PRE-SNAP READ: Michigan State vs Akron
By Jim Comparoni
SpartanMag.com.
East Lansing, Mich. - This game is less about whether Akron can stay competitive and more about what things the Zips do that can provide good tests for the Spartans as Michigan State tries to make progress as a team.
Akron has a couple of things that will test Michigan State, but not enough to do major damage on the scoreboard.
In comparing Akron to other mid-majors Michigan State has played in recent years, I would say Western Michigan is two-and-a-half to three touchdowns better than Akron.
Akron isn’t nearly as tricky or dangerous as Western Kentucky was last year. Akron is closer to the Youngstown State team which Michigan State beat 42-14 last year. YSU ended up going 3-7 last season and really had no business remaining within 28 points of the Spartans, but somehow they did.
Michigan State scored on the first play of the game against YSU, and led 14-0 seven minutes into the game.
Michigan State led YSU 21-0 early in the second quarter after an 85-yard TD pass to Jayden Reed. But somehow Michigan State outscored YSU only 21-14 for the rest of the game.
That leads into the sermon that Michigan State is preaching this week, especially after last week’s game.
Mel Tucker and the Michigan State coaches are stressing the importance of having a killer instinct, keeping a foot on the throat and delivering the knockout blow.
Last week, Michigan State led Western Michigan 21-3 in the first half, but somehow WMU had the ball, down by 8, in the fourth quarter.
Forget the opponent, forget the numbers on the scoreboard, Tucker is harping on the importance of every player winning every play to the best of their ability, regardless of the score.
For that reason, and reasons of athletic superiority, Michigan State should be able to get into the high 30s in this game and keep Akron to 10 or less, and keep pouring it on. I rarely talk about point spreads, but if Michigan State can’t cover the spread against Akron, then Michigan State is going to have a very hard time beating Washington, Minnesota and Wisconsin in the coming weeks.
I hear Michigan State is favored by 34.5. I would give Michigan State more than 60 percent chance of covering that. But I nearly guaranteed the same thing vs Youngstown last year, but a bad YSU team managed to lose by only 28.
Pause. Tucker is ticked off about last week's game. Notch it up to 62 percent chance that Michigan State wins by more than 34.
WHAT DOES AKRON DO WELL?
The one thing that makes Akron dangerous, every few snaps, is their ability to throw deep. QB, D.J. Irons has an excellent arm, a tight laser spiral and an easy release.
He’s inaccurate with intermediate stuff. But he throws the deep ball well and has a couple of receivers who can get open, for a shot or two.
Akron shouldn’t be able to drive consistently. But they can test Michigan State with some deep shots, and Michigan State needs some deep shot tests, especially at safety.
And I don't just mean deep posts to the middle or deep shots along the sideline. Also mean the deep 25-yard out. Michigan State needs some work there, and Irons will give them some work. Michigan State needs the work prior to the Washington game against Michael Pennix, who looked quite good last week. He's going to be a problem.
Akron didn’t throw deep a ton last week in a 30-23 overtime victory over FCS opponent St. Francis, which I think is in Philadelphia but after visiting the St. Francis web site a number of times, I’m still not sure where it's located (pet peeve of mine, going to private school web sites, and even some public schools, whether it’s a high school or a college, and having no clue about the actual location of said school, whether it be the town, the state or even region of the country.)
Anyway, Akron connected on three deep passes in the second half of that game and probably should have went deep more often. I suspect they will try to go deep often and early against Michigan State because, well, why not? Puncher's chance.
Akron first-year head coach is Joe Moorhead. You might remember him as the guy who saved Penn State's season in 2016. That year, he changed his team's offense at mid-season when they just started slinging everything deep with sophomore QB Trace McSorley.
Michigan State was terrible that year, going 3-9, with leadership and political/cultural differences among the problems.
The coaching staffs of Michigan State and Penn State had a pretty good feud going at the time. Next to Harbaugh, Mike Hart and Wolverine ilk, MSU's staff probably disliked Penn State's the most.
