MSU O-Line Woes Continue
Michigan State Red-shirt freshman Offensive Tackle Skyler Burkland is out for the season after getting his leg rolled up on and broken in the game against ND. If you watched the game you'll probably remember cringing in sympathetic pain when they showed the replay.
Let's all take a moment to reaffirm that we are basically good people at heart and we wouldn't wish that kind of injury to happen to anyone, friend or foe.
Done? Good. Now let's look at the damage:
Burkland... was replaced by junior-college transfer Fou Fonoti. Fonoti is likely to be the full-time replacement for Burkland, even after he had been pushing Dan France for playing time at left tackle. To help the team's depth issues, Dantonio said defensive tackle Micajah Reynolds will be moved back to offense. Reynolds has been moved back and forth between offense and defense throughout his career, and saw plenty of action on defense against Florida Atlantic.
Ifyou're keeping score at home, that's about three notches on the "Position Switch(es) Indicating Approaching Doom" scale in that paragraph alone. It's starting to look the MSU game will look like the Western game on steroids - on any given play Cousins will probably either end up throwing a laser to a frustratingly-open reciever, or getting murderized by a Michigan lineman or blitzer.
September 19th, 2011 at 3:40 PM ^
Bummer for Sparty. I'd rather beat them at full strength anyways
September 19th, 2011 at 5:02 PM ^
They should be fine since I believe everything Lynn Henning says and a team like that should end the season undefeated...
September 19th, 2011 at 7:52 PM ^
Actually, what we are seeing now is "full strength" for Sparty. Last year was a gross aberration. Sparty didn't feel sorry for Michigan when they had Threet-idan at QB, or when they were starting more freshmen than seniors, so I have absolutely no pity or empathy for them as they continue their descent toward the mean.
Do I feel sorry for a young man who was injured? Of course; it doesn't matter what uniform he was wearing. Do I feel the least bit sorry for Sparty as an entity? Absolutely not.
RCMB is about to become my favorite sitcom...
September 19th, 2011 at 3:41 PM ^
for Burkland (no pun intended). Seemed like he was playing decently well before the injury. Now they are moving a DT over though? They are looking mighty exposable on the edges. Do they have any bright spots besides Joel Foreman (sp?) on the line now?
September 19th, 2011 at 3:52 PM ^
If you watched the MSU - ND game it would be hard to call Joel Foreman a bright spot. He was repeatedly bullied by a freshman D-Lineman and was called for at least two holding penalties that I can remember. He did have positive plays, so it's not like he's horrible. Maybe just a bad day.
September 19th, 2011 at 6:52 PM ^
foreman definitely was drawing a lot of attention for all the wrong reasons. he also came off as a thug/bitch. lot of taunting and whining that i saw after the plays.
September 19th, 2011 at 3:41 PM ^
sounds like there about one injury away from doom.
September 19th, 2011 at 3:43 PM ^
I wish him the best and to have a speedy recovery.
September 19th, 2011 at 3:46 PM ^
fuo and micajah are not offensive linemen names
September 19th, 2011 at 4:46 PM ^
I'm going to go ahead and guess that Fuo is a name for a linebacker, and Micajah sounds way to odd to be anything but a kicker/punter. Did I win? What's my prize?
September 19th, 2011 at 5:40 PM ^
You don't see many Omamehs on NFL lines, either...
September 19th, 2011 at 8:16 PM ^
If your name doezn't end in "ski" or "er", you have no hope to make an NFL OL.
September 20th, 2011 at 3:19 AM ^
Jake change his name to Longer?
September 19th, 2011 at 3:46 PM ^
was bad before the injury.
You are correct - their offense will be entirely Cunningham "help me" passes off of Cousins back foot while falling backwards.
September 19th, 2011 at 5:23 PM ^
Cousins is good, and may carve us up but does everyone else notice how afraid he is of contact ? He never stands in there, he is always throwing off his back foot. I don't see him getting drilled that often but he seems extremely worried about getting hit..
September 19th, 2011 at 10:35 PM ^
I would be worried too if I got lit up like he did in the bowl game against Alabama. Im sure he is still feeling those god awful hits he took.
September 19th, 2011 at 3:48 PM ^
At least Sparty now knows what it is like to have doom at one of their position groups.
September 19th, 2011 at 3:51 PM ^
Spartan fans have got to be very concerned about the team's future. Not just with this injury, but with their overall level of talent. As a Michigan fan, I'm not distressed by this but consider:
-their O line is bad and isn't exactly loaded with incoming talent.
-they co-won the B1G and are looking at a likely B1G 5th/6th in 2012 recruiting
-they're losing their top defender
-they're losing their QB
-they're losing their top WR
-they're losing their top TE (although Sims looks like he'll be a good one)
-and, they're now playing a varsity schedule
September 19th, 2011 at 3:54 PM ^
BURN SPARTY, BURN.
September 19th, 2011 at 4:20 PM ^
if a Sparty comes over to this board and sees 'Burn Sparty Burn', he'll actually read it as "Burn one Sparty, Burn one".
