SpartanMag V-Cast | Michigan State Football | Maryland Week | Was FAU victory all that bad?

and welcome to the spartanmag.com vcash Paul Kik pearis Plaza outside Spartan Stadium Michigan State practice this morning coming off a 16 to10 victory over Florida Atlantic on Friday Michigan State's 1 and0 um the the reaction like Jonathan Smith said they called it over reaction Monday I think we got a sense of that during the weekend at least I gained that and also um this morning listening to some of the talk shows I don't know if that was your reaction or not I think it's been kind of funny kind of peculiar but that's good people are concerned about college football they're into it um Michigan State not good in the fourth quarter I thought pretty good for three quarters 16 to3 on the verge of going up 23 to3 and making it a blowout everybody knows what happened at that point the interception then the fourth quarter was really difficult but I saw some pretty good things Brian lingren came out after practice today and spoke great job with Paul corned yesterday and Jake laswa and others covering yesterday's press conference with spartanmag.com I was not in town appreciate you doing that Paul so now we look forward to Maryland but a little bit more about what we learned about Michigan State this weekend what lingren had to say today Paul codak ladies and Gentlemen spartanmag.com by the way give us a like on this channel subscribe to the channel we would uh love to hear from you and become a subscriber over at spart mag.com PA your dos Michigan State's 1 and0 yeah but it doesn't feel like that if you're a Michigan State fan and the thing that gets me is if if Michigan state had given up a 24 points in this game and won like 48 to 24 I think most Michigan State fans would be like a lot of them would be happy because they'd say oh the offense is is rolling and whatnot 48 sounds good right so it sounds good but then if you give up 24 points to that Florida Atlantic team then to me I'm more concerned going into this Maryland game than I would be uh giving Michigan State's 16 to 10 score I I I do feel like there was a lot of really good things on defense I think a lot of that can travel um and uh to me the defense is ahead of schedule and they put on the field what they've been showing in practice we've heard about that all all off season like all training camp that you know it's quiet confidence and we've heard even more than quiet confidence like we're back we're going to be Michigan State Defense blah blah blah you've all heard it seen the videos but they look like it uh in the opener and Michigan State's offense didn't so the big thing that I'm looking at when I'm rewatching the film is were there guys that were beat horribly physically guys that were just like caved in you know you think of like offensive lineman are you getting pushed off the off the ball are you not getting any movement at all and those are the huge red flags in my mind um like when you have those kind of things and we've seen that in a in some years where you know guys are physically not up to the task and I don't think that was the case in this game I do think that people made some mental mistakes made a few um you know like first first game mistakes and I think the timeliness of the interception you the the fumble um you know the catch in the fumble in the red zone that was huge and then you had you know the the goal line pick um or you know like the inside the 10 pick and if that doesn't happen it's a totally different different type of thing but uh I to me it's it's not shocking it's predictable how much the Panic level is with the same people anointing Aiden Charles the second coming of like John Elway or R Cunningham or uh you know Mike Vic or whomever um you know now we saying like you know we should have taken this guy I should have taken that guy in the portal you know maybe Tommy Schuster should people are saying that no I'm just saying that that there's a wide reaction I've seen text messages from people they're like you know this guy's better than him that guy's better than him you know like and I I just like it's it's amazing to like how quickly people anoint how people start gambling like crazy when when a guy like Aiden child says you know like uh take the over and then that influences people and then when when someone lays on the egg on offense for for a lot of reasons that are correctable um then they then there's panic and I just think it just bothers me question the Intelligence on someone no I understand that but it's predictable and it's it is what it is the knee jerks are going to jerk Paul right but this is a season of you know it's they've got to grow it's going to be a growing it's a it's a process you know like Brian LR and and uh John Smith said all all Camp long he's an 18-year-old they weren't just saying that for lip service they're saying that he's a Young quarterback with a lot of talent but he's got to see what he has to see um before he's going to get get better and the same thing with same thing with offensive line you've got guys you know you've got guys that are playing in a new system um you know some guys are playing multiple positions these are all new things for a lot of guys so it's one thing to do it in a dress rehearsal do it in a scrimmage um I know you're a baseball coach so you've seen it where guys look great guys look absolutely phenomenal when you're playing the scrimmage or you know like or something like that and then they don't take it to the game there's a process you got to do it on the practice field but then you got to go through and take some lumps and games and before sometimes it shows on on game day yeah I think if all goes goes well Aiden Charles has 38 more games at Michigan State he's played one um uh I came away when I watched it again and spent about 6 hours on that game um thinking Aiden child in Michigan I think Aiden child is dangerous I just the way that he can move and get to an angle to deliver a pass now on Friday did not deliver them the way he expects to and he said that after the game today lingren spoke about that a little bit Jack Ving spoke about that saying yeah there's plays that he makes every day in practice but and then I have no no doubt that those are going to be completed you know in the future now child's had a couple of nice passes too some of the intermediate passes some uh you know even that slant that set up the fourth and one stoppage was uh you know I