Michigan State suffered its fifth loss in a row on Saturday night inside Spartan Stadium. The Spartans were dominated on the field and lost 49-0 to in-state rival Michigan. That was the largest margin of defeat by the Spartans in the series since 1947.
Interim head coach Harlon Barnett is now 0-5 since taking over for Michigan State. Barnett is not one to make excuses and he owned up to the loss after the game.
"(We) got our butts kicked," Barnett noted after the Michigan game.
One of the big stories heading into Saturday’s game was the Michigan program currently being under investigation for in-person scouting and stealing signs. At times throughout the game, quarterback Katin Houser could be seen jogging to the sideline to get signals and then relaying it to the huddle. Barnett said that they did have to adjust given the knowledge of the investigation, but it was not a justification for the outcome of the game.
“It’s something that our guys have done before with teams that do it within the game,” Barnett said about teams knowing signs. “There’s some teams that are pretty good at doing it, getting signals within the game, which is all part of it, which is legal and we know that. So running to the sideline, getting the call, then going back into the huddle, telling the guys as opposed to everybody getting the signal from the sidelines. So it was a slight change, but that’s not an excuse. I don’t like excuses. We have to play better.”
Barnett was informed Wednesday night of the ongoing investigation into the Michigan program after getting a call from Michigan State athletic director Alan Haller.
“I wasn’t really expecting much to come from it, to be honest with you,” Barnett said about the investigation. “At one time, somebody did mention possibly not playing the game, but I’m like, ‘Let’s play the game.’ It don’t get you until it gets you, just remember that.”
Michigan’s defense suffocated Michigan State as the Spartans were held to a mere 182 yards of total offense and 10 first downs. Barnett spoke highly of the Wolverines’ defense, which ranks as the top-scoring defense in the nation.
“They understand the defense,” Barnett said about Michigan. “They understand where they’re supposed to be, they’re assignments and they’re coached well. When you’re a sound, disciplined defense that’s been coached well and guys do what they’ve been coached to do, then you have a chance to be pretty good. That’s who they are and that’s what they showed tonight."
While Michigan’s defensive performance was stellar, Michigan State’s offensive performance was certainly less than stellar. As for how the Spartans will adjust moving forward, Barnett said that they need to give the ball to their top playmakers “as much as possible.”
“We’re going to have to really, really study up who’s available for us, who our playmakers are and try to get them the ball as much as possible in any kind of way,” Barnett said about the offense. “Because we do have some talented young men on the offensive side of the ball that can make some things happen and so we just have to figure out what’s best and what works best for us to be able to attack those different teams that we’re going to be facing coming up and see if we can make some things happen.”
While this is a game that the Michigan State staff and players will likely want to forget, that’s not reality. The reality is that the Wolverines dominated all four quarters and shut out Michigan State at Spartan Stadium. Barnett said that the Spartans have to “face reality” and learn from it.
“You have to watch (the film),” Barnett said about the blowout loss to the Wolverines. “Face reality. You've got to face what really happened and then get better from it. Like I said, it’s still a 24-hour rule. But you want to learn from it, just like we watched last week’s film, and try to get better from it and look to finish out the season the right way where we’re not beating ourselves. Make others beat us. Make them really truly beat us. Then I can come up here and be like, ‘Oh, they beat us. We didn’t help them beat us.’ That’s the goal right now is to finish up these next five games without beating ourselves.”
Barnett has one of the toughest jobs in college football right now. He has been tasked with keeping the locker room together after the players lost their head coach when Mel Tucker was fired in September, while trying to put a good product out on the field. While the latter hasn’t come to fruition yet, the locker room, for the most part, is full of guys that “keep fighting" and are persevering through adversity.
“From the locker room I saw in there … they keep fighting, man,” Barnett said. “You've got guys speaking up, guys that are passionate, that care, correcting others. I love this group. I know we’re not getting the results that we want, but I love this group of young men. I appreciate all they’ve been doing. I think we’ll be fine. I really do.”
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