There were hurt feelings on the recruiting trail, and even an argument by staffers outside the stadium elevator at one point on gameday. When Michigan State handed the ball to Jack Allen for a 9-yard touchdown run with a 55-16 lead on senior day, PSU head coach James Franklin didn’t like it.
The next year, with PSU having found mid-season magic with the deep ball, the Nittany Lions threw deep in the final minutes in trying to run up the score against a beleaguered Michigan State team that was 3-8 at the time. Penn State succeeded, by the count of 45-12.
Dantonio didn’t hide from it. He stood out front and glared across the field in the final minutes, poker-faced, as the Nittany Lions capped a Big Ten East regular season title, leading to a Big Ten Championship Game victory, and a tight loss to USC in the Rose Bowl.
Moorhead created a pretty good name for himself that year as Penn State’s offensive coordinator, with McSorley hurling all of those deep shots.
Two months after the loss in 2016, Dantonio mentioned to a hall full of high school coaches at the Michigan high school coaches convention, when talking about football theory, that Penn State surprised teams that year by having route combinations packed with three and four verticals, and very few (sometimes no) crossers or digs.
Most pass defenses account for crossers or digs. But if, time after time, there are no crossers or digs, the deep men can get outnumbered by verticals. That's what PSU did. They out-numbered you deep.
Eventually, a defense can catch onto it and start taking away the deep shots. But Penn State - after beginning the season at 2-2 with losses to Pitt and Michigan - started rolling in 2016, with an offense buoyed by RB Saquon Barkley, deep threat TE Mike Gesecki and all those other deep shot targets.
Moorhead was hailed as a great offensive mind. But basically, he just surprised opponents for a couple of months, and had really good skill players. He hadn't reinvented the wheel. He had just saved the season. And good for him. But the sizzle was temporary.
Dantonio won two of the next three against Penn State.
In 2017, in this space, I wrote that Penn State’s running game was talented, with Barkley, but Moorhead and Franklin were doing Barkley a disservice by deploying a vanilla running game.
The near-entirety of the PSU run game in 2017 consisted of inside zone runs and the QB making zone read decisions off of it.
McSorley was good and Barkley was great. But when PSU ran the zone read, if your defense crashed toward Barkley, McSorley could be forced to pull it out and keep it. He had little gainers here and there, and a couple of heroic big gainers against Ohio State. But eventually, McSorley was going to take hits, which would hurt his ability to run and his ability to throw. He was a little guy.
Meanwhile, their zone run scheme was kind of soft. That’s what I wrote in the Pre-Snap Read prior to MSU’s game against then No. 7-ranked Penn State.
PSU's run offense with the great Saquon Barkley was soft? Yes, that's what I said.
Well, Barkley is and was a great talent. But he had only 63 yards on 14 carries that day against Michigan State. McSorley carried seven times for a net of 2 yards and threw three interceptions. Michigan State scored the upset.
After the game, James Franklin criticized his team’s offensive scheme and said the run game was … too soft and not hard to figure out. Too “finesse-oriented” is how he put it. I agreed.
Moorhead’s genius seemed to be fading. But news never got to Starkvegas, Mississippi. The other MSU, Mississippi State, hired Moorhead as head coach after the 2017 season. I couldn’t believe it.
True, Penn State finished 11-2 in 2017 with that soft indignity to Barkley, including a win over Washington in the Rose Bowl. Penn State scored a lot of points that year. But if anyone at Mississippi State had taken time to look under the hood, they would have passed on Moorhead.
Nothing against Moorhead, but I thought the hire was a bad one from the first time I heard it - not only because his offense had been a house of cards at PSU, but because he wasn’t a good cultural fit in cowbell country.
It’s not very often that I feel smart. But Moorhead made me feel smart prior to and after that game in 2017, and again after his hire and subsequent failure at Mississippi State.
