. I am sure he will be in the mix again this week.”


MARKESE STEPP (6-1, 230, Soph., Indianapolis Cathedral)

* Was a four-star recruit, ranked No. 237 in the nation.

*Transfer from USC.

* Started against Buffalo.

* He rushed for 307 yards at USC in 2019 in seven games.

* He rushed for 165 yards in six games for USC last year. He rushed for 82 yards against Arizona.

* This year, he has been sporadic. He didn’t play against Oklahoma.

* He had 18 carries for 101 yards against Fordham.

* He had 3 carries for 10 yards against Illinois.

* So technically he is their leading available rusher at the tailback position, but he didn’t play last week and I don’t know what to expect from him.


FROST ON THE NEBRASKA RUN GAME:

“I thought we went toe to toe with them up front on both sides of the ball. Still wanting to see some more crease runs. That really is the piece that is missing. One little block a little bit better hitting a hole a little bit better and generating explosive plays in the run game. We start doing that we will be pretty dangerous.”


RB 22 GABE ERVIN (6-0, 215, Fr., Burford, Ga.)

* Lost for the season with an ACL last week. Was their third leading rusher (behind Martinez and Stepp).


OFFENSIVE LINE


FROST ON THE NEBRASKA OFFENSIVE LINE:

“I think they are getting closer every week. That is still a work in progress. We are still young there. But they have been getting better. They will have another chance this week. If they take another step forward like they did last week I expect even a better game and we have a big time opponent a good team that we are going up against so we need those guys to come off the ball and create some movement up front.”

* O line had four penalties on the opening drive against Oklahoma. Had false starts on their first two plays of the game against Oklahoma crowd noise.

* Outside zone didn’t work vs Oklahoma to the left, Nebraska’s zone blockers buckled.

* They are committed to trying to get the power running game going, but they spring leaks when trying to run outside zone, even with three TEs.

* O line gave Martinez a lot of time to throw in the first quarter vs Oklahoma, but pass pro broke down as the game progressed.


* Pass protection had trouble in the second quarter with a late blitzer up the middle, whether it was a delayed LB blitz or a DE stunting to the middle.

* O-line has average size. That’s not the way Nebraska used to be in the glory days.

* They will play with three TEs at times, with one WR and try to run outside zone.

* OL had trouble with Oklahoma’s one-gapping quickness last week.

- Allowed a sack vs a four man rush on the first play of Nebraska’s final drive, down 7 with :57 to play. Lost seven yards and :20 seconds. And sacked again on third down. They just didn’t have an intelligent pass game assortment to attempt a late drive. Terrible attempt at a two-minute drill.


LT 69 TURNER CORCORAN (6-6, 300, Fr., Lawrence, Kan.)

* Four-star recruit, No. 64 in the nation.

* He’s not good enough right now. Might be good some day, but not yet.

- Expensive false start on third-and-1 in the 1Q

- Not great against a bull rush punch.

- Allowed QB heat on a shoulder club to Oklahoma’s Jalen Redmond, who looks decent, not great.

- Mediocre in pass protection. Doesn’t move laterally well. Allowed a sack in the fourth quarter last week on a wipe-and-rip.

- Allowed a hurry on a bull rush.

- Lost with his hands, allowed DE to get off and make a tackle for no gain in the red zone vs Buffalo.

He’s a weakness. Drew Beesley usually plays right DE for Michigan State. Michigan State needs disproportionate production in that matchup this week.


LG 57 ETHAN PIPER (6-3, 305, R-Fr., Norfolk, Neb.)

* Was a three-star DT prospect, No. 5 in Nebraska.

3-5 vs Oklahoma: Blitz got home untouched but Martinez made the guy miss and scrambled 71 yards. Miscommunication by the left guard.


C 51 CAMERON JURGENS (6-3, 290, Soph., Beatrice, Neb.)

* Four-star recruit, No. 1 in Nebraska.

+ Snap and pull kickout, delivers it with punch. Pin and pull trap block to the strong side. Quality player on the move. Maybe not great at interior run blocking.


RG 70 MATT SICHTERMAN (6-4, 310, Jr., Cincinnati)

* Three-star recruit, No. 25 in Ohio. Had offers from Boston College, Cincinnati, Colorado State. Was a spring commitment.

- Allowed sack late in the 1H last week, on a miscommunication on a DT stunt.


RT 54 BYRCE BENHART (6-9, 330, R-Fr., Lakeville, Minn.)

* Was a four-star recruit, No. 139 in the nation, No. 2 in Minnesota. Also visited Tennessee and Nebraska.

* 54 and TE 83 leaned on Bonitto of Oklahoma, double team and ran outside for a 7 yard gain on pin and pull for the center. During the first drive of the second half. Indicative of the type of physicality they can put on you at some positions.


WIDE RECEIVERS


WR 5 OMAR MANNING (6-4, 225, Jr., Lancaster, Texas)

* Junior college transfer.

* Looked good, delivering a big catch on a 20-yard dig to pick up third down on Nebraska’s opening drive last week.

* He had 2 catches last week (52 yards), 3 catches against Fordham (54 yards) and 2 against Illinois (26 yards).

* He played one game for Nebraska last year.

+ 21 yard TD on a double move to the post to cut the lead to 23-16 with 5:38 to play.

* Former TCU player.

* He was the first player Frost was asked about during this week’s press conference.

“It has been hard being patient as a coach but it has been necessary to be patient with him,” Frost said. “It is going to be a good story if he keeps on the trajectory that he is on. When he is in there he can make plays.”


WR 3 SAMORI TOURE (6-3, 190, Sr., Portland, Ore.)

* Transfer from Montana.

* Has had some big plays this month.

* 2 catches for 136 yards with two TDs against Buffalo.

++ 68-yard TD at the end of the first half against Buffalo on a skinny post against a safety (39) with a quick stem on the skinny. Isolated him on a safety and attacked it.

Nebraska will try to do the same with No. 3 vs Grose when they get a chance.


WR 15 ZAVIER BETTS (6-2, 200, Fr., Bellevue, Neb.)

* Was a four-star recruit, ranked No. 59 in the nation by Rivals.com.

* Good length. Showed good outside release move vs press coverage on a deep go route for 55 yards.

+ Deep ball last week, beating press coverage.

* He played in six games last year, had 12 catches.


WR 89 OLIVER MARTIN (6-1, 200, Jr., Coralville, Iowa)

* Former four-star recruit. Ranked No. 206 in the nation.

* Michigan State recruited him hard, came in second to Michigan. Then he transferred to Iowa. Then he transferred to Nebraska.

* Has missed action in the past three games due to an injury.

* He has played in only one game, at Illinois, and had six catches for 103 yards in that game.

Frost: “We need some more big play threats. Manning and Zavier (Betts) both showed up in the game. Those would both be big pieces for us. He has a lot of football ahead of him. Both of them do. And both are going to have chances to make plays.”


