Michigan State was thoroughly dominated by its rival, Michigan, on Saturday night in Spartan Stadium. The Wolverines won by a final score of 49-0.
After the game, interim head coach Harlon Barnett didn't look to make excuses.
"(We) played a top-10 team, they were superior to us tonight," Barnett said after the loss. "(We) got our butts kicked. (The) 24-hour rule is still in place, and we've got Minnesota next up."
This defeat was humiliating for Michigan State. It was the Wolverines' largest margin of victory over the Spartans since 1947 (55-0). Michigan was clearly the better team from the opening drive through the final whistle.
When asked if there is anything Barnett can teach his players after the lopsided loss, he spoke about taking accountability. The Spartans have had to fight through a lot of adversity on and off the field in 2023, and that continues to be the case after Saturday night's showing.
"You gotta be a man," Barnett said when asked what life lesson he can share with the team after the 49-0 blowout loss to Michigan. "Being a man is taking responsibility in everything you do, and accountability, and that's a life lesson in itself. You live long enough, you'll go through some things in life that'll make you say, 'it's just life' ... This too shall pass, at some point in time, based on my faith. I don't know when, but it will pass at some point in time. I believe in it, I'll never lose faith in that, and it's just where we are right now.”
Barnett mentioned that since he took over at the helm on Sept. 10, following the suspension of Mel Tucker (who has since been fired), his priority has been keeping the team together. Due to that, he hinted that he may have been letting some things slide in terms of on-the-field and off-the-field obligations because he wanted to be "compassionate" given what the players were going through after losing their head coach.
Now, enough time has gone by, and enough losses have accumulated that Barnett is ready to go back to the way he would normally handle things. There are repercussions for not following the rules, and Barnett plans to be more strict about enforcing the rules moving forward.
"Whether you lose by one or 49 (points), it's still a loss," Barnett said. "What I told them (after the game) was ... I've been trying to make sure we all stay together, that's been my number one thing since I've been put in this position. In doing some of that, I've probably been like, ‘That's OK that he did that,’ a little bit, nothing crazy, but that's not really who I am as a person. I was trying to be compassionate toward the players. Now, I told them, 'I'm just going to be me all the way.' I told them, 'I was trying to be compassionate, we've been through this now, we know what it is, we are in an adverse situation and now we had enough time to think about it and mull it over.
"Now, it's just like, let me be me, as far as, 'OK, If you're not here where you're supposed to be, on time, every day, all day like you're supposed to be, now you won't play.' Because, that's me. I am a compassionate person, I understood the situation we were in, so I was trying to just make sure everybody stayed together. Now it's going to be, who you see out there are guys you know are all in and going to give us everything all day, every day. I'm talking on and off the field. It wasn't nothing super egregious before, but I'm real big on time stuff and respect, so that's what's going to start showing up over these next several weeks."
Michigan State had 11 penalties for 102 yards. Meanwhile, Michigan had seven for 65 yards. Barnett has continued to preach discipline, but the Spartans have struggled in this area since he took over the team.
Barnett and the staff are still looking for answers on how to remedy the discipline issues.
"Very, very important," Barnett said when asked how big of a priority fixing penalties is for him. "I didn't know it was 11 again, that's what it was against Washington. You can't play top-10 teams in the country and have 11 penalties. It was the exact same number against those guys and you saw very similar results (in the Washington and Michigan games). We got a ways to go to get to that level, but we played top-10 teams and had our worst penalty games. We can't do that, we can't beat ourselves. It still falls back to discipline. We had started getting better at those things, but we've still got to continue to work on it, obviously."
Getting blown out by your biggest rival in front of your home crowd, and being completely kept off the scoreboard, is obviously a difficult situation to deal with for the Spartans. In a season that has been full of off-the-field controversy and has now seen Michigan State lose five-straight games, this may have been the toughest thing for Barnett to deal with on the field in his short tenure thus far.
"It might be," Barnett said when asked if this was the lowest point of the Spartans' season. "I thought it was low last week (against Rutgers), and (now) lower. But, you've gotta shake it off and keep fighting, that's all I know. That's all I know, you've gotta shake it off and keep fighting."
Michigan State sixth-year senior linebacker Aaron Brule led the Spartans in tackles on Saturday night with 11, including two tackles for loss, and he also recorded a sack.
Brule echoed Barnet's sentiments that staying together and holding each other accountable is of the utmost importance. He does not believe his team will fold.
"We just gotta stay together, that's basically what (Coach Barnett) is saying," Brule said. "He's just saying stay together. In situations like this, teams that don't have discipline and don't have people to really keep guys together, they can fall apart. I don't think that's the case with us. We just really wanna win. I think we'll eventually take that steps to pull these last five wins (of the 2023 season out)."
Similarly to Barnett, Brule seemed to hint toward some changes needing to be made in terms of off-the-field activities, which he thinks can translate to on-the-field success.
"Guys are gonna go to class, we're gonna do everything right off the field leading up throughout the whole week, like Coach Barnett harps on us every week" Brule said. "We're gonna make sure guys are doing things right off the field, and hopefully that leads to success on the field. Making sure guys aren't missing practice if it's little nicks and bruises, everybody's gotta be at practice, we gotta practice harder each week. We'll get through this."
Redshirt sophomore running back Nate Carter conceded that the locker room was depleted after being shut out by Michigan, but that the Spartans will continue to work to turn things around and fight for wins the rest of the season.
"You could imagine a lot of guys were definitely upset, disappointed," Carter said about the locker room after the game. "Nobody wants to have their rival beat them in their own house the way that we lost. It was definitely tough, and we have to be able as men to pick our heads up and to continue to move on and to grow from this.
"We still have five more games left in the season, and we have to go out there and do what we can to win those last five games, no matter what team it is. So, that's our mindset right now. We're going to continue to push forward and continue to drive so we can finish this season out strong."
Barnett was also asked about how to refocus the team after five losses in a row. He continues to preach the importance of limiting the mistakes, being disciplined and making sure that everybody is on the same page.
"Well one of the ways (to keep the team focused), first of all, when talking to them and making sure they all understand — and I think they do, but you've got to say it again to make sure that they stay there — how penalties and turnovers and not getting off the field on third down are things that you can't win football games if you're doing those things," Barnett said. "So, you've got to talk to them about it again, put a heavy emphasis on it again, make sure that they all truly understand. Because you can feel the room, 'Everybody understand? Yes, we understand.'
"If there's mumbling, then they don't truly understand ... If there is mumbling, then you say, 'What is it that we don't understand about what we're doing wrong to get better?' And then they may express themselves. So, you've got to have some dialogue with the team, and some back and forth. But most times, I can already tell you, I feel like most of them are going to say, 'Yes, we understand we're beating ourselves, we've got to get it corrected and this is how we're going to get it done.' And then we stay together, stay unified, we hold each other accountable on those things and then we have a chance to improve and get better and possibly win some football games."
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