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Recent Comments

Date Title Body
Good on Defense, Bad on Offense

On defense MSU lost Worthy, Trenton Robinson and Pickelman from last year. Pickelman and Worthy split time at the 3-Tech so we lost two starters off a defense that was in the top 10 Scoring Defense nationally.

Bad on Offense since they lose Cousins, Baker, Cunningham, Martin, Nichol, Anderson, Linthicum and Celek who represent QB1, RB2, WR1, WR2, WR3, FB1, TE1, and TE2 respectively. Losing that much skill talent is going to hurt even if the O-Line significantly improves in run blocking.

 

Losing Duzzer Would Hurt

Odds are losing Duzzer would hurt quite a bit. He really got a lot of crap from the Spartan fanbase in 2008, 2009 and even some of 2010. Obviously this is the year he managed to put it all together. I honestly think the major improvement came from the change of personnel at Linebacker and the improving speed of the Defensive Line.

Anyway, we'll see where Duzzer's prospects are at in a week or two. I honestly think he would struggle at Illinois, but could succeed given four or more years to do it. He still gets chippy with the Media when they ask tough/stupid questions. Then there's the whole no head coaching experience. He has a lot of learning to do.

OT: Michigan Fight Song

Hi Folks,

I don't have enough points to start my own thread. A blind couple at my church heard I like College Football and asked me if I could download the Michigan Fight Song for them. I don't have it, but would like to fulfill their request. Finding an mp3 copy has been harder than I thought. Would anyone mind helping me out? Reward involves good karma points from a Spartan.

THanks,

Jim

[email protected]

The weird power formations

I watched four plays out of the much maligned unbalanced line, here's the interesting thing. They went to the weakside on 3 of them and our RG(who was effectively playing LT) lost the point of attack on all of them resulting in a yard or less gain. On the one play where we ran to the strong side our OL didn't very effectively block out the guys in front of them. At one point three dudes we're blocking their defensive end, while Baker got TFL.

I guess to the pulling and trapping, that's not too cute to me. Foreman is/was one of the best in the business, but my guess is that's where you're seeing the weaknesses at Center and RT. 

My hope is really that if we put any wrinkles in it's that we've found a way to use our short passing game to compensate for our lack of a running game. Cousins has generally been money inside of 10 yards and I don't think you need an OL to throw a 5 yard slant. I've not seen a lot of Nichol or Cunningham blocking for Martin on a bubble screen this year so far. TEs  and short screens should be used early and often to discourage the Mattison Blitz Death IMO.

Hm, I'd like to rely on stats to answer this question

because I don't think my opinion is better than the facts. It's my opinion for a team that has a "Pound, Green, Pound" mantra that we should be able to pick up 3rd and 2 nearly every single time. That is definitely not my opinion of what's happening.

Both Treadwell and Roushar have had a habit of going misdirection and occasionally playaction on 3rd and very short(let's say 2 or less). Further, it seems like we get stuffed on the straight power plays in this situation a little too often.  Honestly, this is the area that probably highlights most strongly the weaknesses on our O-Line. A good O-Line should be able to fall forward for a yard leaving the RB to pick up just a yard.

Long story short, we wouldn't be 100-and-whatever at picking up 3rd downs if we were converting 3rd and short well.

Thanks for the shoutout, I do wish I had started this blog in earnest when I was 21 with a two beer a day habit instead of 31 with a two-kid a day habit. Ty and I would really like to compliment Heck over at TOC as the rational voice of MSU football fandom, that's one area I'm truly envious of the Michigan fanbase. 

I think for my own part

That really the answer to question three answers questions one and two. Thus far I've not been terribly impressed with Roushar. I don't think he's been doing a great job keeping us in manageable down and distances. When we're in 3rd and long we're frequently in 3rd and long. 

Our offensive line has suffered billions of injuries. Maybe more and we've not done an adequate job replacing those injuries. It's difficult to MANBALL when you don't have an OL that can win the point of attack. So all of that stuff leads to poor red zone and rushing performances, IMO.

Special Teams

Kicker is good. Conroy isn't on fire 14 of 15 like he was last year, but he's dependable inside of 40 and makeable inside of 50.

Sadler the punter is a redshirt freshman and still kicks some line drives. He also had a heck of a save on a wet ball at OSU. I think he's going to continue improving.

KR is solid. Nick Hill is returning kicks such that we don't miss Bennie Fowler or Keshawn.

PR is scary. Keshawn Martin has looked timid since he fumbled a Punt Return against YSU in the first game of the season.

KR coverage is bad. Like worse than 100th in the nation bad. Also they gave up a touchdown against ND.

PR coverage seems to be fine, I can't think of anything that stood out either way.

We simply have to convert 3rd down.

We're 95th in 3rd down conversion percentage and Michigan is 3rd. We have to convert our 3rd downs and stop them from converting theirs. I have a bad feeling about this game.

Winner Wins the Division

I was really speaking more to this year in particular. In years going forward, I do think that Nebraska will be right there. In fairness, I wonder if MSU will be there and I need to see them continue to put together 8-4 or 9-3 type seasons while UM is back to being UM.

I also wonder about Iowa. Don't get me wrong, Ferentz has been VERY good at Iowa and moreover seems to have MSU's number. However, the talent in Iowa/Nebraska is sparse and I wonder if Nebraska now being in-division might dig into their recruiting a bit? I also have wondered if Iowa fans might Glen Mason themselves right out of a Kirk Ferentz.

Anyway, that's mostly conjecture, I was really talking about this year. Glad to see we're the prime rivalry game for next year too though, particularly if we sneak out the win this weekend.

MSU Defense

Unfortunately, this feels like one of the areas where a fan can't tell which teams are good until after seven or eight games go by. For MSU, unfortunately, that means we'll have played Nebraska, Wisconsin and U of M first.

As to the issue at hand, I think our defense is improved physically and from a talent perspective. I still think we're more prone to mental errors in the linebacking corps. Further, I think everyone is jumping the gun on Gholston, I think he'll be good even great at times this season, but he needs to improve his pass-rushing playbook to be great consistently.

In reading Rational's post I guess the only other thing I'll add is that if MSU is not ahead by more than one score at the half I don't like MSU's chances. UM has been a second half team this season and we need to have a lead at the half for me to feel good about our chances.

Oh, I think we can all agree

The real scum of the earth are the people who root MSU basketball and UM football. Pick a side.