TIGHT ENDS


TE 11 AUSTIN ALLEN (6-9, 255, Jr., Aurora, Neb.)

* 5.6 Three-star recruit, No. 1 in Nebraska.

* Two-time captain. On the Mackey Award Watch List.

+ Four yard catch on fourth-and-2 in the 1Q last week. Nebraska had him in a tight bunch, ran a mesh route shallow crosser against man to man to get him on a rub.

+ Decent blocker ran a zone behind him for a gain of 5 in the first half last week.

* Caught a 3-yard out route last week, not much of a threat after the catch.

* Dude does a decent job of getting low block for a tall guy.

+ Caught a pass over the middle on a 15 yard skinny post, took a big hit and held on.

* Has 13 catches on the year, had a 26-yarder against Fordham, a 14-yarder against Illinois and a 14-yarder against Oklahoma.


TE 83 Travis Vokolek (6-6, 260, Jr., Springfield, Mo.)

* Was a two-star recruit who signed with Rutgers.

- Beaten inside for TFL by a one-gapping DE last week.

+ Gain of 39 last week on a fake throwback screen and snuck the TE out on a wheel from the opposite side.

* Missed the Buffalo game with an injury.


TE 49 NATE BOERKIRCHER (6-4, 220, Fr., Aurora, Neb.)

* Caught a little drag route on the opening drive against Buffalo on a late release drag, gain of 8.


DEFENSE


INTERESTING CHARACTERISTIC:

* When they blitz, it’s usually someone from linebacker depth, whether it’s a LB or a safety. They disguise their blitzes pretty well, and don’t usually telegraph it by crowding people fidgeting up toward the line of scrimmage.

Their blitzers usually come from deep, which gives the QB a little more time to find a sight adjust, if he happens to notice that they’re blitzing. Nebraska figures that the lost step of depth is worth the surprise element.


GUESS THE GAMEPLAN V: Michigan State Offense

* If Nebraska sells out to stop the run the way the Huskers did against Buffalo, Michigan State will have to go to the play-action air first and get that established before running later.

* Good job on third-and-eight vs Oklahoma on Sooners’ second series, playing cover-three. Did a good job matching the routes, forcing Spencer Rattler to tuck and run for no gain.

* Defensive tackles are short but pretty good. They don’t look like the DTs you would see at OSU, Bama, Georgia, the teams they are trying to chase. Those DTs aren’t bad, but when you have short DTs like that, it means you’ve had to settle for three-star recruits.


DEFENSIVE LINE

* Tough, firm and quick at d-tackle. The best DT tandem Michigan State has faced this year.

* No difference-making pass rushers for Nebraska.

* They are firm at one DE position with No. 44 but a little questionable at the other when No. 2 plays there.


DE 44 GARETT NELSON (6-3, 245, Soph., Scottsbluff, Neb.)

* Pietrowski type. Not bad on the edge as a pass rusher.

* Sneaky good pass rusher, rip and bend.

* Plays stand-up DE quite a bit.

* Decent pursuit speed.


OLB/DE 2 Caleb Tannor, 6-3, 225, Jr., Stone Mountain, Ga.)

* Was a four-star recruit, No. 33 in Georgia. Also officially visited Auburn and Florida.

* Plays like a defensive end.

* Will drop into coverage as part of zone blitz.

+ Pursues fast to the sideline; chased down Oklahoma RB with a good, hard, athletic hit.

* Not the most firm guy against the run. You can run right at him. Isolate him.


DT 95 BEN STILLE (6-5, 290, Sr., Ashland, Neb.)

* Super senior.

* Honorable Mention All-Big Ten last year.

+ Good quickness in hitting and shedding to make a tackle to thwart a shovel pass on third-and-ballgame with 1:50 to go last week, giving Nebraska one more shot on offense.


NT 93 DAMION DANIELS (6-3, 325, Jr., Dallas)

* Was a three-star recruit, No. 54 in Texas.

* Quality player, probably going to get All-Big Ten mention this year.

+ As a two-gapper in a 30 front, he will get into an offensive lineman and knock him back a yard while reading the play.

+ As a one-gapper, penetrated and made first contact for a TFL during Bufallo’s opening drive of the game.

+ Nice TFL as a one-gapper, crossing face and sticking the RB. Good play, good player.


DT 99 TY ROBINSON (6-6, 305, R-Fr., Gilbert, Ariz.)

* Was a four-star recruit, ranked No. 98 overall in the country by Rivals.com. Also visited Oregon, Alabama, USC.

+ Pretty strong when two-gapping inside. Looks like a good player for the future.

* I think he’s playing better than any Michigan State defensive tackle right now.

* Reasonably quick feet and hits pretty hard.

+ Terrific two-gap vs the LG, got off, made the tackle for no gain vs Buffalo in the 1Q.

+ When he surprises you with a one-gap, he’s by you. Hard for an o-lineman to adjust to that. Like the two-yard TFL he had on an inside zone against Buffalo late in the third quarter.


97 DT/DE Deontre Thomas (6-2, 285, Jr., Mustang, Okla.)

* Was a three-star recruit, No. 12 in Oklahoma.

+ Nice job splitting double team and penetrating the backfield on first-and-goal at the 1 last week, for no gain.

+ Good quickness sideline to sideline to bury an Oklahoma RB for a short gain as he tried to turn the corner.


GUESS THE GAMEPLAN VI: Michigan State Offense

* Nebraska might be a little questionable at defensive end (the DE that isn’t No. 44). Send a double-team at the other DE (especially if it’s No. 2) and see if they can hold up vs off-tackle runs. Might be able to make a dent there.

* Send counters and pulling action at DE No. 2. He will struggle.

* In a short-yardage situation, like fourth-and-one or at the goal line, you might not be able to go between the guards on Nebraska. Might need to go off-tackle, which is a wider trek, and sets you up for a possible TFL if Nebraska decides to one-gap on that play. Not an easy puzzle in short yardage. Play action pass might be the way to go.


NEBRASKA RUN DEFENSE

* They are firm at DT and most of the DL positions when two-gapping, HOWEVER I haven’t seen their DTs disengage from those two-gapping techniques to make a lot of tackles. The good two-gapping teams are firm, control, disengage and get in on tackles. I don’t see that from these guys. They have the capacity to do it but that’s something they lack.

They leave the tackling up to the LBs and the LBs are decent players, occasionally deliver nice highlight plays, but they are inconsistent tacklers.

Add it up and although Nebraska will be bent on containing Kenneth Walker III, I think there’s a good chance he gets away for a few rumbles and has another 100-yard day.

Oklahoma rushed for 194 yards (5.5 per carry), although Oklahomea did their damage against a Nebraska defense that played two-deep most of the day, willing to be soft against the run in order to contain the Sooner passing attack.

Nebraska played much less two-deep coverage against Buffalo. They might show two-deep, but would rotate to one-deep at the snap. Nebraska didn’t respect the Buffalo passing game as much and wanted to stop Buffalo’s chief weapon, which was their run game.

