Editor's note: This is a guest article from Brad LaPlante, who formerly contributed to Spartans Illustrated as a hockey insider and columnist. The opinions in this piece do not necessarily reflect those of Spartans Illustrated.
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After a 31-9 loss on Saturday to Maryland, Michigan State fell to 2-2 (0-1 in Big Ten play) on the 2023 season, and things are seemingly getting worse.
Redshirt junior quarterback Noah Kim is getting the brunt of the criticism, with fans taking to social media to argue that he is, in fact, not the answer the Spartans were searching for despite a cohort of MSU supporters calling his name last season amidst Payton Thorne’s struggles.
Following Thorne's transfer to Auburn, Kim won the starting quarterback job in fall camp over redshirt freshman Katin Houser and true freshman Sam Leavitt, largely because he was the most consistent in practice. The thought (or at least hope) was that Kim would be more consistent in 2023 than Thorne was in 2022, but that hasn’t happened yet.
After two hard-fought games against Mid-American Conference foe Central Michigan and FCS opponent Richmond, MSU scored a total of 16 points against Washington and Maryland combined.
To MSU’s credit, Washington is quite the opponent. The Huskies defeated Michigan State 41-7 and could’ve scored more. And then scored 59 points versus California this past week. This a team ranked No. 7 in the country for a reason. Against Maryland, Michigan State turned the bal over five times. It's hard to win that way.
The good news for MSU is that there are still multiple winnable games on the schedule moving forward. Despite a collapse, Michigan State has a chance to go bowling in December. But this quarterback situation needs to be fixed, and fast.
Michigan (Oct. 21), Ohio State (Nov. 11) and Penn State (Nov. 24) are Michigan State’s toughest remaining opponents. We’ll assume MSU drops those three games. That’s five guaranteed losses, total. Obviously that number could end up being higher.
But, outside of the haves in the Big Ten, there are plenty of have-nots. Iowa is next on the schedule. The Hawkeyes fell 31-0 to Penn State last weekend. While the Hawkeyes remain stout defensively, the offense has struggled. Rutgers (Oct. 14) is after the bye week, but the Scarlet Knights fell 31-7 against Michigan last week. Minnesota (Oct. 28) lost to Northwestern in overtime. Nebraska (Nov. 4) is struggling this season, losing to Colorado and Minnesota already. MSU is actually still projected to win against the Cornhuskers. Meanwhile, Indiana (Nov. 18) needed four overtimes against Akron.
The worst for MSU may be in the rear-view mirror. Sure, the Big Ten East is one of the toughest divisions in college football, but there is a real opportunity to win at least four more games, qualify for a bowl game and salvage this season.
Michigan State's rally starts with Kim under center. He needs to get his act together or MSU needs to replace him because whatever the team is doing now isn’t working offensively. The defense is actually performing, all things considering. Outside of allowing 700-plus yards to Washington, which has the top passing offense in college football (467.2 yards per game), it has held up.
Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa threw for just 223 yards and MSU captured an interception Saturday afternoon. Tagovailoa entered the game averaging 296.3 years per game on the season. The defense also often had to deal with short fields due to turnovers by the offense, but still held its own. But the defense is still not good enough to carry a Big Ten team.
MSU’s offense, on the other hand, is deeply concerning. Kim has led Michigan State’s offense to nine points in the last two games, a number so low that this writer can spell out it in AP Style. Michigan State's one touchdown against Washington was scored on a rushing play by Houser.
This week, acting head coach Harlon Barnett said that MSU is going to “stick with” Kim at quarterback. Why? It would be understandable if the Spartans were vying for a division title and had the talent to do so. But there’s nothing at stake and nothing to lose.
Of course, the struggles on the field follow the off-the-field turmoil going on within the program.
Head coach Mel Tucker is now gone. The university officially terminated his employment agreement on Wednesday after initialing suspending him amidst sexual harassment allegations. Of course, this comes after Tucker admitted to having phone sex with a vendor, Brenda Tracy, hired by the university to educate players about sexual harassment and violence.
Half of MSU’s roster might be turned over by spring. Yes, Barnett said after the Maryland game not a single player raised their hand when asked if they wanted to leave the program, but who would? Wrong time to ask.
None of these players wanted this and didn’t deserve it. They thought they were signing on to join a program on the rise, not one that just set itself back three years. With Tucker's firing now official, players now have a 30-day window to enter the transfer portal if they want to pursue that route.
Options to replace Kim include Houser and Leavitt. Both probably deserve more time than they’ve been getting, but it’s unclear as to why the coaching staff have decided otherwise. Perhaps Kim really does look much better in practices, even if he doesn't in game situations, or there’s something about either Houser or Leavitt that we don’t know.
As mentioned, Houser led MSU's only scoring drive against the Huskies. He also led Michigan State deep inside Maryland's 10-yard line last weekend, but ultimately threw an interception.
While the future of the staff is uncertain, the coaches are still considering whether Leavitt’s playing time is worth it. If he plays more than four games, he burns his redshirt. It would make sense not to do that in Leavitt's first year of college football. However, after appearing against Maryland, he could still play in three more games this season before losing the redshirt.
If MSU moves on from Kim, chances are it’s permanent. It’s hard to come back if Houser or Leavitt don’t pan out, though.
Kim’s ceiling isn’t high enough to justify the benefit of the doubt. MSU has already played four games. Nobody is “giving up” on him, but this season is still salvageable. If Michigan State wants any chance at that opportunity, it needs to consider other options at the quarterback position.
- QB
- TE
- LB
- S
- OT
- TE
- CB