mean he fired that one in there he went went to some tight windows and had some confidence to do it now it bit him on the interception of course but he goes 10 out of 24 um you know kind of had in my opinion like a 13 out of 24 type of game 14 out of 24 if he's just himself a little bit it was interesting today Brian Ling spoke about some of the alerts that we as an offense went to that maybe we shouldn't have meaning there's a there's there's coverage here and we went to something then we should have stayed with some other things so there were some choices and some some decisions also that are going to be fine-tuned and I was trying to ask how many of those were the Deep shots and how many of those alerts were things maybe we wouldn't have noticed because I do think some deep shots early in the game if they're playing press and Ling Gren said there was more press than they expected they've got some automatics if it's press they're going to do that and try to back you off and did not connect on any of those but like lingren said if you do and they expect to then that backs them off backs the safeties off now you can run a little bit more so there was a reason to that early in the game now late in the game like 5 minutes to go there was a third and five when he threw it deep against press probably not a low percentage type of thing you want to go to that's when you want to look for Jack velling and there are some times I suspect when they look at the film when and you know a couple of plays I can think of there was you know a counter boot on second and eight on Michigan State's very last possession where they're trying to run out the clock and he throws it behind donon Glover who is kind of you know covered a little bit coverage was okay and you know he's rolling out and play action boot it just kind of misses him it's downfield for a first down Ving has open at about four yards wouldn't have been a first down but these are things that they I don't know for sure what they talk about in the quarterback room but like Walsh used to say at with the 49ers and every coach since then especially West Coast offense people they think players not plays in certain situations in a situation like that I'm thinking players I'm thinking Jack Belling Red Zone interception you know Belling was you know he's somewhat covered but think players not plays game one out of 38 39 maybe 40 games at Michigan State of all goes well so um not uh you know those are those are things that he can learn as he goes it's a lot easier to take someone with that kind of talent and foot quickness and release and zip and get them to to um to to uh manage things differently negotiate things differently than it is to take somebody with not much talent and try to get him to become Conor cook or something I that's so they got a lot of lot to lot of firep to work with and I thought Tom Herman the coach for FAU I don't think he was just being diplomatic and nice when he said man that guy they got they got a good player there and he scares you in a lot of ways I think Herman's exactly right and Herman would love to have Aiden child I think Charles going to show some improvement it's going to be tough this weekend but uh child's going to be okay yeah you see the stuff in the middle of the field I was really impressed with it stuff that you know like come back to elante Brown was nice those short those short passes where where he was really good and there the ball was there and you can throw that against anybody you know like he throws such velocity it's a tight SP and it's you know and a couple of those were well covered by and he still hit the window that to me is what what impresses me and gives me hope for for Aiden child but in the Deep balls I'm not worried about them you know like that that one to my Tory Foster in the second half I mean that that was just a tick off you the diving through the fingertips you know could Foster you know if it had a little bit more air under it maybe Foster gets it Foster might you know you know he almost came up with it that way you know nice play design to get him open like that but I think you know I I think so you take those away and then like someone like there's a couple pis that that doesn't show up in the you know that do and that doesn't show up in in your in your yardage so all of a sudden you're looking at Aiden Charles and we're in this fantasy football age where you know guys are judged by you know 300 yard games and how many touchdowns they have and yeah he didn't have a great game and uh but it's not like it's not like he's fundamentally flawed it's not like he stopped being like Aiden child he's still you know he's still a young guy I mean that 18-year-old type thing and and I expect him bounce back and um I do think though I do think one of the things that he has to to do and I think Brian lingren alluded to this as well today when he was talking about um you know going where your reads take you and whatnot I mean when you have a game like that and childes wants to be better he wants to have bigger numbers um going back to the human nature thing human nature is trying to take the Deep shot human nature is trying to get it all at once and uh instead of being patient and chipping away at the rock face and I think that's what Michigan State kind of needs to do do more more of and I think you might have seen more of that at times if you know if they had gotten better gains on you know in the Run game if they would have got four or five yards instead of two or three and there's nothing wrong with three yard runs cuz those often you know often develop into a much bigger runs L later on but um it's not all on aeden Childs um and uh you know I'm not worried about him dude everything was on schedule through the first 13 minutes of the third quarter you know up to that interception that point Michigan state was had yardage Advantage about 260 to 160 they're up 16 to 3 they're on schedule to blow them out we saw a lot of dantonio quote unquote blowouts that were slow drip blowouts that didn't really that were like tight games tight games this is tight this is tight then fourth quarter no so what they missed here was the fourth quarter obviously but you see that in college football you know like I watching a little of the Michigan Fresno State game this game was really no different than that in my opinion you know you get if Michigan if if aen CH doesn't throw that pick on the goal line that that ends up Mig had 