Which way will Nebraska play Michigan State? Probably a little bit of both, depending on down-and-distance, personnel groups and formations. But I think Nebraska will lean mostly toward trying to stop the run like they attempted to do against Buffalo.

MSU’s play action pass game will be put to use.

When Nebraska goes with single-safety deep, the corners will be playing either press man or bailing cover-three of course. Nebraska’s CBs aren’t susceptible to giving up the deep ball down the sideline either way. Michigan State will go deep once or twice because Jay Johnson believes in it, but I think it will be harder to connect with the deep ball in this game than against most opponents. If Michigan State gets it done, then wow.


LINEBACKERS

* Three solid but unspectacular LBs. Kind of Haladay and Kline types. I’ve seen all three starting linebackers get juked at least once in the last two games. No real shame in that, but they need to improve that as they get ready for Kenneth Walker III.


LB 42 NICK HENRICH (6-3, 225, R-Fr., Omaha, Neb.)

+ Pretty good lateral quickness

+ Decent sideline to sideline speed vs a fly sweep by Buffalo to secure the edge for a loss of one yard. (2 Caleb Tannor, 6-3, 225, Jr., Stone Mountain, Ga.)


MLB 28 LUKE REIMER (6-1, 225, Soph., Lincoln, Neb.)

* Former walk-on. Had an offer from Buffalo.

* Cal Haladay type when in pursuit.

* Slow to pounce and strike when the action is straight at him, is a little bit of a “catcher.”

+ Good job buzzing to the flat to tackle the RB on a swing pass on fourth and three against Buffalo in the 2Q.

- Missed a low tackle on a third-and-1 situation vs Buffalo which resulted in a 30-yard gain for the tailback.

+ Deflected pass and intercepted it, returning it 20-plus yards to the 1-yard line against Buffalo to turn a 14-3 lead into a 21-3 situation.

+ Pretty good pass rush and arm-over move against a RB to get heat on Rattler for a flush and INC on third-and-six last week in the 1H.


LB 31 Chris Kolarevic (6-1, 230, Jr., Traverse City St. Francis/Northern Iowa)

* He can play. Good short-area quickness and speed to deliver a hard hit on a swing pass against Buffalo.

* This guy was a standout at Northern Iowa and was interested in transferring to Michigan State. He reached out to Michigan State. Michigan State evaluated him but opted for Quavaris Crouch and Ben VanSumeren.


LB 13 JOJO DOMANN (6-1, 230, Colorado Springs, Colo.)

* Plays slot LB against 3-WR formations. They keep him on the field on third-and-long, in the slot.

+ Good closing quickness for a QB pressure on a fourth-and-two INC vs Buffalo.


DEFENSIVE BACKS

* Good talent at all four positions; and they will run varied coverages. Solid group.

* Pretty good cover-three zone pass defense (four man rush) on third-and-10 to force QB scramble keeper (gain of 2) to force a punt on Oklahoma’s second drive.


CB 6 QUINTON NEWSOME (6-1, 185, Soph., Suwanee, Ga.)

* Three-star recruit, No. 56 in Georgia.

+ Good job vs the run. Against Oklahoma in the 3Q, came in hard, took on a pulling guard low, axed him, and made the tackle. Very good play.


CB 5 CAM TAYLOR-BRITT (6-0, 197, Jr., Montgomery, Ala.)

* Three-star recruit, No. 27 in Alabama. Also visited Missouri, Auburn, Florida Atlantic.

* Nebraska’s best DB, one of the best CBs in the Big Ten.

* Was second-team All-Big Ten last year.

* Has a big reputation, but he’s been imperfect a few times that I’ve seen in the last two games.

* Strong frame.

- Bit on a play fake and allowed No. 1 WR to get open for a 1-yard TD pass on third-and-goal. Cornerback biting on a run fake, missing his assignment on the No. 1 WR in a tight bunch? That’s just poor discipline and one of the back-breaking mistakes that have caused Nebraska’s to have a 2-2 record.

- Squatted on a pass to the flat incorrectly allowed a catch and run for a first down against Buffalo.

- Squatting on a pass in the flat, going for a pass break-up or INT, gets neither the ball nor the tackle, WR for Oklahoma gets out for a 6 yard gain.

* He’s taking chances, smelling a pick six. Set him up for the hitch and go?


(CB 11 Braxton Clark, 6-4, 200, Orlando, Fla.)

* 5.5 Three-star recruit.

* One of the tallest CBs I’ve seen. Oklahoma challenged him on a deep post last week, Clark covered it pretty well for an INC. Mis-timed the jump or else could have gotten an INT.

* Looks pretty solid to me.


S 9 MARQUEL ISMUKE (6-1, 210, Sr., Compton, Calif.)

* Was a four-star recruit, No. 41 in California.

* Honorable mention All-Big Ten last year.

* Pretty good pop as an upper body blaster tackler.

+ Buffalo tried to beat him with a deep corner route on third-and-four. Ismuke played press, one of the rare times Nebraska shows a lot of press. Nebraska blitzed two LBs on the play. Ismuke covered pretty well, incomplete.


S 8 DEONTI WILLIAMS (6-1 ,205, Sr., Jacksonville, Fla./Jones County JC)

* Was a three-star juco recruit.

* Looks like an NFL player to me.

* Was Honorable Mention All-Big Ten last year.

* Has two INTs on the year.

* Solid hitter.

+ Good sweep tackler.

* Quality tackler.

* Will stick his nose into a lead blocker for team defense.

+ Lined up int he slot in man to man against Buffalo and really broke on the ball and drove into the WR well in the short area.

* Two interceptions against Fordham.

+ Played press in the slot occasionally against Buffalo; they tried to attack him with a deep fade to the flag but he covered it well.

+ Good job jamming a slot receiver’s attempted wheel route on fourth-and-two against Buffalo. Nebraska was in man-to-man. He reacted well to a switch release and wheel. Williams and the CB were on different levels so they could stay with their man on the switch release without bumping into each other. QB threw an INC.


SPECIAL TEAMS

* Connor Culp hit a 51-yarder last week. But had a streak of 1 for 6 including two straight misses against Oklahoma. Culp was replaced by Kellen Meyer midway through the game last week.

* Missed from 50 (off the upright), wide left from 35.

* Missed a 32-yarder to end Nebraska’s opening drive against Buffalo.

* Missed two extra points against Illinois.

* Was Big Ten Kicker of the Year last year but his head is messed up right now.

* Freshman Dan Cerini did a good job pinning Buffalo inside their 10-yard line. He only averages 36 yards per punt, though. Former Spartan William Przystup has attempted only two punts this year, banging a 52-yarder and a 48-yarder.


ADD IT ALL UP

Michigan State seems a little more reliable at place kicker. Nebraska is more likely to make mistakes, whether it’s missing field goals, or having penalties stall drives.

