Other than the fact that the heat death of the universe will one day welcome us all into its warm embrace, some of the other immutable facts of life include, getting involved in a land war in Asia is generally a poor idea, invading Russia in the winter is doomed to failure, and spring games are extremely limited in the value that they provide for viewers and fans trying to prognosticate their team's success in the fall.
In this iteration of the film room, we break down what we can from Michigan State's "Spartan Football Kickoff" event.
Formation Notes:
Michigan State used mostly 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end, three wide receivers) aligned in a variety of ways. Mostly, MSU used the "Y," or tight end, as an "H-back" set behind the tackle in the backfield, but there were plenty of snaps with an in-line tight end as well.
Above, the running back aligns to the H, and the quarterback operates from the gun.
In this play above, while running back Nathan Carter (No. 5) eventually walks up alongside quarterback Noah Kim (No. 14) to align to the weak side, MSU bluffed a pistol set that could be used from the offset H formation.
MSU used a legitimate pistol set with an in-line tight end set right for a six-man run surface.
Offensive coordinator Jay Johnson uses two-by-two sets frequently, often with a tight end in the slot. While the receiver splits are tighter here, they are often spread wide.
MSU used a set with a deep-set back from under center at certain points last season, most notably in the doomed fourth-and-1 play against Michigan down 10-7 deep in Michigan territory.
Above, unlike that play against the Wolverines, MSU adds an in-line tight end to the same side as the H back, with a deep-set back, Jaren Mangham, who projects to be a highly physical short-yardage back.
For those griping about MSU's short-yardage struggles in 2022, this may be your answer.
This is very, very similar to some of the other formations used, just with a two-by-one wide receiver split with the running back aligned to the in-line tight end.
I really liked this formation above, and what Johnson did with it. Michgian state used a variation of this, with a trips formation tight to the line, quite a bit last year. In the exhibition, MSU used more of a spread look from the receivers and aligned the back to an in-line tight end away from the receiver surface.
In every pass play from this formation, the tight end went at least one level downfield, and the running back ran a replacement route, filling in the vacated zone a level down. To me, this speaks more of a willingness to involve the running backs in the passing game.
Personnel Notes:
On the whole, I would direct the reader to my colleagues Paul Fanson and Brendan Moore's excellent coverage of the open practice, and all the coverage from Spartans Illustrated.
Read: Michigan State's offensive observations
Read: Michigan State defensive observations
Read: Rapid analysis from the "Spartan Football Kickoff" event
Read: What the Spartan Football Kickoff means for the quarterback competition
Some key personnel observations, based strictly off of Saturday, are:
- The first-string offensive line appears to be Brandon Baldwin, J.D. Duplain, Nick Samac, Geno VanDeMark and Spencer Brown.
- Most often, Malik Spencer was paired with Jaden Mangham in the middle of the field in the secondary. It looks like those two are at the top of the depth chart at the safety position.
- The coaching staff recently reported that several defensive linemen were banged up and unable to play in the spring game. Simeon Barrow, Avery Dunn, and Maverick Hansen seemed to take the most snaps in the defensive trenches, with Tunmise Adeleye, Ken Talley, Brandon Wright and Alex VanSumeren also taking several snaps.
- At the linebacker position, the majority of the first-string snaps were taken by Cal Haladay, Aaron Brule and Jacoby Windmon, as expected. Freshman Jordan Hall also made a few key plays.
- In the postgame press conference, Thorne revealed that in 2022 he was injured, stating it happened in “the second drive, third quarter of the Western Michigan game.” Thorne mentioned that he had a series of both upper and lower body injuries throughout the season. “I spent more time in a training room than I did the first two years combined,” Thorne said. “It (was) like having a flat tire.”
-Other players held out due to injury included: Out: DE Kris Bogle, DL Jarrett Jackson, LB Darius Snow, DL Dre Butler, OL Gavin Broscious and more. Some other players participated in drills, but did not participate in the scrimmage.
What happened in the spring "game" gave fans their first live look at the 2023 Spartans, but it is important to note that things can and will change by the time fall arrives.
Scrimmage Notes:
Working in sequential order, there are a number of takeaways from the scrimmage portion.
The first comes on an inside zone run during the run fit period of practice.
From a 4-3 defensive look, with the outside linebacker, Aaron Brule (No. 7), aligned to the field, the back is able to follow the offset H into and through the A-gap, because the force player in the middle of the field, linebacker Jacoby Windmon (No. 4), buries himself into a guard half-a-gap over, preventing him from filling.
While I expect Windmon to perform more consistently this year as a slimmed down linebacker, he was guilty of taking false steps and being out of position in Big Ten play this past season. This is not necessarily need for concern, (yet) as playing linebacker is difficult (and Windmon bounced around the defense), but is something that should be corrected as soon as possible.
The initial thing I see watching this play above is the defensive end on the bottom side of the clip looping to the inside of the formation, and outside zone being run exactly where the looping end would have been. While a valuable tool for a pass rush package, I was curious about the usage of this loop in a run blitz, (this was, after all, in the 11-on-11 run game period) as it leaves the defense extremely weak on the edge.
However, looking at it in the context of the run period, I don't think the secondary level of the defense was instructed to do anything other than align and show token pressure. I am quite confident that in a game situation, you would see a safety running the alley to seal the edge. If not, that is holistically concerning on a schematic level, but is so divorced from the fundamentals of defensive architecture that I find it highly unlikely.
