Florida Atlantic received three drives in the fourth quarter with the opportunity to take the lead with a touchdown. Michigan State’s defense stopped the Owls on downs all three times to escape with a season-opening 16-10 victory on Friday and start the 2024 campaign with a 1-0 record.
“I loved that we played a lot of guys that played with some great effort," Michigan State head coach Jonathan Smith said.
The game-changing moment was when FAU quarterback Cam Fancher slid close to the marker on fourth-down-and-1 with MSU clinging to its 16-10 lead in the fourth quarter and defending on the FAU 41-yard line. Originally, it was called a first down with 30 penalty yards tacked on after MSU linebacker Jordan Turner was called for targeting and unsportsmanlike conduct. After the officials reviewed the targeting call, however, it was reversed and changed to just a late hit. The officials also determined that Fancher was short of the first-down marker, resulting in a turnover on downs. Since both fouls were after the play, where Fancher was ruled short of the line of gain, MSU got the ball back (and the penalty yardage for the unsportsmanlike conduct and late hit were then applied to MSU's offense's starting field position). Otherwise, the Owls would have been 31 yards away from the end zone.
On FAU’s final series of the game, Turner recorded a sack to make it third-and-13. Defensive back Angelo Grose then made a strong tackle on Fancher to get it to fourth-and-14. Defensive end Ken Talley finished it off by pressuring Fancher and forcing an incompletion near the sideline.
Michigan State got the ball back and quarterback Aidan Chiles was able to take two kneel downs to run out the clock.
The 16 points scored is the lowest total in a victory for Michigan State since the Spartans beat Rutgers 14-10 on Nov. 24, 2018. Defensive tackle D’Quan Douse sacked Fancher in the end zone for the first two points in the Smith era.
“We take a lot of pride in that, just scoring on defense,” rush end Khris Bogle said afetr the game. “Especially with Coach Smith, he’s just a great coach to play for. At the end of the day, we've just got to go out and execute.”
Michigan State ended up recording two interceptions (one by Grose and one by safety Nikai Martinez), seven sacks and 10 tackles for loss in its first game under defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Joe Rossi.
Bogle recorded 1.5 sacks and 2.5 tackles for loss on Friday. He had 1.5 sacks and two tackles for loss in 1o games during the 2023 season. Meanwhile, Grose had a game-high 11 total tackles, eight of which were solo.
“It was just amazing just to come out here with my brothers,” Bogle said about his first game under the new MSU coaching staff. “That’s the first game. Fans came out, it was loud. First drive, it was great. Coach Rossi was calling me the right plays.”
Seven Spartans ended up recording at least half-sack. Grose's pick came with Florida Atlantic just outside the red zone in the second quarter. On Florida Atlantic's next drive, Martinez, the UCF transfer, returned his interception 41 yards to the FAU 18-yard line, and set up a touchdown for the Spartans.
The strange thing is that the performance could have been much better. Michigan State’s defense was penalized seven times for 95 yards. Six of those flags were 15-yarders, several being late hits on Fancher, who showed a clear tendency to slide late. Defensive back Malik Spencer was called for targeting and ejected during the second quarter after hitting Fancher during a slide.
“It definitely pulls you back a little bit, trying to keep everybody safe, trying not to target,” Grose said about trying to defend sliding quarterbacks. “It definitely changes (a defense) a little bit.”
Smith mentioned that things need to be cleaned up, and certainly the penalties are toward the top of the list.
“We just have to keep coaching it on how we finish plays,” Smith said. “We need them playing with energy, but at the same time, sometimes that’s such out of whack that they can’t play with some awareness with how we’re finishing plays.”
Grose mentioned that it is about how the team responds to adversity, including bouncing back after penalties.
“We talk about response all the time,” Grose said. “Penalty, whatever happens, how are you going to respond to it?”
Grose said that Smith’s message after the game was that the team has many mistakes it needs to clean up, but to still be happy with the win.
Overall, Michigan State had 12 for 140 yards.
One subplot in the game is Fancher’s running ability possibly better preparing the Spartans for future opponents. The Marshall transfer ended the game with 25 rushing attempts, including seven sacks. He also had 25 pass attempts.
Fancher ended up running for 101 yards on positive plays during the game, but finished with only 67 rushing yards on the game due to sacks and tackles for losses.
Michigan State’s defense is set to face Maryland, with potential starting quarterback Billy Edwards Jr., and Boston College’s Thomas Castellanos in the coming weeks. Edwards has 63 rushes to 73 pass attempts in his career as a backup. Castellanos had 1,113 rushing yards for the Eagles last year.
“We’re going to play athletic quarterbacks,” Smith said. “We had to do a great job with trying to learn how to contain that.”
Overall, the Michigan State offense left much to be desired and will need to be better against the much tougher competition remaining on MSU’s schedule moving forward.
Michigan State has plenty it needs to fix before playing at Maryland next week, but the defensive side of the ball stood tall against FAU. There is no reason to panic just yet.
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