Michigan State is going to tackle better. MSU’s pass rush and pass protection is better than Nebraska’s. All of that, plus playing at home, makes Michigan State the favorite, just like Vegas sees it.

Nebraska’s defense, especially its pass defense, is problematic. Nebraska is better back there, and at DT, than anything Michigan State has seen thus far. And the QB is pretty dynamic.

As was the case in the Northwestern game and the Miami game, the team that makes the fewest mistakes will win. This game is that precarious. Michigan State needs to continue it relatively clean-game ways, and would be happy to see Nebraska relapse to its mistake-prone ways.

If this game were played in Lincoln, I would pick Nebraska.

Nebraska has some interesting variables in that WR Omar Manning is just coming onto the scene, as is their RB committee. WR Oliver Martin is an interesting x-factor; I’m hearing he is probably out again, but guys like him and RB Markese Stepp could be pivotal players.

Michigan State has been the more consistent team thus far, and is playing at home with an improving run defense and a three-pronged offense that is settling in nicely.

Tough game. If Michigan State wins, it won’t get the credit it deserves, but it will deserve plenty.

I was able to talk to Ronald's father a little bit about the time when Ronald almost walked away from football.

Kind of a lengthy feature, but he's an interesting subject as opening day approaches:

nm

I put together about 6,000 words on some of the key matchup areas, based on the short history of each team's season thus far.

I didn't include a player-by-player breakdown of the Hurricanes. I decided to end it at 6,000 words. I might include that later, possibly with some video shorts of examples of some of the Miami breakdowns on defense that need to be fixed for this game.

The Pre-Snap Read: Michigan State vs Miami​

By Jim Comparoni
SpartanMag.com


East Lansing, Mich. - Cutting to the chase:

I thought Miami played better in its 44-13 loss to Alabama than it did in last week’s 25-23 victory over Appalachian State.

Miami was disorganized on defense against App State. I counted at least five play in run defense when a player or players in the front seven left their gap to go try to make a hero ball play in someone else’s gap, resulting in ground gainers ranging from 8 yards to 28 yards (touchdown). There were at least two plays when defensive backs used faulty technique in pass defense and three plays when Miami’s pass defense flat out turned receivers wide open due to assignment errors and miscommunication.

Mistakes are going to happen in college football, but when they happen on defense as often as they did last week against Appalachian State, you have to wonder about the level of focus and buy-in of the players.

That being said, Miami was better organized against Alabama, played fast and correct - despite the final score. Alabama was just that hard to defend that night.

So my big question in this game is where Miami’s level of focus and buy-in is for this game. Did Miami go too deep into a nonchalant relax mode against Group of Five opponent Appalachian State after a demoralizing loss to Alabama?

Miami head coach Manny Diaz conceded that his team was down following the Alabama loss.

“I always get weary talking about intangible things because they are hard to define, but it did feel like it shook us a little bit," Diaz said of the loss to Alabama and a carryover to the App State game.

You don’t hear a coach admit something like that very often, especially early in a season. Now, will the Hurricanes bounce back with great effort, communication and commitment in a chance to take on a Big Ten team? You’ll find out when I do.

“The chance to play in front of big crowd, with a big national TV match-up, I think it is going to get us fired up and allow us to leave Atlanta and last weekend in the rear-view mirror,” Diaz said.

The old adage is that the most improvement for a team usually comes between week one and week two. The Hurricanes need to show it between weeks two and three.

“We had a couple of drives where we had gross miscommunications on the back end,” Diaz said. “We have to make sure that we are sound in communication, especially later on in drives when tempo is getting to us. Guys are having a hard time communicating, and that’s our line of focus this week.”

Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker describes his team as being desperate to improve. And it's for constructive reasons. Michigan State has a chance to become one of the surprise teams in the nation this week if the Spartans can improve to 3-0 with a win at Miami, something few observers gave Michigan State a chance to due prior to the season.

I think Michigan State is focused, driven, pretty sharp, hungry and capable.

Miami is more than capable. Miami is fast and talented. Their pursuit speed on defense is impressive. The question is whether they will get back to being on the same page the way they were against Alabama or repeat last week’s problems.

Miami wasn’t bad and disorganized on defense throughout the night against Appalachian State - only on a big handful of plays. Those problems are correctable. It wasn’t just two or three plays, It was a succession of them. But it wasn't play after play after play. Just a few of them, but that's enough to get you beat this level.

Still, those problems are correctable.

Diaz does not have a great reputation of fielding sound defenses as a coach. He is the defensive coordinator of this outfit. He was d-coordinator for Miami from 2016-18 for head coach Mark Richt, and took over when Richt abruptly retired.

Those Miami teams under Richt were pretty good (9-4, 10-3, 7-6), but the defenses weren’t great. Diaz was fired as defensive coordinator at Texas in 2013 after three shaky seasons. Diaz’s Hurricanes struggled in run defense last year. This is not a new thing. These are quality control issues, and he needs to get them solved or else his seat is going to become red hot very quickly.

Diaz knows this and that’s why he took over defensive coordinator duties as head coach this year. Diaz will be hand-signaling the defense during the game, which is extremely uncommon. I can’t remember the last time I saw a head coach handling the signaling to a defense. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it. But times are desperate at Miami. Maybe they will answer the bell, or maybe they will continue to fizzle.

Saturday could be a unique crossroads game for Miami and Michigan State. It’s the first game of the rest of Diaz’s tenure. If his defense is shaky in this game, and the Canes lose, the home fans are going to go from cranky to hostile against him.

There is less pressure on Tucker and his team, but it’s also the first game of the rest of his career. Get a big win at Miami and Tucker’s rebuilding project will seem, perhaps accurately, well ahead of schedule, and he could gain traction as perhaps the most dangerous man in the Big Ten, if not college football.

Earlier in the week, I listed Michigan State as having a 58 pct chance to win according to my BDI (balding dome index). After rewatching the Alabama game and seeing Miami play with better gap integrity in that game and better pass defense communication (despite the ease of Alabama’s early scoring drives), I’ll decrease that percentage down to 53 percent. Basically, I think this is Miami’s game to win or lose. Miami has the talent to get it done, and the road heat will be a major variable. I agree with Paul Konyndyk’s point that a talented team’s mistakes on film for one game often don’t get repeated the next week. He’s cited examples of September losses to Oregon and Notre Dame in recent years. That’s all true. But in this case, Diaz’s shaky past as a coordinator and leader comes into question as well. There’s a lot on the line in this game, and the mode of operation for each coach is still being written.


FINAL ANALYSIS FIRST

A lot of attention is on Miami QB D’Eriq King, and for good reason. He’s a fast, explosive, dual-threat QB who can get hot as a passer. I’m sure he throws well on the run, but in the pieces I’ve seen, he has been more effective from the pocket than on the run, which surprised me a little bit. He’s dangerous. He can move the feet with his chains.