Actually, he did better at Mississippi State than I expected, going 8-5 and 6-7 in two seasons, with two bowl appearances.
He was hired at Oregon to be offensive coordinator and QBs coach for the 2020 and ’21 seasons. Again, I wasn’t impressed with Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal’s decision to hire Moorhead. HOWEVER, Moorhead did a decent job with the Ducks. They went 4-3 in 2020 and then 10-3 last year, including a 35-28 victory at Ohio State during which the Duck offense curb-stomped the worst defensive coordinator hire in recent Ohio State history, Kerry Coombs (another failure I called 18 months ahead of time).
I don’t rip coordinator hires very often. And I'm not smart, I promise. But those two were kind of easy targets.
Anyway, when Miami hired Cristobal away from Oregon, Moorhead didn’t go with him to Coral Gables. Instead, Cristobal hired (sigh) … Josh “Speed in Space” Gattis.
I could go on.
WHERE AKRON CAN TEST MICHIGAN STATE:
Here’s the takeaway in terms of what it means for Saturday’s game: If 2016 is any lesson, Moorhead has a history of pulling the pin and throwing deep. We didn’t see it from Akron a lot in his debut as the Zips head coach last week, HOWEVER when the Zips did go deep, they had success and turned the game aound. I suspect they will go deep earlier and more often in this game.
Here’s the rub: Akron’s pass protection is bad.
Their quarterback, D.J. Irons, has a very good arm. He can go sling it deep. The receivers are pretty good, including Pitt transfer Shocky Jacques-Louis (6-0, 180, Sr.).
That's where the game within the game COULD get interesting with nice competition: Irons' arm (if he has time) throwing some decent receivers against an Michigan State secondary that is still trying to prove itself.
* Irons found Jacque-Louis for a 41-yard TD pass in the third quarter last week. Strong arm. That throw happened to be accurate (he will get inaccurate with intermediate stuff). But he was accurate with the deep ball on that one. And he has the arm strength to get it there on a line.
On the 41-yard TD, St. Francis was in cover-two zone. Jacques-Louis was aligned tight to the formation and ran a skinny post. The CB re-routed him and then Jacques-Louis was one-on-one with a safety. Jacques-Louis ran right by him.
My question is whether Jacques-Louis would be able to run right by Angelo Grose or Kendell Brooks. The next time I see Brooks turn and run with a deep receiver will be the first time. I can’t remember a time when WMU tested him.
Grose struggled with deep ball judgement last year, but had some good moments last week.
I’m not saying this is a concern for Michigan State in terms of winning or losing this game, but Akron CAN test Michigan State in this area, and it’s an area which needs testing.
Please, Akron. Test Michigan State deep. Michigan State needs the work.
* As for Irons, his big arm also bailed out a second-and-19 situation in overtime, drilling a deep out route for 28 yards from the right hash to the left sideline. He has a gun, and he doesn’t throw moon shots. He gets it there on a line.
Jacques-Louis is a Big Ten level WR.
FINAL ANALYSIS FIRST
At this time last year, I stepped out of character and said Youngstown State should not be within the point spread against Michigan State.
And when it was 21-0 early in the second quarter, I felt good about what I wrote.
But Michigan State took its foot off the gas. Youngstown hung around and lost by only 28.
The difference this year for this situation is what I mentioned earlier about Tucker and his staff’s emphasis on delivering the kill shot, the TKO, having the killer instinct.
Michigan State SHOULD be able to build a comfortable lead on Saturday, like last week, and like last year’s game against Youngstown State. From there, the emphasis on finding a kill shot, theoretically, should kick in, and protect against the chance of a backdoor cover.
This is the most I’ve ever written about betting odds in this space, and I may live to regret it. Please know that I don’t bet. I don’t gamble. I just dont because it’s … too much of a gamble. Over the long term, I don't like my chances.
But this game, for my interest, seems less about whether Michigan State will win or lose, but HOW Michigan State will win, by how much, and whether Akron will provide some tests.
