East Lansing, Mich. - Talkback, with Michigan State defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton.
SpartanMag publisher Jim Comparoni takes comments from Hazelton’s recent press conference, and adds his take.
Question from the press to Hazelton: How much are you changing what you’re doing as opposed to which players are assigned to do it?
Hazelton: “There are a lot of things that we say, ‘This is what we need to tighten up.’ And we need to look at those things. And that’s what we’ve been working on throughout the week as we go. It’s something that you say listen, as the next man is up, you need to get that guy as experienced as the last guy so we can be tighter on things.
“There’s a lot of bang-bang things out there that we say, dang, we just need to tighten up alignment or tighten up a position and then those bang-bang plays will be made. And that’s what’s been hurting us is the little details the death by inches.”
Comp’s Talkback: Roll the film and you’ll see what seem to be misalignments by slot pass defenders, playing outside technique and allowing an inside release with no defensive help to the inside. We saw that play a part in Washington’s first touchdown, against Angelo Grose. And we saw the same thing during Minnesota’s first third-and-long conversion of the game, during the Gophers’ opening touchdown drive.
If it had been one or two correctable plays that have cost Michigan State victoreis, then it would seem like a more a solution is within close reach. But Minnesota had nine pass plays of 15 yards or more and 10 run plays of 10 yards or more.
That’s 301 yards on 19 chunk plays. That’s a lot of mess.
But Michigan State needs to keep focusing on harnessing a level of quality control, physicality, lining up right and executing correctly. They can do all of those things and still lose to Ohio State by four touchdowns. But there is a right way to play and Michigan State needs to make progress toward that ethic, and let the scoreboard be the scoreboard.
That might sound like a major downer defeatist talk for Michigan State fans who were hoping for a Top 15 season. But this season is headed for disaster if the simple things aren’t ratcheted up first. Maybe if Michigan State can regain some health and play more fundamentally-sound on defense, a 6-6 season is possible.
Some of you may roll your eyes at a 6-6 season, but that’s where things are right now, and if you don’t like it, then return your Peach Bowl t-shirts and go watch soccer or something.
We’ve seen Tom Izzo teams over the years have some awful losing streaks and some lean seasons and some blowout losses. But through it all, Izzo continued to demand that his players and teams play the right way - play down and ready and in the gaps on defense, box out, crash the boards, screen hard, roll hard, take good shots, be a good teammate. And eventually, maybe not during that season, the elements of quality control mesh with a better level of talent and the train gets back on the tracks.
Michigan State football is skidding off the tracks. Mel Tucker and Hazelton need to get back to teaching and preaching the process, regardless of the outcome of games, regardless of the scoreboard. And maybe they will look up at the scoreboard and be in position to beat Maryland. But playing the right way has to come first, second and third.
These are all clichés, but they need to be applied. And if Grose was indeed wrong in his alignment, then there needs to be accountability. And if he gets replaced, then the next man up, in this non-injury situation, will need to play accountable football. At some point, the teaching and preaching must yield tighter screws that what we’re seeing. Tucker knows it and Hazelton knows it.
And I don’t mean to single out Grose. There are many players who are showing slippage.
I mentioned on the SpartanMag LIVE! podcast about tight end Daniel Barker seeming to run the wrong route on the fourth down interception that Payton Thorne threw. Barker didn’t go to the flat to create a high-low smash concept to occupy the flat-area cornerback in the Minnesota cover-two zone. This is universal football stuff. Death by inches.
Barker hasn’t been in the program long. Is it hard to get proper focus and accountability from transfers? I don’t know. This era of high numbers of transfers is a new frontier. Michigan State capitalized on it last year, and utilized the transfer portal to flip the roster. It was somewhat of a high risk gambit. It’s not something Tucker wants to rely upon every year for the long term. It created a spark last year, but it’s going to be interesting to see how a playing group heavy with transfers hangs together through this spat of adversity. Meanwhile, Tucker can learn from it and chart the future accordingly.
We hear that Jacoby Windmon continues to be an excellent leader. He called a defensive players only film meeting on Sunday. He ran the video, and pressed start and stop, and asked key players in key situations what they see, what they were thinking. There were no harsh words or confrontational moments. He just wanted to get the thoughts out in the open so that corrections could begin to be made even more the coaches got involved.
That’s great. That’s what they need. Getting that from a first-year transfer blows my theory a little bit about the level of commitment and focus from transfers. How many guys are like Windmon? I don’t know, but they need a lot.
And it takes more than just leadership and focus. They need able-bodied guys who can hold firm against double-team blocks, and win collisions with the correct angles. Michigan State is low on able-bodied guys. Redshirt sophomore Avery Dunn had never played meaningful snaps in a game, but on Saturday he suddenly had to play 38 snaps, due to injuries at defensive end. He had to play strong-side defensive end. One problem. He’ not a strong-side defensive end.
At 245 pounds, he did his best to take on tight end/offensive tackle double team blocks, and he just couldn’t hold firm. Minnesota ran right at him. So will Maryland, and Ohio State, and Michigan and Wisconsin, if he has to play that many snaps again.
When will Jeff Pietrowski and Khris Bogle return, not to mention Jacob Slade? Will Simeon Barrow and Maverick Hansen be available? We in the media and fans have no idea. And if you knew in July that Michigan State would be without those players, and Darius Snow and Xavier Henderson, there’s no way you would have expected a Top 15 season. You would have hoped for 6-6.
Anyway, there is death by inches out there all right. But it’s not just a play here or there. It’s play after play after play. And the coaches are going to have a difficult time getting the young players who are in the “next man up” role to tighten up those inches, mentally and physically. But the work needs to continue and the attitudes need to stay solvent.
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Q: Have they been different details each week?
Hazelton: “No, it’s been a little bit different as we go through. We saw two totally different teams. Washington was Pac-12 and Kalen (Deboer) is a good football mind and they do a very good job with their offense, so it’s very much this, and then this, and then this. Whereas last week was more traditional Big Ten stuff. So different things show up as you go through. Getting the guys force-fed experience so we can get them to tighten up and play better.
“And really it’s getting off field on third down.”
Comp’s Talkback: The key line there is “getting the guys as force-fed experience so we can get them to tighten up and play better.”
Again, he’s talking about second-stringers who are being forced into the playing group. You can believe in all of the “next man up” stuff, but that’s just locker room coachspeak. That’s what coaches HAVE to say in order to get players to believe.
But if Avery Dunn was as good as Khris Bogle, he would have been splitting time with him. He’s just one example.
The key Hazelton point is that they need some of these guys to get more playing time in order to reduce some of the slippage of inches. That’s fine for a basketball team working its way through November and December. But in football, every loss leaves a mark. And Michigan State is in a losing race of trying to get players experience and corrected while losses mount.
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Q: How much has the criticism bothered you?
Hazelton: “As a family in football and my family we always talk about try to block out all the outside noise. What’s here in the inside is the truth, and the people in the room when we meet on defense, or as a team, that’s really what matters.
“It’s about us, the warrior that actually go out there and get better. Can we see what we need to improve on? Can we see who are the guys that are battling and fighting and scrapping and working hard every day to get better. And as long as we can see that, you try to block out all the outside noise as you go.”