MSU, under Mark Dantonio’s best defenses, survived against dangerous dual-threat QBs such as Shoestring Denard Robinson by “putting a fence” around him, choosing to rush him with discipline, make him throw from the pocket, don’t let him out.

King is fast, but not quite as fast as Robinson. King throws the ball a bit better from the pocket than Robinson.

That was a different era for Michigan State. Michigan State had better defensive ends back then, a more seasoned and trustworthy secondary, and of course a different coaching staff.

But Harlon Barnett was part of the Michigan State coaching staff in those days. He knew what I was referring to when I asked him this week if Michigan State could deploy the same mindset in this game, and he indicated that that will very much be the mindset.

“You want to have eyes on the guy,” Barnett said. “You can’t have too many times when you’re running with guys and you don’t have eyes on them. If you have eyes on him and everybody is able to leverage the ball or cup the ball and trust their brother on the other side of them, that’s how you limit some of the things that he can do. Sometimes it’s easier said than done but that’s what we’re going to try to do.”

Michigan State will have a better chance to do this if Drew Beesley and Drew Jordan return after missing last week’s game. Michigan State coaches told the Big Ten Network broadcast crew that those players were out due to medical reasons. Their availability for this game is an unknown. And if they are back, what percentage of their normal selves will they be? Beesley and Jordan are not standout players, although Beesley was honorable mention All-Big Ten last year. But they are important players, with the capability of delivering a big play here or there, especially against a Miami offensive line that has had some struggles.

The biggest loss if Beesley and Jordan can’t play is in the area of defensive end depth. Jacub Panasiuk and Jeff Pietrowski were solid in extended work last week at defensive end. Panasiuk is an experienced starter whereas Jordan came off the bench in week one (Jordan and Panasiuk split reps pretty much evenly). The problem for Michigan State last weekend at d-end came when the third-stringers - Michael Fletcher and Jack Camper - became the second-stringer, especially on Camper’s side of the line.

In this game at Miami, against speed and in intense afternoon heat, the need to play reserves is more pronounced than ever. Without Beesley and/or Jordan, MSU’s reserve defensive end picture gets shaky very quickly, as does MSU’s chances of keeping King in a fence.

King is dangerous, but he is somewhat of a known commodity.

Miami’s defensive front is a bigger variable in my opinion. Miami can run and be disruptive in the defensive front, with good depth of their own. Or they can spring leaks due to lack of discipline. It’s up to Miami as to how effective they can be or want to be in this game, and that’s a little dangerous for Michigan State. That’s the variable I will be more eager to see than the King variable.


WILL MIAMI HOST THE GAPS?

Miami has had problems with gap integrity. But Miami is also explosive and capable in the defensive front.

Miami is a one-gapping defensive front. They have had problems with players jumping out of their gap in order to try to make the play in someone else’s gap.

HOWEVER, Miami has rolled up 18 TFLs this year. By comparison Michigan State has had only 12 in a pair of comfortable victories. Michigan State hasn’t been bad on defense, and you’re familiar as a reader in the job MSU’s defense has done and the level of opponent Michigan State has played. Michigan State hasn’t been bad in creating TFLs. 12 isn’t bad.

Now Miami, despite having sprung a lot of leaks on defense, has amassed 18 TFLs. That’s a lot of business in the backfield.

They have big d-tackles who can be disruptive, and rangy-fast edge linemen who close with quickness, and linebackers who converge with quickness.

From what I’ve seen, you don’t want to send run plays east and west against Miami. App State had success with inside run plays. [When I say App State had success, I mean sporadic success. They didn’t steamroll Miami up front. Miami didn’t lose collisions or get manhandled. App State had run game success when Miami left a gap un-hosted. App State’s tailbacks rushed for 146 yards on 33 carries (4.4 per attempt). MSU’s run game is better than App State’s. But will Miami’s intensity and gap discipline be better in this game as well? Key question).

A good coaching staff could get this Miami defensive front to play good, consistent run defense without much of a problem - although it would take a good August camp of coaching and maybe an entire spring. Getting it fix in one week of in-season practice can be kind of hard (but I get back to the example that Miami’s gap integrity wasn’t so bad against Alabama. They just seemed to break away from the teaching of the defense last week on a few occasions, and kind of went rogue. Combine that with terrible miscommunications in pass defense on a couple of scoring plays and you have to wonder about the buy-in. But it’s in their court. It’s Miami’s game to win or lose).

We often hear coaches talk about the importance of players doing their job and trusting that the man next to them is going to do their job. That’s part of the art of defense in this sport. Michigan State coaches tell their players to do their one-eleventh. Team defense has to fit like five fingers into a glove. Miami got away from that type of gap discipline on several occasions last week and it was a major reason why the game was so tight at the end.

Michigan State will present Miami with a varied run blocking scheme, spiced up with the threat of a decent pass game as well as the QB read option keeper threat. Diaz pointed out that it’s uncommon to face a team that can do all three. Michigan State is getting into that realm.

Michigan State unveiled use of guards and tackles pulling in unison last week as part of an expanding counter run game. Alabama had success with these type of counters in game one (of course Alabama has success with everything it does).

I’m not saying MSU’s counter run game is as good as Alabama’s, but Michigan State is capable of presenting Miami with a some well-oiled counter run plays which bring back side (or front side) pullers, which ADDS GAPS to the defensive equation.

Miami is already a little flaky when it comes to hosting all of the gaps up front. Add some good counter gap run schemes with extra gaps being added to the play side, and it will be a challenge for Miami to keep those gaps hosted, down-in and down-out.

Add the fact that MSU’s o-line has been decently physical and well-organized this year, and that’s a plus for Michigan State. The heat will be a problem, but Michigan State has been playing nine offensive linemen. That helps.

Add the fact that Kenneth Walker III’s top attributes are his vision and ability to find daylight when an opponent makes a gap error and his quick cutting ability to get to that daylight in an instant, his burst to get there, and then the fact that he’s a big, strong horse who is hard to bring down, and in terms of pure football theory, the Spartans seem to have a strong direct matchup with a Miami weakness in this area.

Miami tackled poorly against Alabama. Maybe that’s because Alabama has some horses who are hard to bring down. Kenneth Walker III isn’t quite Earl Campbell, but he’s not easy to tackle.


GUESS THE GAMEPLAN

With Miami having had problems with pass defense communication last week, I would expect Miami to decrease its material on defense this week and play more straight man-to-man and more straight, bailing two-deep and cover-three zone. Fewer pre-snap adjustments and “automatics,” fewer disguises. I would expect Miami’s response to last week’s errors to be more basic on defense this week.

******

Miami had some pass defense errors against Bama, too. Miami had to coverage busts on the opening drive of the game. One was on a deep skinny post. Miami didn’t get a reroute at the LB level, and the deep middle safety, Bubba Bolden, No. 21, a talented guy, just didn’t react in time and got beat deep. Talented guy, just a little sleepy or perhaps unsure of how the assignments would be filtered out as Bama’s route combination progressed.