260 on offense to three I'm just saying in terms of like what what what the score looks like you look at it the next day someone that didn't watch the game it's going to be like oh hey Michigan uh you know they didn't blow him up as much as they thought but it wasn't a bad it wasn't a bad day I'm just saying there's not a lot of difference between some of those games and uh this game did remind me of the Antonio game in that the defense came came to play reminds me of a couple times they played Florida Atlantic right that's 170 game was it you know it's kind of a slow and then there was one the one at Ford Field where they won by 13 against Stenberg I mean they got a lead and and Florida Atlantic came back on that one but they' played Florida Atlantic before and it's and it's the the point differential has not been a lot different than this you know in the first game against Florida Atlantic in 200 was it 2008 I believe it was the 44-0 in the rain yeah I mean it was like you couldn't throw the ball and ring ringer threw ran for like 280 276 or something like that and I remember people back then being like what was wrong with Brian Hoyer why you know why can't you know like it's like five of 10 that day or something right or you know it's just like it is it is what it is everyone's like if a quarterback doesn't throw for at least 250 300 now it's it's it's an issue uh I do think that Michigan State they need to get you know L alluded to this Jonathan Smith yesterday alluded to this they need to clean up some little things that are that are uh very cleanup aable um pardon my grammar but that's a word in 2024 it is man I can use it in Scrabble I hope so my kids kicked my butt in Scrabble points well that'll happen yeah it will go ahead but um you know like little blocking things things that you know on the first game that you you got guys in new roles you like think of guys like Ashton leppo even Luke Newman who had some really good blocks you know this is his first game playing in Michigan State um you know Christian Phillips big dly I think he's going to be a good run blocker he is going to be a good player but you know this is also his first game and and there's a process of taking it from like I said earlier taking it from the practice field to taking it to the game um and I'm not going to Discount fa's uh you know front seven I think those guys are solid solid the linebacking court was good I've seen I've seen Big 10 linebacking Court uh that were Sub sub what that was um I think that's kind of like a weaker level Big 10 defense in a lot of ways and uh it's kind of a a tough game for for a team that's um you know a lot of new faces to play that team in week one and I think that's what you see a lot of times throughout college football teams that struggle in week one are they bad not necessarily but a lot of times they're they're working through some things and they have things to work through before they can become what they thought they were going to be in you know in in training camp I even think of like some Michigan State basketball games remember that game at Navy that you and I were at the Naval Academy game they you know barely won that one I think they ended up going to final four that year did they I don't know but I mean it's just like the goal is to get better progressively Michigan State needs to give you a lot better moving forward the Big 10 play starting out um but it's a step in the right right direction it's a win um and the defense won that game for him and I think there's a lot of I think there's a lot of things you can carry forward from that that defense getting it Swagger and game one is very valuable and the Run game you know Jonathan Smith said yesterday not happy with the Run game especially in the in the Red Zone L Gren disappointed with it as well like you said players getting accustomed and playing with one another what I saw in the Run game with some of the run plays that went for for no yards or even lost of yards is a lot of times the double team blocks whether it be in an inside zone or Duo if you and I are doing a double team I leave him for you and I climb out to the linebacker sometimes I'm not real secure about leaving him and the linebacker unblocked and a couple times when I left early and you didn't finish him and you know those things um especially you know might be a little different against FAU with a 30 front and an even shade nose sometimes cuz Michigan State doesn't run that so these guys are not seeing that week after week after week they saw it for eight days of preparation get ready for that game they'll see it again against Maryland but things like that in terms of being accustomed to playing with the guy next to you cross the offensive line nobody is playing with anyone that they're accustomed to playing with maybe leppo and Phillips a little bit on Scout team well Phil was on Scout team leppo was second string maybe on second string last year but I don't know if they were side by side those things I think can improve and I'll quote my friend Doug K had a great line yesterday because Michigan fans are freaking out also about their game they're not happy with their final score they saw what that was all about car says I got a news flash for you they're allowed to practice you know they're allowed to get in there and practice there's a good chance that uh you know they they see what needs to be tightened up and that run blocking piece with Mahalo I think is one of the best not my opinion A lot of people in college football think he's one of the best offensive line coaches in the country he didn't he never made any promises through the spring and through preseason practice a lot of things needed a lot of work and a lot of time for as varied as they want to be up front it'll take time and you know that they don't have uh the greatest parts to work with in there in time they're going to be real good and in time I think this line will be as good as M can make it and he's one of the best that being said I thought I thought big duly Phillips he threw his weight around nicely you know he he when he reported to Michigan state three years ago had a lot of baby fat need to be rearranged a little bit I was I wasn't sure about his movement on his high school film but over the course of time that young man has worked on himself and you can see it he stuck with the program through the coaching change now he's starting on that 63 yard touchdown that counter when he's