Jim Comparoni did the opponent view discussing MSU for the Purdue Rivals site with Tom Dienhart, who works there now. Tom Dienhart used to write for the Sporting News and was on BTN some.....he's often on East Lansing radio with Jack Ebling on The Drive during a typical season......I would expect him to be a guest this week.
He's a little different Big Ten writer since he used to cover the SEC alot. Anyways, Jim Comparoni did the opponent view this week.....typically Paul Konyndyk does it for rival sites.
purdue.rivals.com
Tom Dienhart • GoldandBlack
GoldandBlack.com, Associate Editor
@TomDienhart1
GoldandBlack.com spoke to Jim Comparoni of SpartanMag.com to get the low-down on Michigan State prior to the Spartans' visit to West Lafayette on Saturday.
GoldandBlack.com: What type of offense should we expect from Michigan State?
Comparoni: Michigan State has a balanced offense. That’s something that some of the opposing coaches talk about. Last year, Michigan State was among the worst in the country at the yards per carry and running offense. They went out in the portal and brought in Kenneth Walker III. He was a pretty good running back at Wake Forest. He’s gotten into that Heisman race a little bit. Then he goes off and gets five touchdowns and about 197 yards rushing against Michigan in front of a lot of national media last week.
We have a good quarterback, sophomore quarterback Payton Thorne, a kid from Naperville, Ill. He’s steady and comes from a lineage of coaches. He has a good, solid arm. He makes his reads, he has a good touch on the deep ball. He’s had his moments where he's been a little inaccurate, like in the Nebraska game.
The offensive has balance with two or three receivers. They will go under center here and there. Not all teams do that these days, but Michigan State will do it a little bit and cracked some long runs against Michigan.
The bye week served Michigan State well. They came out a little bit more physical on both sides of the ball and had some new things in terms of blocking schemes that were run with more precision than the previous game two weeks at Indiana, when Michigan State could not get much going on the run game at all.
With receivers, Jayden Reed is a very good one. He’s a transfer from Western Michigan in his second year. He’s an excellent guy who was among the nation's leaders in all-purpose yardage there for about a month or so. Those numbers have come down a little bit, but he’s good. Jalen Nailor is on the other and has had similar stats to Jayden Reed all year. He hurt his hand or his wrist or something in that Michigan game and missed the last quarter and a half.
So, they got some skilled talent and are pretty solid on offense this year.
GoldandBlack.com: What about the defense?
Comparoni: They’ve given up a lot of numbers, which could be a difficult match against Purdue after watching what they did with Iowa. But a lot of the past yardage they've given up, my thought was that a lot of it was somewhat by design, picking your poison. They gave up a lot of bend-but-don't break offense through the air against Miami early in the year.
So, the defense has been pick your poison. It's been a little bit bend-but-don't break. As they brought a couple of corner transfers around, one is the transfer from Alabama (Ronald Williams), one is a transfer from University of Florida (Chester Kimbrough), another transferred from Louisville (Marqui Lowery Jr.). Those guys pretty much ran off a four-star guy from Detroit (Kalon Gervin) that transferred to Wisconsin last week, entered the portal after they were 4-0. He started last year, lost a job and transferred out. So, these guys have some size.
So, the corners I thought were coming along and they'd given up a lot of yardage. You look at their numbers, they're not very impressive.
Michigan State morphs its defense a little bit as to what they want to take away. Against Michigan, they wanted to take the run and load up the box a little bit. Michigan State is a five-defensive back team, so they have to outnumber you and try to swarm at you like a bunch of bumblebees. They got some physicality, too.
Michigan put up some big numbers through the air. What Michigan State did was they stopped the run in the red zone. Michigan's just been manhandling people with the run game. But Michigan State made it hard for Michigan to run it in the red zone. For Michigan to just surrender and say we're not running the ball anymore, I did not see that coming. I thought that was a key to win the game.
Michigan State stopped the run against Michigan but gave up a lot of numbers through the air but that was the poison they picked on that particular day.
So, this team cannot beat you in defense everywhere. They just have to move the pegs around the pegboard and try to take away what they think you're good at.
