Michigan State Football defeats Florida Atlantic 16 10 - Recap and Reaction

what's going on everyone Scott here welcome back to the channel so Michigan State wins the first game of the 2024 season and the first game of Jonathan Smith era but it was anything but pretty Friday night in Spartan Stadium multiple turnovers double digit penalties it wasn't all bad though so let's talk about it go through some of the numbers from the game and what we saw plus looking ahead to what this means going forward for the team first if you could though hit that like And subscribe button down there for more Michigan State content all season long so the score 16 to10 Michigan State and all of that scoring for Michigan State came in the first half he had a safety and two touchdowns now I don't know if anyone had first score of the Jonathan Smith era as a safety on their bengo card but if you did congratulations to you because the MSU defense opened its season in the First with the dquan da sack for a safety in the second quarter KRON Lynch Adams ran the ball into the end zone but they said his forward progress was stopped called it back two plays later Aiden childes ran it in for 11 yd touchdown first of his career and first of the season and this new era for Michigan State after a three and out for Florida Atlantic Kon lch Adams took the first play of the drive 63 yards for a touchdown all looked good a slow start kind of what we expected but now things were rolling well Florida Atlantic was able to bounce back with a field goal before the end of the half and after a missed field goal and a punt on their first two drives of the second half they scored a touchdown to make it a Sixpoint all game MSU was able to hold on and win with the defense the rest of the way and Florida Atlantic had a couple chances there to get within um within a field goal or take the lead as well as it was 16 to 10 there and they had the ball a handful of times to go ahead and go score but the defense was able to hold up and keep the score that for the remain remainder of the game MSU actually did on offense have a chance to go up two scores uh kick a field goal to make it 19 to10 chose to go for it on fourth and one but they did not get it and I don't mind the call the execution in postgame Jonathan Smith said that was maybe a little bit aggressive but he was trying to preach to his team how much big a difference there is between seven points and three points I don't mind going for it there but like I said going into the season I wanted to see what this staff's philosophy and game plan was on Third and one and fourth and one wanted anything but inside zones or Dives up the middle and well the two fourth and ones that we got they were both runs up the middle uh the first one you got lucky they had to review the spot they gave us the first down on that one uh the second one you got stuffed for -2 yards so uh would like to see a little bit of change that maybe some more variation not going to freak out about that yet but I tell you I had my head staring directly at the ground for just about the whole TV timeout there in section 30 after that fourth and one was stuffed with a run up the middle uh so the good and so there was obviously good and bad from this game so let's go through the bad first listen a Tri knows he didn't play his best we all know that we all watch the game came to the oppressor immediately took full responsibility for the whole game which I love to see especially new starter 18 years old true sophomore you know obviously his first start taking responsibility for everything saying he's got to be better that's why he's a captain so I loved seeing that him and the wide receivers were just a little off and some of them you know he hit Foster in the hands a couple of times monor Foster and you know it could just couldn't reel it in and then a couple of the balls especially to Don Glover and a couple of other wide receivers there just kind of sailed the ball a little bit but look it's the first live game with this group you know and way different than obviously scrimmaging against your own defense and this is a live game and there's actual consequences to the players and decisions you make I think it'll get ironed out but as we said it could s take some time to get everyone acclimated in their new roles and new places uh Nate Carter 19 rushes 48 yards that's a 2 and a half average he had no route so work though uh similar to what we saw the last two months of last year there just weren't many creases for him to go through even KRON Lynch Adams which he was able to pop that 63 yard touchdown he didn't have much room to work with he had a couple of other nice runs where he was able to keep those legs churning but you take out that 63 yard run that's still eight rushes for 38 yards which is still 4.75 average is better than the 2.5 average but that offensive line needs to get a better push and I think some of that two is kind of similar to what I said with the wide receiver receivers needing more time with that group to work together in live game action I think it's a work in progress I think the whole offense will in general be better for the whole season but I think it's a work in progress in live games in live reps with childes and the wide receivers that's wide receivers tight ends running backs out of the backfield it'll take a while to get that all and same thing with the offens of line they said it uh the coaching staff said it multiple times leading up to the first game we're looking for the best five to put out there and kind of basically to see which five mesh together and play together the best I think that'll take a couple games to get ironed out unfortunately for us we head into a conference game next week so obviously a very important game coming up next week in College Park which obviously we'll get to you know down the road a little bit a little bit in this episode and then obviously more towards the end of the week next week as we head towards the game but it'll take a while it'll take a while to get all ironed out but I think there'll be quite an improvement from week one to week two it it's the old cliche week one to week two Improvement I think we'll see that especially from the offense defense the only bad thing I can really say is some of the penalties and some were warranted they need to get cleaned up the horse collar like coach uh Jonathan Smith mentioned postgame the targeting on on Spencer that was clearly targeting um all the other ones that were called um yeah they they were not penalties uh the late hits that the referees and the officials who are calling no that's not on the defense that's on the Florida Atlantic quarterback that he was sliding so late and you know coach Smith kind of walked through a postgame when he was asked about this it's like when your player is already quarterback's running and your player is already