Michigan State is coming off of a victory over Big Ten foe Maryland on the road. In two weeks, the Spartans travel again to face No. 24 Boston College. With FCS opponent Prairie View A&M sandwiched between, it could be easy to look ahead to the ranked opponent. MSU head coach Jonathan Smith won’t do it. He needs to see improvement from his team, and he will need it Saturday.
“These guys (Prairie View A&M) know how to win some games,” Smith said Monday. “You look at it last year, winning games in their league. I think they won their side of the conference. (They) present some players and they’ll have our full attention.”
Prairie View A&M went 6-6 in2023, but went 6-2 in Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) play, falling in the conference championship game to Florida A&M. As far as FBS competition goes, SMU crushed the Panthers 69-0 last year.
So far this year, PVAMU is 1-1. The Panthers opened with a loss to Texas Southern. On Saturday, they stopped Northwestern State a yard short of the end zone on the game’s final play to win 37-31.
Prairie View A&M is an HBCU. This weekend, Michigan State Athletics will induct the 1965 and 1966 Spartan football teams into its Hall of Fame. Those squads were coached by Duffy Daugherty, won back-to-back national championships, and most importantly, helped integrate college football by using African-American players from the segregated South.
Smith said he is "proud" to be part of a place that celebrates that sort of history.
For more information about those Michigan State teams from the 1960s that helped break down barriers in college football and what it means for current players, read Lindsay Huddleston's piece on overcoming "imposter syndrome."
Clearly, Prairie View A&M is not premier competition. Regardless, Smith has talked about the importance of improving week-to-week many times, and it still remains here.
“It’s always about us,” Smith said. “It’s always about our process. There’s no such thing as a 'trap game.' These guys will have our full attention. We respect every opponent we play. We’ve got to put in the preparation Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday – they’re gonna hear that. I’m interested to see on their prep this week because we want to play our best football in this Week Three that we’ve played all year.”
There were a handful of areas of improvement that Smith brought up. For example, the Spartans have been penalized for the most yards (240) among Power Four teams.
“It’s self-inflicted,” Smith said about the penalties. “I was not pleased with it. Week One, that was self-inflicted heavy on the defensive side. It was like the polar opposite in this one.”
Eight of Michigan State’s 10 penalties on Saturday were committed by the offense, which included two holding calls and one blindside block from guard Gavin Broscious with MSU just shy of the red zone that Smith called “terrible.”
“It starts with us,” he added on. “We’ve got to be able to coach this better, set a higher standard for that. I think I’ve said this before, the goal is not to play penalty-free. I’m not asking them to do that. We need to fly around once in a while, but it needs to be in between the whistles, playing full-speed and with great technique. But double-digit (penalties in) back-to-back (games), not good enough.”
Along with the penalties is the six turnovers in two games. That number is tied for the second-highest in the Power Four and is one below Auburn's seven.
“We’ve still got the turnover issues that are really going to bite us,” Smith said.
All three turnovers for MSU on Saturday were interceptions thrown by quarterback Aidan Chiles. Smith did clarify that he thought Chiles’ decision-making was much better against Maryland than it was against Florida Atlantic, putting the picks on just inaccuracy. After all, Chiles’ 363 yards through the air were the eighth-most in a game in school history.
Another problem against the Terrapins was the defense getting off the field. Maryland converted on its first five third-down attempts, four being on the game’s opening drive that ended in a touchdown.
“Third-down defense has got to be better, especially in that first half,” Smith said. “Credit to Maryland, schematically, they’ve got players that are tough to tackle in space. We’ve got to find a way to get off the field better on third down, but in the second half we got a little bit better and were resilient.”
Maryland ended the game 11-for-17 on third-down conversions (64.7%). That stat was much different against FAU, as the Spartans held the Owls to just 2-for-14 (14.3%) in those situations.
Offensively, the unit also responded in kind on critical downs. MSU went from 3-for-13 on third down against FAU (23.08%) to 8-for-14 (57.1%) against the Terrapins.
Smith also said that he would like to see the run game gain more efficiency and that the offensive line’s protection of Chiles was not as good as it was in Week One, which could partially be due to the loss of starting right guard Kristian Phillips, who is expected to miss the remainder of the 2024 season.
At running back, Smith showed a desire for a “balanced attack” with Nate Carter and Kay’ron Lynch-Adams. He said that Carter, despite a slightly sluggish start, was instrumental as a blocker during both of MSU’s two-minute drives against Maryland and that he’s “not down at all” on him after a slow start statistically for Carter (30 carries for 107 yards, 3.6 yards per carry, and zero touchdowns).
“That’s how the season will go,” Smith said. “One guy will get a hot hand and we might ride him for a little bit. (It) takes all 11 in the run game to get the thing going. We’re confident that Nate (Carter) will be right there.”
On the injury front, Smith said that cornerback Chance Rucker will likely be out six to eight weeks, marking a third long-term injury to MSU’s secondary, along with fellow defensive backs Dillon Tatum and Khalil Majeed.
“We’ve got some other options of guys that need to step up in there,” Smith said about the secondary. “We’ll see how this week of practice goes to determine who those guys are.”
Despite the issues, Smith still found many things to be happy about from the road win. He had praise for kicker Jonathan Kim regarding the two field goals that helped make the difference in the game, including the game-winner.
Along with that, Smith was happy to see more explosive plays from the offense, how they handled the two-minute drives and overall effort from the team while MSU was trailing.
Now back in East Lansing with a team fresh off an upset road victory, Smith is excited for the opportunity to move MSU to 3-0 for the first time since 2021 with a win Prairie View A&M.
“We’re back to work, focused on a process of practicing, preparing,” Smith said. “We need to take advantage of that throughout the week. (I am) looking forward to getting back at home, playing in front of a fan base and kind of game two for me, at least (at Spartan Stadium). Really looking forward to that."
