Michigan State dropped its second-straight game on Saturday, falling to the Maryland by a final score of 31-9.
The Spartans out-gained the Terrapins in total yardage on the day, but five turnovers gave Maryland plenty of opportunities to score.
Let’s dive in to this week’s takeaways
The quarterback competition should be open again
Noah Kim had a solid first two weeks of the season as Michigan State's starting quarterback, and was even named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week after the Richmond game.
But, Kim came out flat against Washington in Week Three, and that continued against Maryland. He threw for 190 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions, with nearly a third pick that the Terrapins dropped. Kim completed just 18 of his 33 passing attempts (54.5%). Kim did have a few passes that should have been caught fall incomplete, but he was also off target on several throws.
Following the game, acting head coach Harlon Barnett said that Kim is still MSU's quarterback moving forward. But if the Spartans want to turn anything out of this season, then the quarterback competition needs to be open again.
Katin Houser led the Spartans' lone scoring drive against Washington, and seemed to breathe new life into the offense against Maryland on Saturday. Granted, his appearance against Maryland ended in an interception, but perhaps there’s some upside there still.
True freshman Sam Leavitt also got to make his debut for the Spartans on Saturday, but only attempted two passes for nine yards.
The Spartans realistically have nothing to lose and everything to gain with this season. If Kim bounces back from these last two weeks and earns the start again going forward, then that’s great. But if "ball security is job security," which is what has been preached within the program the last few seasons, then something has got to give soon.
I'm not calling for Kim to be benched, as he earned the job in fall camp, but perhaps the other quarterbacks should get reps with the first-string in practice this week and the player who performs the best should draw the start at Iowa on Saturday.
There are question marks at the position, and they need to be addressed as soon as possible if Michigan State wants to win some games this year and salvage the 2023 season as best it can.
Defense takes a step forward
You might look at the score and be very confused by this, but think about it for a second. The defense was reeling against Washington, giving up a record-breaking 713 yards of offense. It would have been easy to let that continue against Taulia Tagovailoa and a talented Maryland offense. But, the Spartans held the Terrapins to 223 passing yards after Tagovailoa came in averaging nearly 300 yards per game.
Now, part of that was the short fields the Terrapins got off of Michigan State turnovers. But, on the drives that didn’t begin thanks to a turnover, the defense held Maryland to just one field goal in six drives. The other drives, which all started in Maryland’s territory, all ended in zero points allowed. Plus, it's not really a surprise that MSU gave up 31 points. to Maryland due to constantly defending those short fields.
It was a slow start by the defense, allowing Maryland to score three-straight touchdowns to open the game, but two of those were following turnovers, and the Spartans later buckled down. In fact, Barnett said after the game that he was "very encouraged" by the unit's performance in the second half.
Michigan State, which entered the game as the No. 1 team in FBS in third-down defense, allowed Maryland to convert each of its first four third-down attempts. However, the Terps finished the game just 6-for-15 on third-down attempts (40%), converting just twice on its final 11 tries.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t an outstanding performance from the defense, but given what happened the week before, it was certainly something the Spartans can build off of, especially with Iowa’s struggling offense coming up next week.
Still a long way to go, but it’s not over
There’s plenty that Michigan State needs to clean up, but the good news is all the issues are fixable. While it’s pretty evident the Spartans aren’t competing for the Big Ten East or a playoff spot, a bowl game in the midst of all the craziness of the last two weeks would be something to be proud of for the team.
It would be easy to just throw in the towel and finish the year 2-10 or 3-9, but I think there’s still a potential path to a few more wins for the Spartans this year if they can continue to improve.
Of course, things could get very interesting in the next few days, with a 30-day transfer portal window opening for Michigan State players on head coach Mel Tucker's effective firing date on Sept. 26. It will be interesting to see if any major contributors decide to leave the program, and obviously that will play a factor into how the rest of the season will play out.
Iowa’s offense is struggling, although a night game at Kinnick Stadium is always a nightmare scenario, and Michigan State will more than likely have trouble moving the ball against the Hawkeyes' defense. Rutgers played Michigan tough for a half this week, but the Scarlet Knights' issues were glaring in the second half. Indiana struggled with Akron at home, and Minnesota just handed Northwestern’s interim head coach David Braun his first Big Ten win. Nebraska has struggled for much of the year.
While Michigan State could lose any of those games still, especially given the turmoil around the Tucker situation, there are still some winnable games on the schedule if the Spartans clean up the mistakes.
Final Thoughts
Michigan State struggled on Saturday versus Maryland, but there were some encouraging signs. With some winnable games left on the schedule, there’s no reason the Spartans can’t still be competitive this season, but there are still a lot of factors at play.
Next up is an Iowa team with an offense that’s reeling. But, with a very strong defense, the offensive issues for Michigan State need to get figured out quickly if the Spartans want to return home with a win next week. We’ll have to wait and see if they do.