in Pursuit and going to make a move to tackle as coach Smith said you're taught to go low on the quarterback when he's running your players is already going low to tackle and then all of a sudden your quarterback just drops to SL last like last second and then it made it look worse too that he did not strap up his helmet one single time this whole game and every time he even got slightly pushed maybe even by his own offensive lineman his helmet went five feet in the air and flew off so that made it look a little worse but overall I thought the officiating was horrendous in terms of that part but as a whole kind of the rest of the ones and there was a lot of 15 yard penalties too which coach Smith preached on in the postgame press conference as well you know these weren't you know five yarders these were you know Killers 15 yarders a lot of that can be cleaned up obviously some of that is out of your control but the ones that you can control that can obviously be cleaned up going forward onto the good the defense as a whole I thought was solid FAU isn't or Ohio State Oregon you know some of these really good offenses that you're going to face here in a couple weeks and down the line but the defense as a whole looked good and I felt like made progress you know they forced two interceptions they got seven sacks 10 tackles for loss as I said this isn't Ohio State or Oregon's high-powered offense but we still saw some positive things out there Angelo gross played well in that cornerback role nikai Martinez at the safety position especially got a lot more run there with mik Spencer getting ejected in the first half Chris Bogle I thought looked incredible one and a half sacks two and a half tackles for loss I think he can have a special year coming off that edge the linebacker core as a whole as I said the most stacked room on the roster played good you know Cal Halliday Jordan Turner Jordan Hall Wayne Matthews love seeing Darius snow out there too they were all making plays you know throughout the game they had a nice rotation of all those guys in there it was awesome to see Alex Van summeran out there after the injuries making plays up the middle as well um overall solid day on defense it obviously does get tougher as we head on down the road heading to Maryland next week will be a little tougher coming home prview A&M might be a little bit easier than them but then obviously you ramp it up more with oh State Oregon and so on As you move through the Big 10 but solid solid first week for this defense and new offensive coordinator Joe Rossi now for the thoughts as a whole as the season is the season doomed are we not going to a bowl game should they fire the whole staff and yes I actually did hear that in section 30 in the stadium I hope they were saying that sarcastically I really hope they were no The Season's not doomed uh we knew this going to be a process coach Smith has said it ever since he got hired this going to be a process a lot of work to do but listen 61 62 new faces on the roster between freshman and transfers Charles young this was his first career start still 18 years old uh with a new group of wide receivers a new offensive line offensive line looking to work together this is something that all offensive lines have to do they have to work together in live game action to kind of get that Rhythm for each other same thing can be said about quarterback to wide receivers on those passes I think we'll as I said see a quite a bit improvement from week one to week two the first month of the season if they can rely on that defense really until that offense get gets rolling and to finish this first stretch of four games finish it at worst two and two you know you already want to know there you have perview A&M in two weeks if you do if you win those two games and then say you lose Maryland lose Boston College you finish two- two at worse I think I think 4-0 is still possible though you know just you know we saw Maryland put up quite a bit of points this weekend though and on the road in Maryland that'll be a challenge next week uh 100% that'll be a challenge Big 10 conference game as we said still super young still you know getting used to playing with each other in live game action but I'm not saying it's out of the realm a possibility that they lose that game then Boston College too you got a new staff there as well in Boston College so that's a game that you possibly can can win as well so 4-0 still possible 3 and0 is probably the betting favorite if I had to guess right now in terms of the majority of the fan base or college football world but if you can to rely on that defense to get that offensive cohesion before you run into those Buzz saws especially that back-to-back Ohio State and Oregon right there rely on your defense to keep you in the game and then you know hope that the offense makes enough plays to help you win that game and he you just keep improving this season and I think you still have a chance against in October yes we saw them put up 40 points on Saturday but I mean look at last year close to winning that game in kenck at night this one obviously at home in Spartan Stadium homecoming I think there's still a chance Iowa will still probably be a two touchdown favorite in that game as of right now but the last four are getable as well with three of the last four being at home as well I still don't see any way this team does not make a bowl game I'll knock on would but I personally do not see it with the talent on the roster it'll take time it might not look pretty I still before the season like I said if you watch any of my predictions for the season I was eight- four I said seven and5 eight and four but I said I'll be optimistic eight and four I'm not saying it's pretty it could be six and six with winning the last game of the season to get there like we saw a couple of the times you know within the last decade winning that last game to be able to go B bowling but listen as long as you meet the program expectation of going to a bowl game this year I'm taking that as a positive I think they can do a little bit better than that but that is the minimum expectation at Michigan State and as I keep saying and we'll get more into later this upcoming week as we move into Maryland next Saturday the offense will look a lot different against the turps not saying they're going to go in there put up 50 and blow them out but it'll look better progressively better each week throughout the season there's time the offense will be okay Aiden Childs will be okay but overall a win to win no matter what it was amazing to be back in Spartan Stadium looking forward to seeing how this group responds next Saturday in College Park but we'll be back in terms of Michigan State football on Friday for the Maryland game preview but that'll do it for this one thank you all so much for watching we'll see you in the next one peace out