On Saturday, Michigan State football lost its final game in its season-opening four-game homestand. The Spartans fell 31-9 to Maryland, marking the program's second consecutive loss since the off-the-field issues regarding Mel Tucker arose over two weeks ago and less than a week after MSU served notice it intends to terminate his employment agreement.
There is no doubt that the players and coaches have faced adversity this season as a result. Despite the adversity and the 2-2 record, linebacker Cal Haladay said that the team is not going to give up.
“Nobody's going to give up,” Haladay said to the media after Saturday’s game. “We’re early in the season. It’s a tough loss. We gotta get back to the film room… clean it up, because we got a big challenge ahead of us. (We’re) going to Iowa next week.”
In order for the locker room to maintain its focus on the season, leaders on the team need to step up. Haladay is one of the leaders on defense and he thinks MSU has multiple good leaders on the team.
“I think we just have many good leaders,” Haladay said. “I think that they’re really just focused on what the task at hand is. Not letting the outside noise get to us. Making sure that we have positive energy in the room.”
Linebacker Aaron Brule, who also spoke to the media after the game, said that MSU has team meetings and players are allowed to tell the team how they feel if they choose to do so.
“If anybody has something to say, (tell us) how they feel, we literally just let it all out, no matter what it is,” Brule said. “Guys are definitely still bought into the program.”
In a year where there is so much outside noise, it can be hard to block that out. The outside noise goes beyond just football too. Haladay and the team knows that the outside noise is out there so they are trying to limit time spent on social media and Haladay said that they are just trying to “keep it out.”
Sometimes, outside noise can hurt team morale. Losing can do that as well. Pile those two things on top of each other and it can weigh heavily on a student-athlete’s shoulders.
“I think it’s tough,” Haladay said. “It’s definitely tough. Losing is the worst thing in the world. (You) practice all week to go out on Saturday and not get the job done. It hurts. It hurts, but I think that we’ve been doing pretty well (team morale wise). (We’ve) been staying together and making sure that we all focus on the mission ahead.”
Brule said that the hardest thing in the past couple weeks is keeping the younger guys bought in.
“Nobody knows where their head’s really at,” Brule said. “They’re just getting here. So we want to keep those guys along with us and keep capitalizing and getting those guys better each week. Because obviously people gotta step up as the season goes on. There’s some tough games coming up and just everybody’s gotta be ready to play.”
A common theme defensively in the past two games has been slow starts. Against Washington, the Spartans' defense gave up four touchdowns on the Huskies first five possessions. Against Maryland, the Spartans allowed the Terrapins to score touchdowns on each of their first three possessions.
Haladay and the defense recognize that starting slow is an issue. He emphasized that they have to get off the field and get home on pressure.
“I think we just need to go out there and do our job,” Haladay said about the slow starts. “I think that’s the biggest thing. We can’t let them drive down the field. We gotta be able to just get off the field.”
It seemed like Michigan State had the momentum in the third quarter. Angelo Grose had an interception in the back of the end zone and the offense capitalized on that turnover to the tune of seven points.
“They jumped on us and they got a couple of touchdowns early,” Haladay said. “We just had to get back play by play. Second half we knew we were coming back out. We had some momentum… We just needed to get the ball back to our offense. That’s our goal. That’s what we’re taught and were told everyday, get the ball back to our offense.”
When the offense had the ball against Maryland, it struggled. Noah Kim had two interceptions and Katin Houser had one interception. In total, MSU’s offense turned the ball over five times with Maryland scoring 21 points off those turnovers.
“We fought hard, but they got some points,” Brule said. “No matter where they get the ball, it’s up to us to stop them. We didn’t do a good enough job.”
One thing acting head coach Harlon Barnett stressed after the Washington loss, and after the Maryland loss, is discipline. Penalties were an issue against UW and now turnovers were an issue against UMD. Brule went into detail about what goes into a disciplined football team.
“Just assignments, keys, making every play,” Brule said. “We don’t want to leave nothing on the field… We don’t want any area of error and we want to do everything as clean as possible.”
After the loss on Saturday, Barnett asked the players in the locker room if they were ready to say “this is over” or “I’m out of here.” Nobody in the locker room raised their hand.
“If you don’t want to be here, it’s gotta be the next man up to fill in for whoever, but we haven’t had that issue,” Brule said. “So I think guys are still moving in the right direction and this week, we gotta focus on Iowa and get the job done there.”
Haladay mentioned that Barnett still believes in the team and he is trying to keep the negative energy out of the locker room.
“Coach Barnett, he believes in us,” Haladay said. “He believes we’re going to win every game on the schedule, and I believe that, too. As a team, we can’t have any negative energy in the room or against the program right now, because we need to be able to be positive and lift each other up and come together. I think that’s the key with what’s going on with everything. So block out the noise and come together as a team.”
- QB
- TE
- EDGE
- DE
- WR
- OT
- OT
- CB
- LB
- DE
