Michigan State SURVIVES Against FAU | College Football Recap + Reaction

we've really spent the last couple of months on this channel talking about how you know July and August are the kind of the peaks of Hope and optimism for any college football fan base in the country how that time of year is really filled with hope and optimism and looking forward to the future and especially for a program like Michigan state who's moving on to a new head coach and a promising new Young quarterback and has a core of players coming in through the transfer portal etc etc there was a lot of reason for optimism for Michigan State headed into the season but I think the game that happened last night between Michigan State and Florida Atlantic which is the game we we will be reviewing of course in this video is a stark reminder that the second the season starts often times that hope and optimism can be semi flipped on its head or even thrown out the window because from what I saw from Michigan State last night and I hate to say it to any Sparty fans out there that may be watching this team may not be on track to be college football's most improved in 2024 which is what I prognosticated just a little over a week ago so we're going to review and recap Michigan State's season opener against the Florida Atlantic owls our first recap and review of the Season I'm really excited to have you guys here and before we really get into it don't forget to like the video help get it up into the algorithm and get more eyes on this channel which will help this channel continue to grow we're one of the fastest growing college football YouTube channels out there and if you haven't subscribed already please do and help us reach our goal of 5,000 subscribers by the end of the 2024 college football season we're recapping Michigan State's victory over the FL over the Florida Atlantic owls a game in which I think this team really survived in a lot of ways and in this video we're going to go over the box score we're gonna kind of diagnose what really went wrong for Sparty in this game why this game ended up being as close as it was we're g to give you guys what I think Florida Atlantic was able to do against the Spartan Defense albeit I think the defense was the best side of the football on Friday night and then we're going to look ahead at the schedule and kind of re-evaluate where we stand on Michigan State going forward and kind of look at what the rest of their season could potentially look like and we're going to get into that box score and all of that right here and speaking of Stark reminders and how quickly things can change how quickly expectations can change once once the season begins I know there was a ton of preseason hype around Aiden Charles I myself even played into it a little bit with my coverage of this team leading into the season and I do think ultimately that this is a quarterback that could be one of the best in the Big 10 in a season or two because I think we got a stark reminder right away of just how young and at times indecisive Aiden Childs can be as only an 18 18 or 19 years old is all the older that Aiden Childs is right now as a what was it red shirt freshman I can't even remember right either red shirt freshman or sophomore he spent last season of course at arag Aragon aragonian whatever Oregon State there we go and now becomes a starter at Michigan State and of course as everyone probably knows who's watching his first pass attempt as a Michigan State Spartan did not quite go as well as he would have hoped now I will give him credit he was able to kind of move out of the pocket and that's one of his strengths and find a guy downfield he found a receiver in one-on-one coverage and it wasn't necessarily a terrible decision of course with a one-on one matchup you like to think your receiver has all the physical advantages against the corner and that the the the likelihood of the play is either a catch which is a very good thing or an incompletion which is an okay thing and the least likely thing is the thing that ended up happening the Florida Atlantic Defender simply made a play on the ball and I know it was kind of back and forth and the play got reviewed some people will probably be in the comments or saying things online about how it wasn't really an interception that's what the call on the field was so that's what we're ultimately going to go off of but the rest of the day wasn't that great for Charles either he actually ended up throwing another interception he only went 10 of 24 for 114 yards and had a qbr of 30.7 and I think the thing that really reared its ugly head in this game the thing that we were all kind of looking for especially I think if you're a Michigan State fan was improved offensive line play and I think that's where it wasn't really all on child in this game by the way if you think I'm tearing into Childs right away I'm really not I'm trying to evaluate the quarterback's play Within the context and the framework of how the rest of the offense is playing because interestingly enough outside of that I I guess you could kind of say it was a bad ision throwing into that type of coverage where the corner pretty much had leverage on the wide receiver it was still a throwing throwing into a one-on-one matchup outside of the interceptions Aiden Charles was making some good decisions out there and trying to do his best to make some good plays the thing that we worried about heading in the season I was going to get into in a second ago and kind of trailed off from was the offensive line play the offensive line outside of starting center Tanner Miller who came over of course from Oregon State himself Tanner Miller had himself a day in the running game and also stood up in pass protection as well but the rest of the offensive line especially the tackles did not look very impressive to me so it's honestly really kind of tricky and difficult to evaluate