Opinion: The state of Michigan State Football, unfiltered
Editor's Note: This is an opinion piece.
Michigan State was a heavy underdog heading into a non-conference clash at home against No. 8 Washington on Saturday night. Not many reasonably expected the Spartans to win the game, but no one expected them to play as poor as they did.
Washington marched into Spartan Stadium and punched MSU in the mouth. Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr put up 375 passing yards and four touchdowns in the first half alone. He ended the game with 473 yards before getting pulled in the third quarter. It was a performance worthy of praise while also a performance worthy of questioning the Michigan State team as a whole.
Washington defeated Michigan State by a final score of 41-7.
It also begs the question of how did this team improve from last season? At least last year, the Spartans went into Husky Stadium in Seattle and put up 28 points.
This game was over before it began and it goes beyond the elite play of Penix and his receivers. Michigan State looked unprepared and was sloppy all game. Quarterback Noah Kim was airmailing receivers left and right. Michigan State had an abysmal 11 penalties. There were mental mistakes like Tyrell Henry grabbing a bouncing ball that was headed either for the end zone or out of bounds on a kickoff. Luckily for him, his left foot was out of bounds before his right foot landed in bounds. Still, it was a mental mistake that encapsulated what the night was like for Michigan State.
The Spartans had illegal substitution penalties called against them multiple times. That falls on the coaching staff and the leaders on the field.
Tackling was poor, and that might even be generous. That makes you wonder if the Spartans weren’t tackling enough in practice because of the fear of injury.
You can make all the excuses you want. If you told me last Saturday that Mel Tucker wouldn’t be on the sidelines due to a sexual harassment investigation, I would’ve looked at you like you had three eyes. Even taking that into consideration, one would think the team would be extra motivated to prove that they never needed Tucker to win.
I guess not.
Despite the No. 8 ranking, it is inexcusable for a team to come into Spartan Stadium and walk out with a dominant win like that. Not only was it a dominant win for the Huskies, but it was an uncompetitive win. So uncompetitive that fans started to leave the stadium early into the second quarter. It never looked like Michigan State stood a chance. It looked like a lower-level team playing one of the big boys.
What transpired on Saturday night was one of the lowest points in Michigan State football’s recent history, but it still seems like there is a small sliver of light at the end of a dark tunnel.
If it means that the team and fan base must suffer this season in order for Director of Athletics Alan Haller to realize that acting head coach Harlon Barnett might not be a long term solution, then so be it. Ditto for offensive coordinator Jay Johnson and defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton.
There is an alternate universe where Barnett motivated the Spartans and they shocked the college football world with an upset victory against all odds. Maybe it’s for the better that the aforementioned scenario didn’t play out. Maybe it’s better that the team got a reality check by one of the best teams in the nation.
With a potential coaching search looming in East Lansing, it might’ve been better for the long-term future that the MSU program fell back down to Earth on Saturday. Barnett still has some time to prove himself but it will be incredibly hard to heal the scar that Washington left.
The hope of a potential new head coach that can turn around the program is all Michigan State has at the moment. When hope is all you have, there is typically only one way to go.