The other bust was again in cover-three zone, this time with a fire zone (or zone blitz) taking place in the front seven. Miami allowed Bama’s top receiver to once again get behind the coverage due to a bust.

Miami’s pass defense, although not effective, was at least more on the same page for most of the rest of the night. The opening drive of the first game, I’ll kind of give them a mulligan for that one. But stil, it’s Miami. Mistakes have been common for them so far.

Michigan State QB Payton Thorne has done a good of reading coverages and finding weaknesses this year - albeit against weak defenses of Northwestern and Youngstown State. Now he Thorne will be faced with more dangerous pass rushers and a more aggressive defense (Miami blitzed on 12 of Alabama’s first 21 pass attempts).

Thorne will face faster defensive backs and more pressure, HOWEVER I would anticipate that the coverages won’t be complicated, for the reasons mentioned above. I think he will be able to read cover-three zone, and find the seam or the comebacks along the sideline; and he will read two-deep zone, and find the digs and sit-downs; and he will read man-to-man, and find the crossers and possibly a test a rocket or two with the deep go route. I don’t expect the reads to be difficult, due to the problem solving Miami is trying to do on defense.

That’s what I EXPECT. That is not a prediction. Those are the primary variables and questions I will be observing:

* Can Miami improve its gap integrity on run defense? Can Michigan State exploit past weaknesses there with a continuation of its running success behind a rejuvenated offensive line and Walker?

* Can Miami avoid the communication errors on pass defense that crept up last weekend?

* Can Michigan State keep a fence around QB King, especially if Beesley and/or Jordan aren’t available?

You’ll discover the truth at the same time that I do.

Secondly, Miami not only has good speed in the front seven (and everywhere), the Hurricanes also one-gap and flow very fast to the ball. They are an extreme fast-flow defense. The obvious counter to try to slow some of this down is counter-boot passing. Fake the run one way, bring the the QB back the other way on a naked bootleg to throw drag routes. I would expect No. 11 Connor Heyward to possibly be a weapon a few times in this type of play, something Michigan State has already shown this year. Our favorite analyst Big Moobie Armstrong says TE Maliq Carr could be ready to provide some noise in this area. Michigan State went to Carr on a bootleg last week. It didn't get loose for a big play, but he's getting established.

Miami's edge rushers are going to get loose for a QB hit or two. Have to make sure it’s not much more than that.

No. 12 at d-end Jahfari Harvey (6-4, 252, Port Saint Lucie, Fla., R-Fr.) is Miami's best pass rusher, according to Diaz. He had 1.5 TFLs last year to go with 5 TFLs and one start.

He often plays as a stand-up DE. He had a good pass rush on one play last week for an apparent sack, but it was negated by a penalty. He got a sack on the very next play on an inside move, good closing speed.

The above are some of the key areas of the matchup that are intriguing.

At the other d-end position, No. 52 Zach McCloud is a senior and a converted linebacker. Very quick. Had a little imp at times last week.


OTHER THINGS TO WATCH


MSU’S PASS DEFENSE

* Michigan State safety Angelo Grose continues to learn at safety. In the meantime, there are some potential problems here for Michigan State.

In the second half of the Youngstown State game, on one particular play, the Penguins deployed their most dangerous receiver as an inside receiver, third from the outside.

Michigan State happened to be in press man-to-man for this play.

That put Grose in press man-to-man against YSU’s most dangerous receiver.

That’s a matchup YSU wanted.

YSU’s WR ran a deep flag route and was open against Grose by a step or more. The QB overthrew him.

Michigan State likes to have the flexibility and multiplicity to be able to play press man-to-man across the board at times, even with safeties. Michigan State plays it that way every once in awhile, although Michigan State doesn’t quite have the skill and speed to do it. Grose could achieve that ability some day, but right now he’s not quite there. On the deep play I just mentioned, Grose’s hips and reaction time were a little slow. He’s a former cornerback, so I think he has better hips than he showed on that play. But if Michigan State is going to continue to play that way, No. 15 will become an occasional target.

Everyone like Grose. I like Grose. But there’s a learning curve taking place, a process. Michigan State allowed a deep ball to Kalon Gervin’s side against Northwestern because Grose didn’t get enough depth over the top to help. He read it right and arrived on time, but his aim of depth was off.

“Got to get more depth on that one,” Barnett confirmed with me. “That’s going to come with experience. The more he does it, the better he’ll get at it, and he should end up being a really, really good player for us back there.”

On YSU’s 26-yard TD run in the second half, Grose scraped aggressively toward the play, but didn’t get the tackle. He wasn’t the main problem on the play. Camper was bulldozed off the line of scrimmage while trying to two-gap. He was sled-blocked into the linebacker, which left Michigan State soft at the point of attack and eliminated linebacker pursuit to the alley. Meanwhile, Gervin - who has been good in run defense most of the year - came in too thin on that play. The play was to his side. He didn’t leverage the ball from outside in, and let it get outside. If he leveraged it outside-in, Grose would have had a better chance to save the play and make the tackle.

That being said, Grose was more aggressive to the ball on that play than the coaches wanted. That’s part of the learning process.

“We have to slow him down a little bit because he is an aggressive football player,” Barnett said “He’s trying to learn how to let the game come to him. He understands that he’s still growing in it and he’ll be fine.”

Michigan State hasn’t played perfect football this year, obviously. Grose has a bright future and he’s making progress at a new position. But the fact remains that No. 15 will be on Miami’s hit list to test and try to exploit.



MIAMI PASS THREATS

* Miami told ABC’s commentators that they planned to go deep to WR No. 11 Charleston Rambo (6-1, 185, Jr.) against Alabama early and often. However, Miami didn’t try it for the first time until the last minute of the first half when Rambo got a favorable matchup against a back-up safety while aligning Rambo as an interior receiver. Rambo went deep and drew pass interference. Miami will occasionally try to get the same matchup against an Michigan State safety by putting Rambo in the interior.

Can Michigan State flip-flop it and put a CB against No. 11 in the interior and bump Grose out to play press against a wider and theoretically less-dangerous WR? Yes, but the problem is that Miami’s other receivers (No. 5 Key’Shawn Smith, No. 7 Xavier Restrepo and No. 3 Mike Harley) are dangerous too. These three guys aren't big receivers, and they aren't long on experience.

* Restrepo (No. 7) had a great 29-yard TD catch against Alabama as a slot WR vs press. Got away with a little bit of a push-off.

Restropo (5-10, 195, Fr., Coconut Creek, Fla.) drew pass interference on a deep go route against Alabama in the third quarter.

* Smith (No. 5) drew pass interference on a deep shot in the second quarter last week. He had a great diving cath for 36 yards vs good press coverage last week.

* Smith (6-1, 188, Fr., San Diego) caught a slant on a third-and-eght in the first quarter against Alabama. He was the primary receiver in that third-down situation.