Akron’s pass protection is bad. But it improved in the fourth quarter last week when they changed out their left tackle.
Their running back is decent, a sophomore transfer from Minnesota (Cam Wylie). But the zone blocking scheme lacks, ahem, zip.
Michigan State should be able to stop the run, make Akron one-dimensional, and then riddle the pocket with a Spartan pass rush which was better than anyone expected last week.
Akron’s offensive line isn’t nearly as good as Western Michigan’s.
So, WHEN Akron attempts the deep shot, will quarterback D.J. Irons have time to throw?
He has good mobility, but I didn’t see Akron attempt any designed roll out passes. I would think they should have some roll out deep shots in the play book this week. That might give them a chance to connect a couple of times.
Akron's defense isn’t as good as Western Michigan’s. Their inside linebacker is pretty good, a second-team All-MAC guy.
They have former Michigan player Jaylen Kelly-Powell at safety. But their other safety is very shaky. And when Kelly-Powell sits (he sat for 21 snaps last week), then both safeties are extremely shaky.
Akron has a couple of decent defensive ends, including a Wyoming transfer and a Syracuse transfer from Detroit Cass Tech (Zach Morton), whom I had in the Top 25 on the 25th as a sleeper (and I ended up being kind of wrong about him).
Meanwhile, Payton Thorne will be driven to compete against himself and be much sharper than he was a week ago.
St. Francis rushed for 189 against Akron last week. I think Jalen Berger AND Jarek Broussard have a good chance to each be over 100 yards rushing in this game. It will be interesting to see who is MSU's No. 3 running back. And I think we will see Noah Kim get playing time in the fourth quarter.
Akron played press coverage on the corners a fair amount last week. Maybe they will dial that back against Michigan State. But if and when they play press, Michigan State will check to deep shots to Jayden Reed and/or Keon Coleman, and succeed.
Basically, Moorhead, as a first year coach of a floundering program, has a losing hand right now. He has no pressure on him. His players will play loose. The QB has ability. He has some good WRs, and a decent TE, and the RB isn’t bad. But at the line of scrimmage, when it comes to blocking and tackling, getting off of blocks and pursuing, this shouldn’t be competitive for very long.
I look for Michigan State to go with quick tempo, and increase the number of possessions in this game, which should increase MSU’s chances of winning comfortably. Also, quick tempo would make Akron go to second stringers on defense earlier and often, which also plays into MSU’s hands, as the talent dropoff is significant.
THE 411 ON AKRON
Akron went 2-10 last year. They lost 60-10 at Auburn and 45-24 to Temple.
They fired head coach Tom Arth last year. He was 3-24 at Akron after taking over for Terry Bowden, who left for Louisana Monroe.
It’s a tough situation for Moorhead. But he’s working on it. He brought in 25 players from the transfer portal, plus 20 recruits. That’s 45 new faces. He changed the helmet with a new “A” logo.
FORMER SPARTANS FOR AKRON
Speaking of second-stringers, former Michigan State linebacker Jeslord Boateng played 20 snaps as a second-string inside linebacker last week for Akron.
9 LB JESLORD BOATENG (6-1, 235, R-Jr., Dublin, Ohio, Coffman High)
He was a three-star recruit, ranked No. 31 in Ohio by Rivals.com.
He looks okay getting off the bus and jogging around in warm-ups. His straight-line speed is okay. But his change of direction isn’t great, and I wonder about his focus.
* He started 10 games last year and led Akron in tackles (80) and tackles for loss (4.5). He ranked No. 14 in the MAC in tackles per game last year.
I’m not sure why his role was reduced last weekend. But he managed to make three tackles.
* At Michigan State he played 11 games as a redshirt freshman in 2019, and played in all seven games, primarily on special teams, during the COVID shortened season of 2020.
He was one of 17 scholarship players who entered the transfer portal during Mel Tucker’s first 12 months as head coach.