going to kick out that unblocked guy in the line of scrimmage you can just see that he's relishing just laying a hit on that dude and the great thing about that is they came back and showed the exact same look and faked it and went with the end arounded Dr Glover it only went for about seven yards people talk about how lingren you know his members of his coaching staff and players like the way one thing builds to another you know they came back and ran that counteraction that was the Glover uh and round went for seven yards I think a tight end didn't quite get the correct angle on somebody might have went for more plus they happen to play Zone on that if they' have been manto man it might have sprung long longer but W with Michigan State depending the entire defending the entire side Seline to sideline of the field in time we saw that with some of these things whether it be a run play Then counter boot roll out which I think is going to get better and better in time I think I think that play could have gone for more if Clover would cut inside a little bit more I I think you know again you're talking about a guy that hasn't done that I've never seen Geron Glover do an end round and I I think back to like some of the some of the you know the perimeter running plays for wide receivers in the dantonio area that a lot of you know that worked pretty well during the rose bow uh cotton bow years you know I think a guy like RJ Shelton when he was first starting out and when he was a true freshman running those for the first time they didn't look very good you know and that's another feel type of thing that only get that through practice I think guy like Jaden Reed when he first started doing those he didn't look very good at that and uh it's it's a feel thing it's a Nuance thing and and I think a lot of times if you cut outside it's not there I felt in real time when that happened that if you cut inside just a little bit that would have gone for 15 or 20 right and when I mentioned Michigan State the microscope in my opinion is in the fourth quarter that they were not unable to move the ball and so forth so I went back and looked exactly what wrong went wrong on those and we talked a little bit about the one time when he threw it to Glover and threw it behind him when he might had felling at four yards the play before that Phillips had a good game I like Christian Phillips a lot I like the way he when he gets in the people they move and that was his first real game ever uh but one play prior to that they ran a toss sweep on First and 10 and Phillips coming I think he was he was blocking inside kind of cracking inside downward and um let the middle linebacker come by him and went looking for someone else and I'm I'm sure when they look on film when he looks on film on some shirt's already been corrected he was supposed to take that white color jersey at that point and if he does that top sweep works now you're maybe second and five or better but when the coaches talk about just one thing off here and there and that's a young man in his first game who I thought it really had a real good game but in that situation on that P And1 first play of a drive when you're in a 4-minute offense and you're and you're seeing things and you miss a guy and it might not look like it looked like it's supposed to in the Playbook and on the Whiteboard and in practice against the scout team and it looks a little different and if you don't have not that I've ever played in front of 75,000 but if you've not done it before to make that adjustment on your own those are teachable moments think Phillips is good but those little things prevented allowed prevented Michigan State from closing it you know closing it out but uh looking up Ving a little bit more and Phillips and I think Phillips is nice Stanton rail playing a lot at left tackle ni his first thought thought it was really he and he did well and that's a sign that they that that's a guy as a red freshman injured last year you can tell they think he's got a high ceiling and I suspect I wouldn't be surprised by October if everybody stays healthy by November I wouldn't be surprised he's the best offensive tackle in the program so if he's coming around a left tackle he's still in inexperienced guy they're trying to get some manufactur some depth there so I can see why they're not maybe using ril on both sides or using Baldwin on both sides because he has more experience but moving Baldwin to the right side two plays into that two plays prior to that fourth down stoppage had a false step over there you were speaking with Michael munus who had a real good game his real first game in terms of being in the playing group had a good game had some good moments but he admitted he made a mistake identifying somebody on that fourth down stoppage inside the 10 yard line a lot of young players with high ceilings screwing some tightening some screws and the whole outfit I think he' look uh look a lot better I think uh I think real soon you look at munes he's their best run bling tight end that's what they say yeah you know and and I think he's pretty good and that's what he wants to be you know he feels like this offense is built is built for him a guy that that has value in his run blocking obviously we saw him catch two passes I think it was the same drive he looked good doing it but you know so he makes a mistake in you know in run blocking so it it's and you see other guys that that are good players making mistakes there's some like a couple pass Pro issues with running backs where where like you know protections where like if uh you know L Adam was Miss to block that's the one I was thinking of I forget when it when it was but was and it and he's a good he wants he's a willing pass protector he wants to be um and uh you know and I think he was pretty good in pass Pro for most of that game but a veteran running back in this system is a guy that makes those plays I think back to like Jeremy Langford when he was here you know I never imagined that he was going to be a good uh running back in pass protection but by the time he was an upper classman he was making just enough contact where his quarterback Conor cook could stay clean long enough to make deep balls down the field and so those are the kind of things when I look at them You' got guys that are willing to do the job want to do the job have done the job for most of the game and in one instance or two instances they they fall short of uh you