Michigan State hoops 2009 & 2010 - a collage

How good were the past two years? Michigan State finished in the final polls, #2 in 2009 and #4 in 2010. Chock, out in San Francisco, was kind enough to pull together a pair of collages from each of the past two years. Click on each of the images to enlarge. Thanks, C.

GO GREEN!

Plant ND AGAIN

Stick IT!

Michigan State 44, Montana State 3

Congrats to our opening, 44-3 whitewashing of Montana State. Yeah.

OK, we didn't learn much today -- which is why the ES traveled and spent the weekend at Disney World. But, from the stats and info from his Brudda, we learned the following: offensive line needs to run block better - it was a perceived weakness entering the fall, and vs a FCS team, it is confirmed. The longest run of the day was from Caulton Ray, with a 20 yarder. He was 12-71 (5.9). Our two freshmen studs, Larry Caper (7-34) and Ed Baker (8-27) sufficed but were nothing special.

Most of all, what we learned is that we need to STOP DROPPING PASSES. What's going on? The stats looks good, but official stats should also count dropped passes. According to my bro, we must have dropped 6-10 passes today, and it resulted in truncated drives. Blair White was 9-162, and BJ Cunningham was 3-62. What was more significant was that opponents (Mont St) could not keep Dion Sims off the field - and he caught 2-32 and 1 TD as a true frosh. He's a stud.

As for which QB is better? I have to go with my bro's opinion from personally witnessing game action and he said that Keith Nichol (9-18-0-135, 2 TD) looked to perform "a little bit" better than Kirk Cousins (10-17-0-183, 3 TD) and "seemed better in control of the offense."

Overall, Mich St outgained Mont St. 493-160. Just obliteration, as expected.

Montana State will receive at least $650,000 for traveling to East Lansing, enough to pay nearly a third of its annual football budget.

MONST - MSU

FIRST DOWNS................... 12 29
NET YARDS RUSHING............. 62 175
Rushing Attempts............ 28 40
Average Per Rush............ 2.2 4.4
NET YARDS PASSING............. 98 318
Completions-Attempts-Int.... 13-26-0 19-35-0
Passing Touchdowns.......... 0 5
TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS........... 160 493
Total offense plays......... 54 75
Average Gain Per Play....... 3.0 6.6
Penalties: Number-Yards....... 7-55 5-46
PUNTS-YARDS................... 9-335 2-114
Average Yards Per Punt...... 37.2 57.0
Net Yards Per Punt.......... 28.6 51.5
Punt returns: Number-Yards-TD. 1-11-0 5-58-0
Average Per Return.......... 11.0 11.6
Possession Time............... 29:19 30:41
Third-Down Conversions........ 2 of 14 7 of 13
Fourth-Down Conversions....... 2 of 2 0 of 0
Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 1-1 3-4
Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 0-0 3-22

OK, and then I saw the defensive stats and WTF - Greg Jones was a hoss, with 14 tackles, including 2.5 for loss:

53 Jones, Greg        5    9   14  2.5/16   .   .     .      .    .   1.5/11   .
11 Hyde, Marcus       2    4    6     .     .   .     .      .    .      .     .

Link here for video of the matchup


Of those 92 who voted in the ES' poll of margin of victory, only 28% said that MSU would win by 36 or more. 40% said by 20-29 points, 18% said 30-35 points. 6% said 10-19 points, and 1% said 1-9 points. Four people said Montana State would win.

Spartans shakeup DB lineup, choose captains

If you tried the other URL, enlightenedspartan.com, you may have found a bandwidth issue - it is being restored, but if you bookmark this page (the original host), you will always find an ES home.

Of particular note is a shake up in the defensive backfield, where Jeremy Ware, Marcus Hyde, and Danny Fortener have solidified starting spots. The advancement of Ware and Hyde is a particular surprise and demonstrates the depth of our secondary, considering the ES figured on Ross Weaver and highly touted Trenton Robinson as starters. Still, expect lots of plying time out of those two, and add depth with Johnny Adams, Kendall Davis-Clark, and Ashton Henderson. The ES really was impressed at the hard-hitting ability of Hyde when he was inserted into situations last year; he is a solid tackler, and from his safety spot, he can provide great run support when asked.

2009 MSU Spartan Captains are Greg Jones, Blair White, Ross Weaver, and Kirk Cousins. ES wonders if the pick of Cousins will have any impact on the race for starting QB: either helping Cousins, or as a consolation prize for being a backup. It really shouldn't matter.

Jeff Sagarin ranks MSU #44; Joe Paterno is a Dough Boy

Jeff Sagarin's rankings are out for 2009 college football preseason, with MSU ranking a measly 44th. After reviewing the Big Ten composite schedule, the ES was able to make some generalizations about schedule strength, and names Joe Pa as 2009's NCAA Dough Boy for scheduling four creampuffs in 2009. He and the Nittany Lions should be ashamed.

MICHIGAN STATE (#44)
--------------------
Montana State (#148)
CMU (#87)
@ Notre Dame (#48)
@ Wisconsin (#33)
Michigan (#35)
@ Illinois (#63)
N'western (#61)
Iowa (#27)
@ Minnesota (#69)
WMU (#88)
@ Purdue (#57)
Joe Pa (#8)

BIG TEN SAGARIN RANKINGS
------------------------
Illinois (#63)
Indiana (#95)
Iowa (#27)
Michigan (#35)
Mich State (#44)
Minnesota (#69)
N'western (#61)
Ohio State (#5)
Joe Pa (#8)
Purdue (#57)
Wisconsin (#33)

Lowest Sagarin Ranking of non-conference Big Ten opponents:

FCS/1-AA - Delaware State (#200) at Michigan
FBS/1-A - New Mexico State (#144) at Ohio State

Highest Sagarin Ranking of non-conference Big Ten opponents:

Southern Cal (#1) vs Ohio State
Oregon (#10) vs Purdue
California (#15) vs Minnesota
Missouri (#18) vs Illinois

Biggest Sagarin Mismatches (Joe Pa wins the 2009 Dough Boy Award)

Joe Pa (#8) vs Eastern Illinois (#177) - 169 rank difference
Michigan (#35) vs Delaware State (#200) - 165
Ohio State (#5) vs New Mexico State (#144) - 139
Joe Pa (#8) vs Temple (#125) - 117
N'western (#61) vs Towson (#174) - 113
Ohio State (#5) vs Toledo (#113) - 108
Michigan (#35) vs EMU (#141) - 106
Mich State (#44) vs Montana State (#148) - 104
Joe Pa (#8) vs Akron (#111) - 103
Illinois (#63) vs Illinois State (#158) - 95
Iowa (#27) vs Arkansas State (#119) - 92
Joe Pa (#8) vs Syracuse (#97) - 89
N'western (#61) vs EMU (#141) - 80

Enlightened Spartan 2009 Football Preview

The Sixth Annual Enlightened Spartan 2009 football preview is now available... including over 100 responses from the Spartan Nation on the upcoming season: how long until MSU reaches the promised land? which games are the most important for each Big Ten team? how will MSU end up, as well as every other Big Ten team?

What are the rule changes in NCAA football this year? Who will be MSU's MVP?

Download the PDF - learn about MSU, and enjoy!

Michigan State #29 in AP preseason poll

Michigan State received 100 points in the AP preseason poll released this morning, but it wasn't enough to crack the Top 25. MSU ended up ranked #29. Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, USC, Alabama were top five. Ohio State was #6, Joe Pa #9, Iowa #22, Notre Dame #23, and Illinois #27 (105 pts). Also receiving votes were CMU (7 pts) and Northwestern (5 pts).