Aiden Charles altogether as a quarterback I think he could be potentially better with better pieces around him that's really what I took away from this game there were times where there were miscommunications it seemed like Charles expected a receiver to sit down in zone coverage and instead they kept running there were times where he overthrew his receivers but also his receivers were kind of turning around and looking for the ball before they should have been and if that receiver had kind of kept his head down and made made a few more strides he would have been there where the ball landed you know instead of it looking like Aiden Charles just simply overthrew his guy by 10 or 15 yards the receiver wasn't there because they turned their head around too too early that also has some concern for me if I'm a Michigan State fan though because that's that's coaching those are things that maybe should have been worked out in practice there were also of course some schematic you know decisions that were made that I didn't necessarily agree with and I know I'm kind of getting nitpicky here but when they had the lead I think it was with six or seven minutes left in the game of course they they had a a six-point lead and that's how the game ended up finishing anyway but you're still throwing deep passes downfield at a point in the game where you should be running it and and and in a in a game by the way you know Florida Atlantic the strength of their team is really their defense but it's still only the 71st rated SP plus defense according to Bill Connelly's metrics this is a team in FAU by the way that is just simply outsized and outmatched or should be at least on paper by your offensive line to say what you want about these guys I I don't think this offensive line is a from what we saw in above average Big 10 offensive line they're kind of an average Big 10 offensive line but you should be able to bully around an American Conference team and and not a very good one at that and they weren't really able to do that Nate Carter by the way never really got going in this game 19 carries for 48 yards a 2.5 yard per carry average along of 12 so he got one good run in there KRON Lynch Adams was really the standout player and I think if you're looking for positives in this game that's really where where where that's really where you should look KRON Lynch Adams of course with only nine carries but went for 101 yards had an 11.2 average and of course most of it did come on the 63 I believe it's 63 I'm trying to read it on the screen there looked like 83 to me for a second do I need glasses probably but of course A lot of it came on the 63 yard touchdown run but a run in which he was able to find the cutback Lane and go the distance and that showed some great vision and Poise to me but speaking of poise and getting back to Aiden Charles who I'm really M basing a lot of my analysis here on the quarterbacks I think that's what most people wereing looking forward to in this game by the way an exciting new quarterback prospect for Michigan State again I don't think it was it may be as bad as it seemed on its face I think the problem and I think the red flag for this Michigan State offense is that Aiden Charles doesn't have the support system another question mark heading into this game were the wide receivers and the wide receivers didn't really show out there was really no one that stood out you you know you'd think out of all these guys out of Nick Marsh out of Isaiah Johnson out of monori foster Jr who's been there for a while now by the way and Michael munis I think I'm pronouncing that name right you'd think somebody would have stood out but Nick Marsh of course the fourstar Freshman coming in and a lot of Michigan State fans made a big deal out of that get because he was at the time one of the higher rated players in the state of Michigan coming out of high school one reception for 11 yards Monto farer Jr three receptions for 23 yards Jack Ving a guy who was a lot was made about him coming in as the tight end for this team who I personally thought would probably get the bulk of the targets one reception for 15 yards and only 114 passing yards allog together on an average of 14 4.8 excuse me yards per completion just doesn't do it and I think ultimately when I go back and watch the film on this game and I did record this game and we be rewatching it I think a lot of it's honestly going to come down to Aiden Tri simply not having the time in the pocket and having to do things like manipulate the pocket and find the right place to set his feet to get a good throw off and when you have a Young quarterback that can that can work when you have Michael Pennock who's been you know who at that point in time last season had been playing college football for five or six seasons and had all the experience in the world and all the knowhow you know had the ability to manipulate the pocket at the same time and keep his eyes downfield you have Aiden childes you have a a 18 or 19yearold you have a young youngster in there you know who's probably not used to the pressure I think it's safe to say Oregon State last season had a much better offensive line they were a better running team than this team looks to be and that could be the fault in the system for Michigan State going forward on offense a lot of good things to say about the defense in this game though they did Force some turnovers of course moving on from Scotty Hazelton to Joe Rossi was a big thing that I highlighted in the video that I did for this team just a week ago and that Joe rosi defense did look much improved but it it's also hard in games like this I don't want to give the defense too much credit because while Florida Atlantic is 71st in defensive SP plus and that's that's respectable for a mid to lower tier you know power or excuse me group of five team they're 122nd in preseason offense of SP plus and Cam faner