Boateng came to Michigan State ranked the No. 31 player in Ohio. LBs coach Mike Tressel said good things about him initially, but when we finally saw him on the field for nine snaps in the Pinstripe Bowl, he looked stiff. Didn’t look good. I watched him closely in that game because he represented part of the hope and future at the LB position, but it didn’t look promising.
MSU’s second-string linebackers when Tucker took over in 2020 were not good: Marcel Lewis, Luke Fulton and Boateng. The projected starters, if Michigan State had run a 4-3 in 2020, were Noah Harvey, Antjuan Simmons and Chase Kline. Harvey proved to be functional, but Simmons was the only impact player of the six.
Fulton transferred to Kentucky and only played on special teams last year. Kline played a few games last year for MSU in a bit role, entered the portal, and transferred to Eastern Michigan.
As for Boateng, he mainly plays as one of two inside linebackers in a base 3-4 defense.
Three plays from Boateng caught my eye last week:
* He came on a blitz from the slot LB position last week, and moved pretty well, hit the QB (pass was complete).
- He made a mistake in goal line defense. Everyone was one-gapping, but he two-gapped right into the TE’s chest rather than hosting his gap. Ball carrier went right through the gap that looked like the one he was supposed to host. 1-yard TD, Akron trailed 10-3.
- Looked very stiff in pass defense in the flat area, losing leverage, getting juked and giving up a third-and-15 conversion in the third quarter. I didn’t see him play for the rest of the game.
2 RB/WR ANTHONY WILLIAMS (6-1 ,185, R-Soph.) RB from Chicago/Bolingbrook High)
He is listed as a RB. He played RB last year. But he lined up as a second-string WR last week. He had no catches or targets. He played 12 snaps. If he lined up as a RB, I didn’t notice.
* He rushed for 207 yards last year (3.6 per carry) with one touchdown.
* Played in 12 games for Michigan State in 2019 as a freshman. He rushed for 118 yards and one TD on 38 carries. He had six catches for 77 yards.
He ranked third on the team in rushing in 2019 behind Elijah Collins (988 yards) and Brian Lewerke (363 yards). Williams averaged 3.1 yards per carry.
He had four carries in 2020 while playing behind Jordon Simmons, Connor Heyward, Brandon Wright and Collins, when Collins was healthy.
He entered the transfer portal in November of 2020, midway through Tucker’s first season at Michigan State.
* He was ranked the No. 14 player in Illinois by Rivals.com.
Williams was one of the true freshman whom Dantonio mentioned impressed him right away, early in 2019. But the early impressions and promise didn’t lead to much.
* Tucker had some heart-to-heart sit-downs with players during his first year as head coach. It's not hard to figure out that guys like Boateng and Williams were told that their chances of getting playing time at Michigan State were slim. So you can imagine their motivation factor this week. Whether or not that has any impact on the game, or even some of the play calling, is an interesting side story to watch.
* Other notable transfers: DB Jaylen Kelly-Powell (6-0, 180, R-Sr.,) of Detroit Cass Tech, a transfer from the University of Michigan.
He was a four-star recruit when he committed to Michigan. He was ranked the No. 8 player in Michigan. I, with my big mouth, thought he was barely a Top 15 player in the state. On the rare occasion when I’ve written that Michigan four-star recruits were overrated (Will Campbell, Logan Tuley-Tillman, Jaylen Kelly-Powell), my accuracy rate has been pretty good. That’s not a slight against Kelly-Powell. He can’t help how high he was rated. He is who he is, and he does his best. I respect him.
Kelly-Powell was actually functional at Michigan. Not bad. He played special teams and was a second-string DB.
He’s pretty good at Akron. He gives good effort and tackles well
Last year, he started 11 games and had 73 tackles. He had 16 tackles against Buffalo. He was Academic All-MAC last year and is pursuing his masters is sports sciences/coaching.
AKRON STYLE OF PLAY
They want to play uptempo spread. I’m not sure if that’s a good idea against Michigan State. I mean, you should do what you train to do. But if Akron wants to hang in this game, they need to run the play clock and shorten it, in my opinion. The more times the ball gets snapped, the more chances Michigan State has to deliver kills shots.