know of that goal those are things that they can learn from those are things that that can be cleaned up and to me that's positive they don't I don't see a center that's getting their their tail kicked in I'm glad you mentioned 30 front earlier because I don't know why but it seems to me maybe this is just like anecdotal but I feel like anytime Michigan State's faced a 30 front in the first game it's always a little bit more of a struggle than if they see something besides the 30 front mhm yeah so I go all the way back to Tulsa I remember that I mean they had a big when Michigan State played Tulsa they had they I think they had one guy that maybe ended up in the NFL uh me a practice squad but that 30 front for whatever reason um you know unless you see it all the time um it's it's a little bit difficult I think Montana state did it once also and and stopped the Run game one season against Antonio's team so uh defense Angelo gross looked like a different player in my opinion Chris Bogle looks like a new player what they've done with those guys turning them loose in this system and this the defensive system is not vanilla they got a lot of things going on but Rossy Joe Rossy the defensive coordinator says he he wants the guys to know what to do so they can play Fast well they know what to do and it's not like it's a totally vanilla dumbed down defense there's a lot of things going on not all of it was perfect but Angelo gross just on his breaks looks quicker his tackling was good there was the one play we talked about in the vcast after the game when it was almost a huge mistake could have been a touchdown to give them a one-point lead with three minutes to go and gross was involved in that I didn't know until I saw after the game from the from the end zone view that he Collision the guy I'm not sure why he did that but ended up being pass inter and flag it's better than giving up a big play so I'm not really sure what went wrong there but and whether there's a mistake might have been might not have been but Angelo gross going from safety to Nickel to safety to Nickel to safety to Nickel active communicating Angelo gross is a new player and you know that goes all the way back to day one when Haron Barnett said he was a football player but then we saw you know mistakes mistakes mistakes and I got to the point as I've said before I got to the point where I stopped questioning players started questioning how much volume was on their on their shoulders in their heads which prevented them from being becoming the players that they are from gross to uh you know well uh you know there have been others linebackers we talked about a number of them over the years you know van Sumer and um even what was the the Noah what's his name um Noah Harvey no har linebacker yeah and then like it there was just and he came back and and became functional but like the first year in that system I don't know what was going on but Angelo gross was good solid I'm happy for him and uh out there with his younger brother Alan or um I got AV Avan gross and gross made a tackle or two made a mistake one time on a on a corner route that gave up 20 yards um but I didn't see many other mistakes and I'm wondering with Avon gross how much has he repped with the ones because you know I mean the the the the first string safeties and Nicholls you know obviously you have Tatum out you have Spencer out because he was rejected because of the targeting arm Maran Smith was not available he was not in uniform he was on the sideline but did not have uh pads on and then you know K Majid gets hurt so you Lo it was a position of depth the safety nickel position boom four guys are out Avon gross is in practice time is limited I wonder how much he's repped with the ones in general maybe not he's been on campus for you know 7 eight months got away with it got the W but uh he didn't he didn't look out of place if you didn't know that back story he wouldn't have known that but had to go deep into that depth and got got it done Avon was good angel gross is looking good yeah you know I think the one of the biggest to me one of the biggest indicators of whether you have a good defense is how they handle Sudden Change you know and and I'm not saying that this is a this is a vintage Dan Antonio era defense or anything like that uh because those guys were I mean those guys were nasty you go back and watch those games and like you could get down to the goal line and they wouldn't let you in a lot of the time so takes a few years to build so and that takes it takes NFL uh you know guys on the on the D line on the interior D line and I think Michigan st's interior D line is really good but this how they handle Sudden Change the the um the confidence they played with uh when bad things were happening I mean there's been a lot of good defenses even like you know de Antonio era defenses where I don't know if they could handle getting nine nine uh you know penalties for that many yards without without melting down but these guys kept on coming back and coming back and I look at that first series the first defensive series of of the second half where um you know FAU comes out of that comes out of the um the locker room energized and you know they get the they get the horse collar they get the pi and they get all the way down to the 16 yd line or 11 yard line something like that and Michigan City gets back toback sacks and with my guy Ken tally uh who I wrote about yesterday but where' that guy come from I mean that's that's the kind of thing that that you got to feel good about in this in this system you know you look at productive backups you know like Anthony Jones is that is that I want Johnson or Jones or the kid from Indiana the backup yeah there's so many new guys but he he is a big- time player as a backup I he had a great game you mentioned some other guys on the D line but to have your to have your third string defensive end in K alley um do that kind of damage that he did in the second half and every single play he had was huge Jones and tally made big fourth down plays and then you got Chris Bogle um doing his thing different player um you know the guy that I thought probably expected a little bit more on out is maybe Quin Darius dunan but when you've got those other two dudes when you got tally and Jones making plays out there then maybe you're wondering if if uh QD could be more of an inside guy in certain situations can you get more out of of them because uh you know