He's a little different Big Ten writer since he used to cover the SEC alot. Anyways, Jim Comparoni did the opponent view this week.....typically Paul Konyndyk does it for rival sites.
BoilerUpload - Opponent View: Michigan State
GoldandBlack.com spoke to Jim Comparoni of SpartanMag.com to get the low-down on Michigan State
purdue.rivals.com
Opponent View: Michigan State
Tom Dienhart • GoldandBlack
GoldandBlack.com, Associate Editor
@TomDienhart1
GoldandBlack.com spoke to Jim Comparoni of SpartanMag.com to get the low-down on Michigan State prior to the Spartans' visit to West Lafayette on Saturday.
GoldandBlack.com: What type of offense should we expect from Michigan State?
Comparoni: Michigan State has a balanced offense. That’s something that some of the opposing coaches talk about. Last year, Michigan State was among the worst in the country at the yards per carry and running offense. They went out in the portal and brought in Kenneth Walker III. He was a pretty good running back at Wake Forest. He’s gotten into that Heisman race a little bit. Then he goes off and gets five touchdowns and about 197 yards rushing against Michigan in front of a lot of national media last week.
We have a good quarterback, sophomore quarterback Payton Thorne, a kid from Naperville, Ill. He’s steady and comes from a lineage of coaches. He has a good, solid arm. He makes his reads, he has a good touch on the deep ball. He’s had his moments where he's been a little inaccurate, like in the Nebraska game.
The offensive has balance with two or three receivers. They will go under center here and there. Not all teams do that these days, but Michigan State will do it a little bit and cracked some long runs against Michigan.
The bye week served Michigan State well. They came out a little bit more physical on both sides of the ball and had some new things in terms of blocking schemes that were run with more precision than the previous game two weeks at Indiana, when Michigan State could not get much going on the run game at all.
With receivers, Jayden Reed is a very good one. He’s a transfer from Western Michigan in his second year. He’s an excellent guy who was among the nation's leaders in all-purpose yardage there for about a month or so. Those numbers have come down a little bit, but he’s good. Jalen Nailor is on the other and has had similar stats to Jayden Reed all year. He hurt his hand or his wrist or something in that Michigan game and missed the last quarter and a half.
So, they got some skilled talent and are pretty solid on offense this year.
GoldandBlack.com: What about the defense?
Comparoni: They’ve given up a lot of numbers, which could be a difficult match against Purdue after watching what they did with Iowa. But a lot of the past yardage they've given up, my thought was that a lot of it was somewhat by design, picking your poison. They gave up a lot of bend-but-don't break offense through the air against Miami early in the year.
So, the defense has been pick your poison. It's been a little bit bend-but-don't break. As they brought a couple of corner transfers around, one is the transfer from Alabama (Ronald Williams), one is a transfer from University of Florida (Chester Kimbrough), another transferred from Louisville (Marqui Lowery Jr.). Those guys pretty much ran off a four-star guy from Detroit (Kalon Gervin) that transferred to Wisconsin last week, entered the portal after they were 4-0. He started last year, lost a job and transferred out. So, these guys have some size.
So, the corners I thought were coming along and they'd given up a lot of yardage. You look at their numbers, they're not very impressive.
Michigan State morphs its defense a little bit as to what they want to take away. Against Michigan, they wanted to take the run and load up the box a little bit. Michigan State is a five-defensive back team, so they have to outnumber you and try to swarm at you like a bunch of bumblebees. They got some physicality, too.
Michigan put up some big numbers through the air. What Michigan State did was they stopped the run in the red zone. Michigan's just been manhandling people with the run game. But Michigan State made it hard for Michigan to run it in the red zone. For Michigan to just surrender and say we're not running the ball anymore, I did not see that coming. I thought that was a key to win the game.
Michigan State stopped the run against Michigan but gave up a lot of numbers through the air but that was the poison they picked on that particular day.
So, this team cannot beat you in defense everywhere. They just have to move the pegs around the pegboard and try to take away what they think you're good at.