KEY PLAYERS TO KNOW
I’m not going to go over every player, but here are some to be aware of:
QB DJ IRONS (6-6, 210 R-Jr., Lawrenceville, Ga./Iowa Central CC)
* Last year: 65 percent completions, 892 yards, 8 TDs, 4 INTs, 474 rush yards.
He’s interesting. He’s okay. He’ll entertain you.
He runs pretty well for a big guy. His arm is strong.
Based on his game last week, I would say his accuracy is substandard in the short and intermediate game. But his 65 pct completion rate from last year is pretty good, and give me reason for pause.
Down-in and down-out, he isn’t great - especially behind his poor pass protection. But he does enough good stuff that if put together a highlight tape and delete the incompletions, you could make him look like Byron Leftwich when he came to Spartan Stadium as Marshall’s quarterback back in 2000.
Irons is kind of an athletic cross between Bobby McAllister and Tony Banks. Decent athlete, not great. A little awkward. Not nearly the passing skill of Banks, but some of the arm strength.
Another comparison would be a watered down version of Tyree Jackson, if you remember the 6-foot-7 QB from the University of Buffalo a couple of years ago (from Muskegon). (NFL free agent cut, then resigned as TE with the Eagles, made one start, tore his ACL is now on injured reserve).
+ Irons can really hose the 15 yard out to the wide side of the field. Nice easy sling on him.
* Goes through progressions. He is not a one-read, duck and chuck guy. He makes reads, whether or not he has time.
- Inaccuracy? He threw behind WR Adams on a slant on an RPO on 3-3 in the first quarter.
Solid player, solid QB. He’ll give Michigan State’s pass defense a good sparring partner.
He’s a different skill set than the WMU QB from a week ago, but I don’t expect him to be quite as sharp with intermediate stuff as the WMU QB.
WR 18 SHOCKY JACQUES-LOUIS (6-0, 180, Sr.)
* Transfer from Pitt
* He started 27 games at Pitt with 82 career catches. Started eight games for Pitt last year. Why did he transfer? No idea.
Interestingly, Akron’s best WR from last year transferred to Pitt. So it’s kind of like they traded wide receivers. Really strange.
Jacque-Louis is good. Last week, I said WMU wide receiver Corey Crooms was good, rising from being their No. 3 a guy a year earlier. Crooms is good. But Jacques-Louis is better.
Solid with intemediate routes, and he has speed to threaten you with the deep ball.
He had eight catches for 122 yards last week.
3 WR DANIEL GEORGE (6-2, 210, R-Sr.)
* Transfer from Penn State.
* Was a four-star recruit from Fort Washington (Md.) Oxon Hill High. Ranked No 238 in the nation.
* He had four catches for 73 yards last week, including a 39-yarder.
* Holds record for longest reception in Penn State history at 95 yards.
+ Early in the game, Akron scripted a middle slip screen to him for about 20 yards.
+ 39-yard catch last week on third-and-18 in the fourth quarter. Irons got it to him from the right hash to outside the numbers to the left, more than 50 yards in the air, on a flip. Tight spiral, low trajectory.
* Moorhead recruited George when Moorhead was at Penn State.
7 WR ALEX ADAMS (6-1, 185, Soph., Osyka, Miss.)
* slot WR. Had two catches last week.
* 16 yard dig.
* Was committed to Mississippi State when Moorhead was head coach at Mississippi State. Ended up signing with LSU.
1 RB CAM WYLIE (6-0, 205, Soph., Las Vegas)
* Transfer from Minnesota.
* 21 carries for 84 yards last week, with a long of 13.
* Decent RB. Nothing scary. He won’t have much daylight in this game.
* Was the second-leading rusher at Minnesota in 2020. Played in three games for Minnesota last year.
* They scripted a shovel pass to him on the opening series last week (negated by holding).