I think that's how you pronounce his name fer faner is not that big of a threat passing the football as we saw in this game they just don't have the quality of quarterback that you're going to see in coming weeks which is what we're going to get into in a second by the way do how do we adjust our expectations for Michigan State going forward for the rest of the season based on this game I think is is the question because again from what we saw from the offense 179 yards rushing is okay but 63 of it came on r one carry and 114 yards through the air 10 completions 10 completions were made all game in this one again against the 71st ranked SP plus defense that's not good enough and again going back to the defense which is the thing that I was trying to transition to but of course if you know if you follow the channel I go on rabbit Trails I do that I have a tendency to do that I apologize yes I digress once again for those keeping count I think that's two of them in this video the defense was the brace spot but how much credit can we really give to this defense for stopping an offense that is not great and still allowing 10 points now I think if I remember right I'll have to apologize here I was flipping between this game and the Wisconsin game at this point I think that one touchdown did come out off of a turnover so maybe maybe the defense does deserve even more credit of course they themselves got a couple of turnovers and a couple of interceptions from Cam faner and definitely slowed him down it's actually surprising looking at it on the box score a 9 9.4 qbr and now the one thing I will also say the one Al other bright spot is how well the defensive line the new look defensive line played for Michigan State in this game get excuse me getting to faner a few times but a team like FAU again with the 122nd ranked SP plus offense with lacking skill position players was still able to get a guy like Omari Hayes going for five receptions for 74 yards you know they were able still able to find one of their wide receivers for a touchdown by the way no one had a receiving touchdown from for Michigan State in this game so I I I don't know if I'm ready to Crown this Joe Rossy defense is really being that much better Com when we look at the competition level they were facing FAU basically had a one-dimensional quarterback out there a lefty who isn't really a big threat passing the ball and he was Finding wide open receivers downfield and we need to talk about one glaring weakness on this defense which is Cal Halliday and I'm sorry to Michigan State fans I know he's near and dear to your hearts but he's the Brandon INE of college football if you get that reference he's a fan favorite that there's a lot of weaknesses to his game I feel like Cal hallay has been spending the majority of his career at this point turning his back on wide openen receivers downfield and we saw that over the middle that was the only place that fa was really able to be successful through the air and guess who they were targeting Cal Halliday guess who you have to play who's going to be watching film of this game who has some of the best receivers in the entire country Oregon and Ohio State and don't forget Michigan still has samaj Morgan and Tyler Morris and they've got the best tight end in the country Cal Halliday I think is the biggest weakness on this defense and Joe Rossi being a guy who's kind of stubborn in terms of how he likes to run his defense he likes to stay in three four and 43 fronts he doesn't like to play a lot of nickel and I didn't see a lot of nickel in this game either of course I'll have to go back and watch the film but I digress there's number three for you so there's positives to take out of this game I I really think so I don't want to be completely negative here I don't want to suddenly do a 180 and turn on Michigan State after being as positive and as high on them as I was you know going into the season but I think the thing that that gives me pause and the biggest red flag really is things that I thought were question marks for this team or the things that remained question marks for this team they didn't really answer any of my questions coming into this one that I had coming into this one yeah Aiden Charles actually I think despite what the stat line shows played decently but no one around him was given him much help including that offensive line which was a question mark I had going into this game and the defense was a question mark with everything that they lost along the defensive line now again the defensive line played all right played well but it it's you're you're playing FAU 108th overall by the way in Sp plus pre-season rankings and you beat them by six points again context again subjectivity I think is a big thing in college football it's not just H whether you win and again never apologize for a win in Michigan State survived and we you never know in this next week against Maryland they could look like a big 10 Contender you never know and things often change week to week in college football but based purely on this performance I think the question marks that I had still remain and I think even with Aiden Charles looking at times the part of a good quarterback there's simply not a good support system around him that's going to wrap up our kind of box score you know diagnosis of everything that went wrong in this game let's go ahead and look forward to the rest of the schedule and maybe kind of re-evaluate how we feel on this program going into the rest of the season hey guys I just wanted to take a quick break and let you guys know of two different ways you can further support the channel in the first is absolutely free that's our Discord Channel you can find the link to the Discord in the description of this video we've already got a few people in there chatting college football 247 365 and it's also a great spot to get little previews and