tally showed some amazing speed and and explosiveness and um I think Michigan State might have been in trouble if they didn't have as much depth on that defensive line because because they were chasing him around he is athletic as you know as anybody in the country to be honest with you and I'll go back to rewatching the defense I'll go back to what I said in the vcast after the game the fact that Michigan State um was disciplined enough to keep him from springing huge plays uh but also you know we're able to get as many sacks on him hit him as much as they did I was really impressed and going back to the scheme the system that benefits people C Halliday had a good game you know and I think this scheme is better for him yeah much better for him he was like so active as a communicator out there it was good to see him being able to be that uh you know defensive leader as a linebacker and you saw him scraping an alley Pursuit and find you know being moving with this Gap and doing with AGG aggressiveness instead of two gapping and I'm not saying two gapping is the wrong way to play but for some of these guys it's new and they said in the spring that the the returning players they excited about this system because it enables you to play to make more plays behind the line of scrimmage and boom we saw it in that game it' be tougher this weekend against Maryland um you know as far as Ken tally goes it's interesting that tally sometimes it's not who starts a game who's finishing a game and tally finished that game yeah yeah had 20 snaps I mean soan had 14 snaps you're looking at you know and I think starting defensive starting defensive and Jaylen Thompson had 40 40 STS so you know like dunan I you know I was looking at the Pro Football Focus snap count and I'm like okay like d again he's going to be somewhere in there and I think he played good I think he played some good snaps those 14 snaps were valuable um you know he did his job but to tally uh what he did in 20 snaps and most of those 20 snaps were in the second half that's going to earn him an opportunity to build on that now whether he makes good on that and takes that next St um it reallys be a scene but it's huge for everybody because you got you know you got Anthony Jones making having a huge game at Russia and is a back up and you you know he's going to be pushing Chris Bogle it's good for everybody no one can rest on their Laurels no one's got you know and everybody is like has opportunity to make plays the number of guys that they're playing and and that that creates a team all the chemistry stuff in the offseason that gets reinforced when everyone else is making plays and uh and that helps you get better over the course of the Season helps you absorb losses when guys get hurt yeah I don't think a real big deal I don't think any of those guys want to play 75 snaps out there and they're all better if they're playing 30 or 35 saw at the end of the game you saw a battered quarterback going against a fresh defensive front and that was a game set match he took he's got a lot of heart got a lot of respect for fer he took some hits some of them were illegal you know flags and so forth but you know you mentioned the play when he hurt his hand and the one play when even when uh um nikai Martinez came over and you know little little sweep tackle out of bounds he went and hit the wall I mean all those things added up and at the end of the game fourth and one you know the big play in question the big controversial play I love fanter I I totally respect but why is he sliding on a fourth and one play at the at the first down yards because he was bad or because he had taken so much abuse so Michigan state was physical and and that play went in Michigan State's favor just cuz he see sliding at the first down mark on a fourth down play I well I mean I get it because he was he was in Joe Frasier mode at that point in Manila about round 13 or 14 and credit to him and credit to him for finishing because he did hit hurt his hand like you said but his non thrwing hand and he told his coaches for the last play I think I can go out and play one more play which what Kurt Gibson said for he the home run against the Dodgers boy back when but Michigan State's defense got to him early and often what six or seven sacks a couple more that were uh uh like hallay was it Halliday didn't get credit for one of the sacks because it was actually a designed keeper but then Kent tally you know on the last play of the game where the guy throws it away all for all intents and purposes it was a sack for a fourth down play as well pass rush was there fresh defensive front they manufactured that against an offensive line that was questionable now move up in weight class we'll be talking about it all week in terms of the Maryland game but your early thoughts on on Maryland and what michig Cate needs to get done this week it's going to be interesting because I think Michigan state is going to be better and Maryland's a tough Maryland's a tough team to play anytime but Michigan State obviously seems to draw him early in the season now this is Uber early in the season yeah um they've got a lot of uh they've got a lot of experience back I don't think it hurts Michigan State though to have a game like this you know if Maryland's feeling good about them themselves a little bit uh you know every and they have to be right they go up against ukana no one knows how good or bad Yukon is yukon's not in the conference or an independent um you know their coverage has been rated non-stop for for players or you know from through the through the transfer portal Michigan State's got one of them and Nate Carter but um you know Maryland did a nice job I I think that that quarterback is pretty accurate I think he's uh fairly athletic I I think they have a good scheme you know they do a lot of I mean for me it's like okay this defense is going to face a completely different type of challenge but it's it's like okay can you Michigan State actually has had some success some of these guys on defense they had some success playing against Mar a little bit um the offense hasn't shown up in those situations you know so I think for Michigan State offense has to you know has to reciprocate I think Maryland's going to score points Michigan city has to score points they have to they have to run the football with consistency and do it better than they did against Florida Atlantic that's number one Aiden Charles he has to play