+ Had a 14-yard catch in the red zone in the fourth quarter last week on a nice little flat/slant combination, which is a good man-to-man beater. He caught the flare in the flat and turned it upfield for an easy gain.
TE 25 TRISTIAN BRANK (6-4, 250, Jr., Asheville, NC)
* Was second-team All-MAC last year with 25 catches for 269 yards with three touchdowns.
* Tyler Hunt type.
+ TD last week on an 8-yard play action seam route.
TE TJ BANKS (6-5, 240, R-Jr.)
* Nice catch over the middle, taking a hit to secure it on a dig route for 20 yards.
* Transfer from West Virginia
* Legit TE. Looked pretty good on a dig route then some yards after contact.
* Brank was All-MAC last year, but Banks looks a little more dangerous to me.
OFFENSIVE LINE
This group is a weakness. They allowed 5.2 sacks per game last year, the most in the country. It’s a new coaching staff, but it’s hard to change an o-line overnight.
Akron allowed seven sacks to St. Francis last week. Not good.
The left tackle, No. 77 (Xavier Gray, 6-9, 330, Massillon, Ohio), really struggled. If he is in the starting group during pre-game, I would like to know what the over/under is on Jacoby Windmon sacks.
Gray was replaced by No. 75, Jordan Daniels, in the fourth guard. Daniels (6-5, 310, R-Soph.) was a little bit better.
Who is starting at LT for Akron? That’s one of the first things I’ll be curious about.
(Who’s starting at LT for Michigan State? We’ll get to that in a moment. Spoiler alert: I don’t know).
As for the rest of the o-line, their center isn’t bad. No. 55, 55 ANTHONY WHIGAN (6-4, 325, Sr., transfer from Penn State)
The RG, 76, really struggled against a stunt in OT last week.
It’s just a rough outfit.
AKRON DEFENSE
* They played quite a bit of press man-to-man. Will they do that against Michigan State? They shouldn’t. When they show it, look for Michigan State to go to deep ball automatics.
44 DE VICTOR JONES (6-4, 255, Sr., Sacramento, Calif./Wyoming)
* Transfer from Wyoming
* Long legs and pretty good core and lower body strength.
* QB pressure last week off a spin move and second-effort motor.
* not a nimble change-of-direction guy.
* Decent job getting with vs outside zone and setting the edge. Solid IQ and some physical tools to carry it out.
* Not well-conditioned. Was tired at critical moments in the fourth quarter last week.
* He had 16 tackles last year at Wyoming with a team-high 3.5 sacks.
* He mostly played on the left side. Spencer Brown should be able to keep him quiet.
27 ILB BUBBA ARSLANIAN (5-10, 220, R-Sr., Aurora, Ohio)
* Was second-team All-MAC in 2020. Only played four games last year due to injury.
* Runs okay sideline to sideline, decent with hands to shed blocks. Kind of a thicker Cal Haladay type, but shorter and stockier. Over 250 career tackles. He
Averages 7.5 tackles per game for his career, which ranks No. 13 in the country among active players.
* The CBs are mediocre. The safeties, other than Kelly-Powell, are kind of late all the time.
But one of the safeties, 15, KJ Martin (6-2, 190, Jr.) delivered a couple of nice hits last week and was a Freshman All-America at West Virginia in 2019.
But there was a lot of daylight around the safeties in pass coverage last week.
No. 16, Nate Thompson (6-3, 210, Jr., Sanford, N.C./ Duke transfer) bit on a play action pass last week and gave up a critical deep ball in the fourth quarter last week, for 44 yards. I would look for the return of the flea flicker for Michigan State at some point in this game.
THE LATEST ON MICHIGAN STATE
Brandon Baldwin was a bit of a surprise starter at LT last week. I thought he moved well. He has long arms and good feet. He’s athletic. He’s not as sturdy and strong as they need right now, but his future is promising.