Snippets of upcoming content on the channel and secondly a new announcement really cuz we haven't been doing this for too long you can now become a certified Bower a member of the YouTube channel for only $4.99 a month and that gives you premium access to content you'll be one of the first to see my videos as they come out you'll also get priority response in the comments your comments will on our videos and in our live streams will be automatically pinned with the little green tag next to your name and you will also get access to custom emojis made by Yours Truly himself on our live stream so for $4.99 a month you get all of that and feel free to check out both options to further support us here at Darren and talks ball now I hate to do this I hate to do this so early in the season but maybe I'm overreacting here you can let me know in the comments and do please like share and subscribe and all that good stuff for all your big 10 football coverage needs but but looking forward at the rest of the schedule I think is even more cause for alarm for Michigan State right now because when we looked at the schedule just a couple of weeks ago when I did that video on Michigan State previewing the season FAU was supposed to be the tuneup game FAU was supposed to be the the game that got you right the game that got you really on track the game that you win you know 48 to3 or 56 to nothing or the game that you that Aiden Charles has a coming out party and throws three touchdowns in and Jack Ving looks really good and monor Foster and Aiden Charles are on the same page and the offensive line is figured out and none of that happened and now now when we look at the rest of the schedule next week you got to go to Maryland and now Maryland isn't the a da Powerhouse of a big 10 team Mike Loxley have has his own set of problems there and Talia Iola isn't even there they're I think in my opinion they're taking a big step down in terms of quarterback but when you look at my DPI rankings when you look at SP plus rankings when you look at all the the pre-season metrics and the more advanced stats and analytics Maryland is about 20 spots above Michigan State on any reputable rankings and now you have to travel to them and now maybe you do get that kind of second shot at a tuneup game against prair R viw A&M that should be I would hope and think that that should be an easy win for Michigan State but then after that frankly is a gauntlet this team could easily be two and six by the time they play Indiana with just a win over FAU and a win over prair review and then losses against Maryland Boston College Ohio State Oregon Iowa and Michigan and that's the unfortunate Truth at this point because from what I saw in this game last night there wasn't too much to be hopeful about and I hate I hate to be that way again and again maybe I'm overreacting and that's that's typical of college football fans I think after all the word fan is short for fanatic you know and while I'm a Michigan fan at heart I do also have respect for Michigan State they're actually a team that's closer to my hometown here in in Michigan in Grand Rapids Michigan got a dear friend shout outs to Justin by the way a dear friend who's a Spartan GR B so I want to see this team be good I want to see them perform better I want to see them represent the Big 10 better but I also can't get on here and continue to sell hope when there's no evidence or or too much of a reason for that and now that's not to say that this team again can't figure it out they certainly have time to but not as much time according to the schedule as what one would hope hope for Jonathan Smith I think to kind of close this video out is is still a really great coach and I I know in some ways I'm talking about this game as if it was a loss and it wasn't it was still a win and sometimes toughing Out close victories is what you need to do in college football you know for all of our offseason talk we we we go over schedules and we look at matchups and we look at rankings and we assume things and sometimes I think we assume too much we assume that programs that don't have big names programs that don't have a ton of on thepaper Talent can't be good and won't be competitive against bigger Conference teams which is always a lie which is always false we assume that young promising quarterbacks will have it figured out right away which is also usually always false we assume things we assume too many things in college football what is the number one thing any college football coach always reminds you of in his press conferences not to overlook opponents not to take anything for granted and I think Jonathan Smith maybe using that and saying that to his team is a reminder right now because maybe they did a little bit of that in this game maybe this team got a little you know too high on themselves I do think still ultimately in the long run Michigan state will be a competitive team in the Big 10 I'm still firmly on that track firmly in that camp you know a Mel Tucker team playing that way and making those mistakes probably would have just Fallen apart by the way AEL Tucker team may have lost that game playing that badly through three quarters of football but again being a better Coach team in the fourth quarter they they were able to hang on and I think there ultimately is something to be said about that as well but again when you're when you're having to rely on a you know a late third and fourth down stop against FAU to seal the victory I don't think there's too much that you can be hopeful for for the rest of the season and I'm just going to leave it at that that'll be our first recap and reaction video for the entire season thanks again for watching don't forget to hit the like button hit the Subscribe button we'll be back for more content later this week as we react and preview everything from week one going into week two and as always and forever go Blue