Michigan State’s season got off to a winning start on Friday night. The Spartans pulled away from Central Michigan in the second half and won by a final score of 31-7.

MSU head coach Mel Tucker took the podium on Monday afternoon to recap Friday’s victory and look ahead to the Spartans' game on Saturday against Richmond.

“I thought we played well in the second half,” Tucker said about Friday's win over Central Michigan. “Did some really good things. There was a lot of positives. And obviously, we got some things we need to clean up.”

Tucker also talked about what specifically he liked about his team’s performance on Friday.

“I really liked, in terms of things maybe you don’t see, our attitude and our demeanor throughout the game and our poise, and our confidence and our patience was great,” Tucker said. “I told our guys, I said, ‘Listen, it’s going to be tough sledding, gotta stick with the process, continue to play the next play.’ I said we might get booed, which we did. I said don’t worry about it. Let’s continue to play the next play. Let’s keep chopping, keep chopping. That was the attitude of our players and coaches the entire game.”

Penalties is certainly one of the areas that Tucker and the Spartans want to clean up as the season progresses. On Friday, MSU committed eight penalties, which totaled 66 yards.

Tucker talked about the coaching staff’s approach to penalties and how they go about coaching it.

“You have two types of penalties,” Tucker said. “You have aggressive penalties and you have foolish penalties, like a false start or too many guys on the field. I mean that’s just dumb, right? And then you've got some aggressive penalties, like there might be a bang-bang PI (pass interference) or there may be a face mask."

The staff uses two different approaches to clean up the two different types of penalties.

“We can clean up the aggressive penalties with technique,” Tucker said. “Better technique, how you get in a better position to begin with so you can make a better tackle, so you’re not on the guy's face.”

Tucker understands that aggressive penalties will happen but he wants to limit the foolish penalties as much as possible.

“The foolish penalties, it’s just unacceptable,” Tucker said. “We’re coaching our players to eliminate foolish penalties. Like there’s one penalty (Derrick) Harmon got. I didn’t see it. I don’t know what happened. We turned that in. We’ll get the interpretation back from the league on what he did wrong. We have to coach off of those and say, ‘Hey, this is foolish, this is aggressive. How do we clean this up?’ We’re not trying to coach a team to be penalty-free. We just want to (eliminate) foolish penalties. We’re going to have some aggressive penalties. Guys are playing aggressively … We’re going to clean those up with technique.”

Nebraska transfer wide receiver Alante Brown suffered an injury during the opening kickoff when he collided with a Central Michigan player on a block. Brown was put on a stretcher and left the field on an injury cart.

Brown returned to the game near the end of the first half on a kickoff return in which he returned it 16 yards. Tucker did not have an update on how Brown was feeling, but said that the decision to put Brown back in the game was based on the medical's staff assessment.

“For me, all of those decisions are all medical," Tucker said. "If a guy plays, if he doesn’t play. If he practices, he doesn’t practice, it’s all medical. I don’t have anything to do with those. If they tell me a guy’s up and he can go, then he’ll play. If they tell me he’s down, then he’s out.”

Running back Nate Carter was one of the bright spots on offense on Friday night. He was the leading rusher for the Spartans as he totaled 113 yards and one touchdown on 18 carries. Carter’s first play from scrimmage went 31 yards right up the gut of the Central Michigan defense. He had another 31-yard gain later in the game.

“He’s a great kid,” Tucker said about Carter. “He’s a great teammate. He practices hard. He trains hard. He’s very humble, hard-working. He’s a pleaser. He wants to get it right. It’s all about the team with him. He’s a very spiritual kid. He’s got a very, very strong faith. He’s an asset. He’s a great teammate. He’s the type of guy you want on your team. You want to be able to coach guys like him. You want to have teammates like him.”

Tucker added that Carter is still a young player as a redshirt sophomore and has “a lot of upside" for the future,

“He’s explosive,” Tucker said. “He’s got good vision, he’s quick. He runs hard, keeps his feet moving after contact. He’s smart. He’s willing to block in pass pro(tection) and things like that.”

Tucker hinted at a possible return from injury this week at the running back position.

"We're getting healthier at running back,” Tucker said. “Should be able to add another guy to the mix this week hopefully."

Despite not explicitly saying so, Tucker seems to be referring to Jaren Mangham. Mangham was the only running back listed on the availability report before Friday's game against Central Michigan. He did not play against CMU after being listed as questionable.

A constant theme that was repeated ad nauseam in fall camp was the increased depth, especially along the defensive line. According to Pro Football Focus, 14 different defensive lineman played for Michigan State against Central Michigan. To see the full breakdown of snaps per player, visit our message board thread here.

“It’s important to get guys to the game,” Tucker said about the defensive depth. “We made a lot of changes and feel like they’ve paid off. We’re going to continue to work that way. I think our guys understand how important it is to practice with a certain tempo and to be under control and stay off the ground and take care of the bodies and make sure we can get as many guys to the game as possible.”

Tucker added that it was “good to see depth” out on the field and that it was “huge” to be able to rotate that many players in and out.

The secondary has been an area of concern ever since Tucker arrived in East Lansing. That unit played well on Friday as the Spartans only allowed 96 passing yards. Although, the secondary was not truly tested to the degree that Washington will likely test the defensive backfield later this month.

“We’re young but we're talented,” Tucker said about the defensive backs. “And the guys are hungry and I thought they played aggressively. Tried to make some plays on the ball. And I thought they tackled well. They tackled better as the game went on. And so it was a good start for us. We still got a lot of work to do.”

A big story in college football this season is the running clock after a first down. In the past, the clock would stop after a team got a first down so that officials could reset the chains. Now, there is a running clock after a first down except during the last two minutes of each half.

The rule change has brought up questions of whether or not there would be more upsets in college football because games are shorter. It also has brought up questions of if game plans would change.

“It didn’t factor in very much in this last game,” Tucker said about the running clock. “Like I said, it just remains to be seen how much it does factor in. It wasn’t a factor in this game (against Central Michigan).”

Tucker was asked if the game felt like it moved quicker but he said that he “didn’t notice a difference.”

Richmond opened its 2023 season with a 17-10 loss at home against Morgan State. The Spiders play in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), which is still part of Division I football, but is a tier below the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).

Richmond quarterback Kyle Wickersham could test the Michigan State defense this week with his mobility. The Spartans got a taste of quarterback mobility against Central Michigan and the game on Saturday against Richmond could prove to be a similar task in that regard.

“We want to keep those guys in the pocket and make them throw from the pocket the best we can,” Tucker said. “If they are on the run, we've got to make them pay. We can’t let guys run around. If quarterbacks are going to try and run around with the ball … there’s going to be a price for that.”

With Washington coming up in Week Three, Saturday’s game is a prime look ahead spot for the Spartans, but Tucker and the team are not taking Richmond lightly.

“Richmond is a really good team,” Tucker said. “They’ve been in the playoffs the last few years. They’ve played a lot of good football. We’re just working to improve and prepare like crazy for this game. We expect to have a better football team this weekend.”

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