Jarrett Horst came on and was solid, functional, driven. I’m kind of expecting Horst to start this week, OR if he comes off the bench I wouldn’t be surprised if he plays as much or more snaps in comparison to Baldwin.
Michigan State probably needs Horst to be the guy at LT in order for this team to meet its potential. But Michigan State is taking baby steps with him. In the meantime, it’s good to get Baldwin some work and get him acclimated, in case the job becomes Baldwin’s on a full-time basis at some point.
* I’m a Matt Carrick fan. I liked him last year before he got hurt. I thought he was okay against WMU, but not as good as Brian Greene. That looks like a healthy competition going on at right guard.
I watched Greene in a couple of games last year, including Washington State's bowl game against Central Michigan. Greene looked better last week than he did last year, and he said that was going to be the case. He was a little dinged up last year.
But everyone is a little quicker in week one than they are in November. I need to keep that in mind when Broussard, Greene and even Jayden Reed looked quicker to me than they did a year ago.
* Michigan State needs kicker Jack Stone to get some work. A stalled out drive or two at the 30-yard line would not be a bad thing. Michigan State needs to know if the Spartans can depend on him. In the meantime, his competition with Auburn transfer Ben Patton is ongoing.
* I don’t have any health updates on Xavier Henderson. My hunch is that he will be out this week, and at least a little longer. The immobilizer and crutches were concerning last week, but I’ve heard that the prognosis isn’t as bad as originally feared. What that means, I’m not sure.
But Michigan State is going to have to go with Angelo Grose and Kendell Brooks.
Those guys needs some deep field tests in this game because they are going to get major tests through the air next week at Washington. Major.
* Simeon Barrow was excellent in the first half last week, but played only about 10 snaps in the second half last week (contrary to other reports that said he sat out the whole second half).
I went back and looked for any pile-ups or limps from him and I didn’t see any.
Meanwhile, Mel Tucker lamented the fact that Michigan State had some bouts with cramps in that game. Reading between the lines, my educated guess is that Barrow was one of the players battling cramps.
Broadcasters are never supposed to speculate about injuries, but I’m not a broadcaster, so I don’t mind speculating once in awhile. My speculation is that Jayden Reed and Angelo Grose also battled cramps.
* I’ll be looking for Barrow to demolish the interior this week, and for Jacob Slade to bounce back from a pedestrian performance against WMU. If Slade has another quiet game, I’ll be a little less high on this defense.
* Ameer Speed didn’t get tested a lot last week, but I would like to see him lock up with Jacques-Louis a few times and get some work there.
* With Darius Snow out, Aaron Brulé becomes the option for the “big” nickel position if and when Michigan State goes against bigger run personnel. But Akron doesn’t play that. So that portion of Brulé’s role will have to wait for other games.
Meanwhile, I would expect Brulé to get more than the nine snaps he had last week. Michigan State will need Brulé and Ma’a Gaoteote to become part of the rotation. Gaoteote didn’t see the field last week and I don’t think he was in uniform.
I’m anticipating that Cal Haladay and Ben VanSumeren will start at the LB positions. VanSumeren was a surprise last week with his ability to defeat blocks, spill plays and run them down for tackles.
However, I thought he was a beat late on some run plays between the tackles last week. I’d like to see him grow and become more instinctive and decisive at times in run defense between the tackles. He’s a veteran in terms of age but still kind of inexperienced in terms of being an every-down linebacker. Last week was his time as a first-stringer from start to finish in a game. He made some noise. Now, Michigan State needs him to build on that.
ADD IT ALL UP
The entire playbook should be open for Michigan State. Michigan State should have time to throw, and open receivers, and a productive run game, and a highly-focused Thorne.
On defense, Irons will test Michigan State with some occasional deep shots. Michigan State needs the work.
Western Michigan had 182 yards in ground gainers last week. Michigan State needs to tighten those screws this week. Michigan State should be able to keep Akron under 80 yards rushing. If not, then I would be worried about MSU’s defense going forward.
