Michigan State football: Video analysis of MSU’s win over Prairie View
Lansing State Journal columnist Graham Couch and Detroit Free Press MSU beat writer Chris Solari break down the Spartans’ win over Prairie View A&M.
EAST LANSING – You can hear the confidence creeping back into Michigan State’s football program, confidence that comes from a 3-0 start, from a win at Maryland, from a defense that’s allowed 34 total points in three games — regardless of the competition — and from an offense that has some quick-strike ability.
You could hear it from MSU defensive back Chuck Brantley on Saturday when he was asked where his school-record 100-yard interception return against Prairie View A&M ranked among his two career pick-sixes.
“I don’t think it ranks higher because it was longer,” Brantley said. “I feel like I caught the other pick against a better team, which is Ohio State. Can’t wait to see them again.”
And with that, the Spartans are officially high on life again — or high on something even better. Because the Buckeyes, you might recall, have outscored MSU 190-42 over their last four meetings. Brantley was a part of the program for three of those games.
He’s not wrong to feel good, though. Winning in college football is hard. The 57 returning players in MSU’s program know it all too well.
The thing, though, about the Spartans’ 3-0 start is that it’s only told us so much — some hopeful positives, sure, from their young quarterback, and from an even younger receiver, and in their approach and execution on defense.
“After three games, you’re learning about your team,” first-year coach Jonathan Smith said Monday. “I do think we’ve got a response to us, understanding that a lot of these games are going to come down in the fourth quarter and winning the thing in the fourth quarter.”
We’re about to learn a lot more about this group. These next three games will be telling about whether this MSU team will have to claw its way to six wins and bowl-eligibility, or whether this team might be in the fight for a little something more. These next three games, all in prime time — Saturday night at Boston College, the following Saturday night home against Ohio State, and the Friday night after that at Oregon — will tell us just how far MSU’s program has to go.
The gauntlet within MSU’s schedule, as we saw it before the season, was Ohio State, at Oregon, Iowa and then at Michigan. It’s shifted and either shrunk or expanded, depending how you want to look at it.
Boston College, at 2-1 with a win at Florida State and a narrow loss at Missouri last week, is clearly part of the gauntlet. The Eagles are a physically punishing team at the line of scrimmage, with a mobile quarterback and they seem to have a head of steam under first-year coach Bill O’Brien. Florida State might be withering, but Boston College’s battering of the ‘Noles led to a lot of their misery. And Missouri, while ranked in the top 10 by the same nitwit voters who once ranked Florida State in the top 10, appears to be legitimately good. To that end, so does BC.
Beyond that on the Spartans’ schedule, the Buckeyes are the Buckeyes — and as motivated as ever after the last few years of coming up short. Oregon, which started inauspiciously the first couple weeks, just spanked Oregon State in Corvallis last Saturday, the Ducks showing some of the teeth we thought they might have.
We’ll know after these three games exactly what sort of teeth MSU has. The Spartans don’t have to win all three or even two of these games. But if they emerge 4-2, having been relatively competitive all three weeks — including at least looking like they belong on the field with Ohio State — then they’ll be a team to watch and reckon with coming out of a bye week at home against Iowa and a week later at Michigan, and then on into November.
The Hawkeyes don’t look like a team that’ll run away from MSU. They couldn’t last year in Iowa City. This time it’ll be in East Lansing. The Wolverines don’t look like that can run away from anyone. Those two games are toss-ups now. Just as tough for MSU might be the next two games after that — home against Indiana and at Illinois.
Smith said Monday that he’s taken a peek at some of the teams ahead on the Spartans’ schedule — Ohio State, “the Ducks” and Iowa, he said.
“Just being new to the league, I have tried to take some time early in the week, Sundays and Mondays, to watch a couple other teams,” Smith said.
He knows what’s coming.
“(I) just keep preaching to the guys (that the mistakes) we put on tape will get exposed,” Smith said, “whether it’s the next week or three, four weeks down the road, and that for sure is going to be true this week.”
At least he’s taking a confident team into it.
MORE: Couch: QB Tommy Schuster is the Spartans’ peace of mind on offense
Contact Graham Couch at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.
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Publish date : 2024-09-16 12:42:00
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