* Smith a nice 15-yard catch on a dig route on fourth-and-long late in the first half against Alabama. Caught it in a crowd. Nice pass from King. Out of a bunch formation. No. 5 Smith seems to have been the first guy King looks to in long-yardage passing situations in the first two games.

* Harley (No. 3) had more than 700 yards receiving last year and is a captain. Harley (5-11, 182, Sr., Fort Lauderdale) was a little banged up against Alabama, not sure what the injury was. He had two dropped passes in the same possession against App State, including a third-and-six slant in the red zone. Ouch. But his history is good.

Bottom line, if and when Michigan State goes press man-to-man with more than two DBs, Miami can attack No. 15 (Grose) with any of these guys.

But I think Michigan State is going to play less man-to-man in this game than in others so that they can keep more eyes on King with zone.

* Miami tight end Will Mallory (6-5, 245, Jr., Jacksonville, Fla.) is above average. He had 22 catches for 329 yards last year with four TDs and ranked fifth on the team in receptions.

This year he's been kind of quiet with five catches on the season with a long of 9 yards.

Mallory, No. 85, is a big target with long arms and runs well.

* Caught a TD in their first scrimmage in August on an out route in the red zone

- Dropped a crossing route on third down to end Miami’s first drive last week.

* Only 2 catches vs Alabama.

* Functional blocker but not great in that area from what I've seen.

+ Got a short out for a first down thanks to a crack pick play on the second play of the game vs Alabama.


THE CORNERBACK SITUATION

Kalon Gervin has been pretty good this year as a starting cornerback. The deep pass allowed against Northwestern wasn’t on him. He has improved as a tackler and seems to have improved his speed. I’m not ready to say he is a plus player, but he will get tested in this game and we will learn more about him after four quarters in Miami.

At the other cornerback position, Ronald Williams Jr. started against Northwestern. Williams, a transfer from Alabama, gave up a deep ball out of press coverage. Williams attempted an off-hand jam on that play but didn’t seem to get enough contact and then stumbled as the WR seemed to surprise him with his burst (the WR being that transfer from Kansas who is pretty good).

“Ronald played okay in the first week and we thought he could play and he thought he could play better,” Barnett said. “He wasn’t happy with his performance, and he worked hard at it last week and when he got in the game last week he did a good job and he’s done a good job this week as well.”

Chester Kimbrough started in place of Williams against Youngstown State.

“As far as Chester, he got in last week, showing what he can do,” Barnett said. “He knows what we want him to be able to do and he’s showing that he can do it.”

Kimbrough played 43 snaps last week and Williams played 38.

“It’s a good battle going on,” Barnett said. “There’s a standard that we are going to hold those guys to and they understand that. They’re starting to apply it and now competition is really real, and best players play.”

Bottom line: Kimbrough and Williams are two capable cornerbacks, both hungry to show they can start and star at this level. They come from power SEC programs but are still getting used to starting jobs. There’s a chance they could improve steadily as the season evolves, starting now. They will be hungry for this matchup, feeling at home back in the deep south. But are they ready for what Miami will throw at them? They might give up a play or two but I don’t see Michigan State CBs vs Miami WRs being a 60-minute problem. They’ll hit some. Michigan State needs to limit the damage and I think Michigan State is capable of doing so.

On a hot day, Michigan State will need to play three or four cornerbacks. Michigan State was wise to get Kimbrough and Chuck Brantley into the game last week. Brantley is a true freshman from Venice, Fla. He will be needed to pitch some relief innings for Gervin, and Brantley will also be eager to do so back in his home state.

With the heat, and Miami’s use of uptempo offense, it was imperative to get Kimbrough and Brantley established last week. Brantley played 34 snaps last week. Will that pay dividends this week? It should help keep Michigan State fresh at the position. That doesn’t guarantee success, but it helps.


MSU RUN DEFENSE VS MIAMI RUN GAME

We’ve looked at key components of all the other matchups, but most coaches will tell you that the key to winning any game is stopping the run or establishing the run.

MSU’s run defense has been inconsistent.

Northwestern RBs gained 114 yards on 21 attempts (5.4 per carry). 49 of those yards came on the first play of the second half.

On that play, no one for Michigan State got bulldozed. Michigan State just had three defenders focused on a two-man bubble pass threat to the field. Michigan State walked nickel back Michael Dowell out there to help the CB and safety keep an eye on the two WRs to the field.

That’s one of the biggest differences between MSU’s current defensive mindset and the Dantonio regime.

Michigan State wouldn’t have had Dowell out there putting 3 defenders over 2 WRs to the field. He would have been a linebacker, and in tighter to the box to take away the run first. (And Northwestern would have thrown to the field versus the softer coverage and done it all day and frustrated Michigan State fans with the cat-and-mouse pass. You’ve seen Northwestern do that before).

So it’s a game of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Michigan State left the ground defense on thinner ice on that place by walking the nickel man out to the two-WR side of the field.

From there, Northwestern had a nice little lead-blocker H-back insert at the B-gap. He put a good isolation block on inside linebacker Quavaris Crouch.

Crouch hit-and-shed the block from outside-in. That’s okay, but safety Xavier Henderson was coming down to support the run defense and also was outside-in. Those two ended up basically in the same gap.

Should Crouch have shed that thing from inside-out? Probably not. Michigan State usually wants to leverage things from outside in.

Did Henderson come down too thin and read the thing wrong? Or was he unsure how his new teammate Crouch was going to defend it? Could have been either or both. Henderson ended up being unable to make the tackle, by a half step.

Dowell tried to pursue the alley from the field and make the tackle before it got out, but the umpire got in his way and the RB was gone. (Gervin chased it down to make the tackle).

Long story short: Michigan State held Northwestern tailbacks to 3.2 yards per carry on all other carries that night. One little one gets out and it can change the game. Miami has better speed and game-breaking ability at RB than Northwestern. Miami RB Cam’Ron Harris is averaging 4.3 yards per carry and has 128 yards on the season.

Harris (5-10, 210, Jr., Opa-Locka, Fla.) started 10 games last year and rushed for 643 yards (5.1 per carry) and 10 rushing TDs. He had 18 catches for 131 yards last year

Harris is pretty good. Not great, behind an enigmatic offensive line. Harris (No. 23) rushed for 91 yards on 18 carries against App State with a long of 19.


His back-up RB, Donald Chaney Jr.) (5-10, 208) was lost for the season to an ACL injury last week. They will miss him. Chaney had a short TD last week and a good, tough 26-yard run on a zone read carry last week.

Miami’s offensive line was criticized last year. They had trouble against Alabama (no shame there, join the club).

The Miami o-line didn’t look bad to me last week. Miami rushed for 175 yards. King had 79 of those. As a runner, King got loose a few times on scramble keepers. He had 19 carries on the night, with more than 10 of them being zone read keepers or designed keepers - he wasn’t as effective on those. In fact, the crowd booed midway through the second half on one occasion after a designed keeper on first down and then a zone read keeper on second down went nowhere.