the system he can't worry about you know biting off too much or trying to do too much he's got to play take go where his reads take him use his use his guys um you small plays can turn into big plays they often do uh and that defense they you know they have to be disciplined which they in a lot of ways despite the penalties they were what I mean by discipline is they can't like you know they can't overp pursue they can't you know let these short passes turn into huge gains um and but everyone's got to play together it's going to be a tough game but I think Michigan State's probably in a little bit better situation then people realize and I think I think they're going to get better this week yeah I do think it's true the teams get better from week one to week two I think they I think they'll play well may they may not win but I think they'll play better they I do I do honestly believe that Michigan State's a team on both sides of the ball that has the potential to you know show the physicality where you're going to know you played Michigan State on a weekly on a weekly basis and that's kind of to me what I want I want to see Michigan State have a winning season try to get to a bowl game if possible but they got to establish their identity that means who they are running the football physically play physically and defense you know and Joe Rossi he knows who mer what Maryland's all about you know so you'll have a good game plan to counter it um you talking to offensive players today they feel good about their game plan they have for Maryland they saw some man coverage against uh FAU they'll see probably more of it against against Maryland so it'll be interesting to see uh you know what steps they do to take what steps are taking to for those guys to have to bounce back do we need to remind the ner people that Maryland was 8 and5 last year and it was 21 nothing against the Spartans last year in the first quarter and they won 31 to7 against Michigan State whatever it was and Maryland beat Auburn in a b game and gave Michigan one of the toughest games of the year you remind these people I know a lot of you know that but Maryland's had three straight winning seasons they L to Maryland there's going to be some people that be like oh this is terrible Maryland's pretty good people right same and they they lost teoa but the new guy coming in at quarterback dude he looked pretty good yeah I'm not so certain that t Balo is is the be all end all he's got the last name he did a nice job statistically he's a record set I think he did he did a really nice job there but I'm just saying for what that I give a lot of credit to the scheme what I'm saying he's a good quarterback Tagle BYO is a good quarterback but that locking scheme is really is really effective um and you know that quarterback completed 75% of his passes last week I think it's going to be a big game for uh for linebackers we'll see what happens there um you know he's a good physical Runner that quarterback too he reminds me of Drew Stanton the way he'll he'll tuck it and run so there's a lot of problems there and Josh gtis the offensive coordinator former offens coordinator at Michigan um Michigan State's going I thought showed signs of becoming a good defense and you can be a good defense and an offense like Maryland can still score 27 on you absolutely but the the the Michigan State offense has to has to do their thing you can play well and they can score 27 right and we've seen we've seen we've seen some of Michigan st's honestly best defensive performances of the Melt Tucker era they've had a few of them against Maryland no they they ended up being lops side losses because the offense couldn't you know couldn't do their thing or mov the ball and didn't score points if that happens again I can see another situation where Michigan State's losing 35 to 14 or something like that um that would be a problem that that would not well and I can understand the knee jerks if they're upset I understand that but I can see it happening too you know like uh you know it's but I but I want to see Michigan State get better I think you know Wayne Matthews is a guy that gr graded out pretty well in this game as a backup I think because of his cover skills he could be a guy that that has a big game in this I think this will be interesting to see how how they use their linebackers how they um you know how you know how Rossy tailor his Personnel to the matchup at hand I do like the way Joe Rossy uh you know kind of tries to fit his scheme on a weekly basis to the guys that he has instead of trying to like push everyone into to a square a square peg hole with a round Peg um I I do think that uh he'll have some some wrinkles up his sleeve um I'm it'd be interesting to me to see how Maryland's guys uh their quarterback and they probably play two quarterbacks there's a good chance that they do but how they handle uh some of the coverage the change ups and coverage that that Joe Rossy does you know that that's something that gives sometimes that change in coverage gives you an extra tick uh as a front seven to make plays so I want to give Michigan State's secondary a little bit of credit last week for some of the players of their offensive line in the front seven because change in window dressing and the coverages is effective way to uh to slow young quarterbacks out especially if you know pre stamp at the line of scrimmage when you're looking to see where 15 and is we number one is if you're Michigan State you know a lot of times offenses are predicated on that okay where's the strong safety but with the way Michigan State changes their safeties that makes it that much harder to get a read and get a beat on things provided you don't mess yourself up but Michigan state with a lot of sophisticated things in on defense uh they were on the same page communication was good couple of blips couple of times when uh they lost Gap Integrity on some runs that went for seven or eight yards against this guy Hendry or whatever his name is the running back he's good he can go for further than that if you make Gap error so there's things to clean up things to work on um but they won you know I'm not caught up too much in the score they almost let the game get away I understand that but I saw a lot of other pieces that I I thought were I thought were pretty encouraging not the least of which is that gross is a new player and both as a new player I he was quick off the edge and he was disengaging