September 19th, 2011 at 4:29 PM ^
. . .
September 19th, 2011 at 4:48 PM ^
They'd take the "one" that needs "burning" to be a couch? Methinks Sparty may have other ideas as to the meaning of that phrase....
September 19th, 2011 at 3:56 PM ^
September 19th, 2011 at 10:48 PM ^
I think you're forgetting about the biggest plus. Dantonio is going to develop all these players in NFL level talent by this week
September 19th, 2011 at 3:52 PM ^
How does one pronounce micajah?
September 19th, 2011 at 4:07 PM ^
you run right through it
September 19th, 2011 at 5:59 PM ^
like "turn-stile"
alternate pronunciation
"mat-a-dor"
September 19th, 2011 at 3:53 PM ^
Game still is gonna scare me, as their D still looks solid giving up less than 300 yards to ND.
If denard doesn't pick up his passing game we could be in big trouble. Considering everyone is able to run on us right now
September 19th, 2011 at 4:17 PM ^
I wasn't all that impressed with their D against ND. Their defensive numbers are deflated by the fact that ND lost two offensive possessions due to special teams plays (the kickoff TD and the muffed fumble) and also that ND made no effort to score in the fourth quarter. In the first three quarters, ND did what it wanted offensively.
September 19th, 2011 at 4:20 PM ^
that's true, i was quite drunk while watching and laughin at multiple times. The games upcoming should be a better indication of both our teams. Ill sure we will have a good idea how they stand as we get closer to the game
September 19th, 2011 at 3:56 PM ^
Hope it heals quickly and he has a full recovery. Never like to see a guy go down.
September 19th, 2011 at 3:56 PM ^
It took Valenti 40 minutes to bring up Michigan and change the MSU-ND talk to Michigan....surprised it took him that long
September 19th, 2011 at 4:01 PM ^
"It's starting to look the MSU game will look like the Western game on steroids - on any given play Cousins will probably either end up throwing a laser to a frustratingly-open reciever, or getting murderized by a Michigan lineman or blitzer."
Seems like a perfect simile. Completely agree.
September 19th, 2011 at 4:33 PM ^
and K Martin is dangerous if inconsistent. Otherwise, MSU is indeed starting to look like Western.
September 19th, 2011 at 4:08 PM ^
We have major problems!
Their OL is far worse than any position we have.
September 19th, 2011 at 4:15 PM ^
Hopefully the kid makes a full recovery. Can't say I'm as optimistic about their team's chances though. Even last year, I really wasn't that much of a believer.
I think Cousins is an excellent player who deserves the kudos, Worthy is good (not nearly as much so as he thinks he is), but I'm not seeing that much else. Maybe some production from Gholston following the incessant hype ?
September 19th, 2011 at 4:19 PM ^
B.J. Cunningham is legit. The rest of the WR corps hasn't lived up to the hype, though.
September 19th, 2011 at 8:03 PM ^
I thought of that after I posted, but was too much of a slug to make an edit. When I was watching MSU-ND, I thought he looked quite good. Not Floyd good, but still very good.
September 19th, 2011 at 6:10 PM ^
September 19th, 2011 at 7:17 PM ^
I'm sure you meant to type "Gholston is already one of the best LB's..." because St. Mark of EL promised Gholston that he would be used as a LB (Gholston's preferred position) in college.
September 19th, 2011 at 10:33 PM ^
I loled' at that comment.. I thought it was wierd when this was his first year starting full time, yet he is one of the top DE in the conference?
September 19th, 2011 at 4:19 PM ^
Wolverines have been surprisingly injury-free thru the first 25% of the season - hope it holds up. Can't think of anyone we've had go down yet.
GO BLUE
September 19th, 2011 at 4:42 PM ^
Cam Gordon hasn't been able to hit the field yet and Woolfolk has already had an ankle and hand injury.
September 19th, 2011 at 5:51 PM ^
Toussaint missed ND with a shoulder issue; Odoms has had a cast on his hand (now removed, I think).
September 19th, 2011 at 6:29 PM ^
and knock on it please.
klindly thanks.
September 19th, 2011 at 5:08 PM ^
knock on wood, Aside from C. Gordon and Woolfolk, Toussaint missed ND and Brandon Herron's missed the last two
September 19th, 2011 at 4:23 PM ^
Torontoblue....Shhhhhh! don't let the angry Michigan secondary hating gods hear you.
September 19th, 2011 at 4:26 PM ^
It's bad when anyone gets injured. What was enjoyable was all the silence from the Sparty faithful at my church. After hearing how lucky/bad we were for the last two weeks, I heard not a word about football. And, being a man of "Michigan character," I didn't bring anything up. I could tell that my presence was reminder enough of the previous days transgressions.
September 19th, 2011 at 7:19 PM ^
Why are Sparty fans wasting their time going to church? People with no souls can't get into heaven, can they?
September 19th, 2011 at 4:40 PM ^