Miami’s run game is decent, not great. MSU’s run defense has been suspect.

Last week, YSU rushed for 167 yards against Michigan State, with the QB doing 69 yards of tough damage on 18 carries. The YSU QB was effective with third-down, chain-moving keepers.

YSU’s dangerous little RB, McLaughlin, had only 34 yards on 13 carries. I was correct in saying that Michigan State would be able to bottle him up but Michigan State was not nearly as dominant in the defensive line against a mediocre YSU o-line as I expected. The lack of Beesley, Jordan and DT Jalen Hunt had something to do with that (Hunt played a couple of snaps but then had to sit for a second straight week).

So we’re still learning about MSU’s run defense and personnel in the front seven.

Bottom line: I don’t think Miami’s run game is good enough to put a huge dent in this game and I don’t think MSU’s run defense is good enough or bad enough to be a major bellwether in this game.

That being said, ability to stop the run or establish the run is always a key factor in a game. I’m just not sensing that either side will tilt the scales in this part of the matchup.


MIAMI STYLE OF PLAY ON OFFENSE

They do a lot of what Michigan State does, but with a QB with livelier legs.

You’ll see the pistol formation, zone read option and RPOs. You’ll see the diamond formation out of the pistol.

Michigan State pulls linemen with counters more often than Miami.

Miami will flood the boundary with three receivers more than Michigan State has shown.

Miami will occasionally go with quads (four receivers to one side).

Other than that, these two teams play a similar style of offensive football.

Miami will use uptempo more often than Michigan State.

SPECIAL TEAMS NOTE

Miami's punter, 26-year-old Australian Lou Hedley, set an FBS all-time record in net punting last year at 44.9 yards. He does the rugby punt and gives gunners time to get down the field. Miami has great speed in its coverage units and this part of their outfit is tied pretty well together.

Xavier Restrepo, mentioned earlier as a WR, is a good punt returner.

ADD IT ALL UP

It’s a race. Who is going to improve first? Will Michigan State keep making strides on defense, with Crouch and Grose gaining a footing as they learn? Will Beesley and Jordan return to bolster a questionable defensive end picture? Is the combination of Kimbrough and Williams ready to be an impact tag team at the left cornerback position? Is Brantley ready to provide reliable relief for Gervin? Is Gervin indeed on an upward trajectory as a player? Is Hunt healthy and ready to make an impact for the first time since the Northwestern game of LAST year? At that time, Michigan State d-coordinator Scottie Hazelton considered Hunt one of the three best defensive players on the team. He went out in that game and missed the rest of the year, and then went out with a lower body injury against Northwestern and played only two snaps last week. He’s doing what he can do, but in a game like this, Michigan State could use some heroes.

As for the rest of the race, is Thorne ready to go on the road, in the heat, against the fastest athletes he’s ever played against, and remain the same calm, precise thrower he’s been thus far this year? At some point in his career, Thorne will become that guy. Is he ready to do it NOW? The race is on.

As for the rest of the race, is the Michigan State o-line ready to show that it can get the job done against foes that are faster and more aggressive than what they faced in the first two weeks? MSU’s o-line is deep and experienced. They’ve played against monsters in the past. This Miami defensive front isn’t great. They have some excellent individuals, but it’s not an overly fearsome group. But they are fast and aggressive. MSU’s o-line is poised, mature and eager to live up to a standard that it failed to set for itself in the past two or three years with many of these guys having been part of those disappointments.

They helped pave the way for Walker to rush for 264 yards against Northwestern. They saw App State have some success against a defensive front that lacked gap integrity on that night. The Michigan State o-line is hungry to show it is ahead of the pace in this race. But we need to see it to believe it.

As for the rest of the race, can Diaz get his defensive front to play core principles, and host gaps with discipline rather than jumping out of responsibilities to play hero ball? If they don’t get that fixed, if Miami shows the same propensity to make gap errors and coverage busts, the Hurricanes will have a hard, hard time winning this game.

Pundits and experts try to find matchups that will tilt the scales in games like this. Coaches believe that most games come down to five or six pivotal plays. Could be a kickoff return for a TD (like App State had against Miami last week), could be a pass deflection resulting in an interception at the 5-yard line and a short field for a TD drive (like Miami had last week against App State), could be a deep pass that gets loose against Michigan State to negate many positive downs for the Spartans that didn’t end up in points. Or it could be a blocked punt, like the one Michigan State allowed last week, or a punt return for a TD, like Michigan State allowed on two occasions last year. The race includes Michigan State’s need to prove it doesn’t have a systemic problem in the punt game.

I suspect that’s what this game will come down to: five or six loose or explosive plays that negate a pretty even struggle at the line of scrimmage, with Thorne and King going back and forth making a fair amount of plays. As far as QB mistakes, I see either team with an advantage or disadvantage in that area at this time. King has much more experience, but I think both QBs are somewhat equal in terms of avoiding major mistakes.

Slight chance Michigan State establishes control with the run game, gets Walker going, finding daylight, and Miami becomes less gap-disciplined as frustration sets in, and then the play-action pass game undresses Miami the way App State did a couple of times. Can Michigan State get a ball rolling like that and increase its momentum while the afternoon heat becomes more and more of a factor? I kind of doubt it, but it’s possible. I would give Michigan State a better chance of establishing this type of ground-and-pound advantage in a neutral setting with heat not a factor. I just need to see it to believe it in 95-degree temperatures. I would be very, very impressed if Michigan State was able to do that. It’s possible.

Overall, I’ll stick with my 53 percent expectation that Michigan State will do enough at QB and in the run game to protect an edge on the scoreboard. That’s what I’m expecting to see, based on the body of work that each team has shown in two games. That’s what I’m expecting, that’s not a prediction. The bodies of work are still be established and this season is still being written, but Saturday’s chapter is going to be a pivotal one.

Here is my receivers notebook. Good teams and great teams have complete receivers, guys that are willing to spill it so their teammates can make plays. I have been impressed with the buy in and blocking by MSU receivers thus far, and I think it is a healthy barometer of time on the rise. We didn't have a ton of time with Courtney Hawkins, so I couldn't ask every player development question I wanted to. But I think I still managed to learn some things and put together a decent story.

Manny Diaz and linebackers coach Johnathan Patke were both very complimentary of Michigan State's big-play potential on offense.

Like a lot of you, I was not impressed with Miami (FL) against App State. I felt like App State should have won that game. On the otherhand, I do think that getting beat on by Alabama in the season opener made it awfully tough for Miami to get right for their Week 2 match-up. I am not sure what to expect this weekend, but I have a feeling that we'll see a better version of Miami than the one we saw last weekend. How much better is the question.

Didn’t see one started. As Jim would say…”gather round”

Flea flicker for a TD to start the game!