with strength and and uh he was active we'll see what he does when offensive tackles get better but that was and now we know why now we know why that he's at at Russia you know and then you know CU Anthony Jones was pretty damn good too you know that was a good deal I want to go back to what you you said a little bit about moving guys around and stuff like that that can be a little bit of a problem during this helmet communication era because that communication cuts off at 15 seconds or 10 seconds so if you have guys moving around late um it's harder to make those kind of adjustments for the offense you know like for for the offense if you got def defensive players moving around um you know so that's one of the things that Joe Rossi and that you know like a de defense that keeps people a second guessing when moving pieces on the chessboard that that's there's a value to that because you can't communicate 15 seconds left um in that in that headset all right so Michigan State I think they're an eighto underdog on Saturday uh in other words people around across the country not expecting Michigan State to win I'm expecting Michigan State to play well and provided they don't have the turnover situation and the and the penalty situation and childes makes some steps I think it's going to be a good tight Big 10 battle against a good quality Maryland team that might be even ahead of schedule where people thought they would be based on having to replace tag of aloa I think it's going to be a good two I I'm not here to say Michigan State's good right now but I think I think we could see two quality Big 10 teams going at it in a meaningful game here early in the season both teams need to put away wins early in the year cuz the back end of the schedule for both teams is really tough it's going to be good football Saturday I think Michigan State's going to play a good solid clean physical game the one thing to watch for Aiden Charles too with Maryland playing as much manto man as they do is is if he can get out and run a little bit you know child yeah I mean I think you know if they see quite a bit of manto man I wouldn't be surprised for for uh for him to have some plays where you know where he's quick to use his feet yeah and they ran a quarterback sweep quarterback uh you know some Zone read keeps and stuff I thought in the pre- snap read I thought more might default to him tucking and running but but not as much of that the quarterback draws were good including the touchdown again that stuff's hard to I mean you can wrap it with a red jersey on in practice you know like it's it's a little bit different when you've got a guy you know live guy against different types of Defense so I think that's something that has to have a feel for just like ball security you know quarterback doesn't get hit all do you remember what Connor Cook looked like at the beginning of his sophomore year not very good not very good right um I remember doing a two-hour podcast over at hobes um this might have been the rose bow year about you know like after that Notre Dame game I believe it was and you know is this the end of the world you know people were ready to give up on De Antonio and his St and uh you know so nothing has really changed J I mean I I you know you you might say Hey you know are you surprised by the overreaction I'm not I'm not because you can go 13 in one and uh and people can you know now child's needs to show he can make some reads one thing I liked about cook early on is that you could see he he was making progressions quickly he was processing things quickly and that enabled him for his physical talent to catch up to his brain um child's needs to show he can make some reads and those type of things but he has more natural quarterback Talent than cook did so and I do think that some some of those intermediate passes I mean some good really for a Young quarterback and usually those guys are either you know under throwing them or over throwing them by a mile and then you see a lot of tip ball interceptions and whatnot his touch is really good for his hard as he throws the ball um you know and receivers got to make plays too and and Maryland's receiver Felton can fly so I got to deal with him see what's going on there at the corner position I thought Bradley improved but Michigan State going to get a real solid test against a real football team regard for people out there with limited college football knowledge that might assume that the Maryland football brand is not good and they might not be a good team you need to wake up and realize it's a good football team and a tough Chan three straight winning seasons three straight bow wins um I wasn't high in lley when he came in but he's a good recruiter he owns that DMV area they're getting good players out of DC and the surrounding areas and uh and that scheme is really really good now the question has always been how about the defense can that defense uh you know be decent you know it's almost like it's almost has it's almost like the Minnesota Glenn Mason you know how potent that offense was their defense wasn't wasn't necessarily there he can get talent in there on the defense that Glenn Mason couldn't and uh and I think they've done a nice job with that program and it'll be fun I think it'll be fun to watch because uh I think these are two teams that I know Michigan State didn't look good in week one but these guys are in the same weight class um you know I middle of the Season I'd like if Michigan state stays healthy I would like to see them match up then yeah but I felt the same way against Maryland the last few years every time you get them early in the season that tends to be when they're at their best it is and uh you know Michigan State's getting him early and Michigan state has a lot to prove and uh it would really be helpful if Maryland took them lightly based on what they saw in film could could that's a human nature thing again we'll see if Michigan State can make the most Improvement between week one and week two they need to and if they do uh they're going to be competitive on Saturday and and going forward I think they're dangerous offensive line ceiling is not that high collectively but they're going to improve as well also I don't know how high that can go but we'll be here to cover anything else Paul for Paul con my name is Jim compron we're in East laning with the Spartans at the pearis plaza Michigan State University watching the vcast on spartanmag.com