U-Dubb Whipping? Tuck Leavin’

Michigan St. went the wrong way on Saturday

Well, at least the trip was great.  Not sure if we want Washington to join the Big Ten if we can’t compete with them; maybe we’d rather have Akron join the B1G.  

What an embarrassment.  What the ES doesn’t understand is 1) the lack of preparedness for Penix; 2) the lack of any effective adjustments at the half; 3) why the DBs played soft and unaggressive for the entire game, giving Penix the opportunity to slice, dice, and shred an already vulnerable defense; 4) QB Thorne showing up for only the last half of the last quarter.  

1. Coach Tuck noted at the beginning of his comments as he boarded a plane home, (paraphrasing) “obviously they were aware of a vulnerability in our defense and exploited it,” then why didn’t he have a better game plan to provide help to an obviously poorly executed DB gang?  We all knew the capability of Penix, who shredded MSU the two times he faced us while at Indiana.  Why give him what he wanted, which was soft coverage?   The lack of an effective pass rush, and few blitzes in the game, allowed Penix to basically do what he wanted.  On the other side of the ball, the offensive line played very poorly, and on no occasion did we see any misdirections in the run game or jet sweeps. All up the middle, all game long.  When it became obviously ineffective… why continue to run it for 2-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust when throwing the ball was the only way to crawl back into the game?
2. Coach Tuck also noted “we made adjustments” which is absolute horse shit.  If so, they were the least impactful and most ineffective halftime defensive adjustments since the French bailed on the Maginot line from the Nazis.  I have no idea what he and the staff were thinking. It was painful to witness firsthand the continued lame play by the DBs.
3. The DBs need lots of work and help. Not once - not once - did I see a Spartan corner turn his head to any Penix ball was thrown.  Instead, the DBs were chasing Husky receivers from behind all over the place.  Giving a 10-12 yard cushion every single play all game long served no purpose, other than playing into Penix’s hands.  Maybe coach Tuck acknowledges we didn’t have the talent, especially with injuries?  Then, ROLL OVER THE SAFETIES FOR SOME HELP.  Instead, too many times DBs were on islands or in a soft zone coverage that Penix exploited.  Coach Tuck didn't put his players in a position to win.  Just inexcusable.  
4. Thorne can’t just show up late in the 4th quarter.  He has got to stop telegraphing his passes, and take a page from Penix and look off the defense. No wonder the Husky DBs played such tight coverage!  And, he needs to make plays earlier.  He missed wide open receivers, and the pick from his own end zone was just a terrible, hurried throw.  Throw it out of bounds, buddy, not directly to the defenders!!!!  He was not sharp, once again.  For everyone who says “he gritted it out and was a gamer,” I say GREAT - show up EARLIER in the game than the 4th quarter.  Stop making so many mistakes!  
   
   

Said coach Tuck: “ If we can get it cleaned up with better technique and better fundamentals, we’ll do that. If it’s a scheme issue, then we’ll have to fix that. If it’s a personnel issue, we’ll make those changes.”  Ahem - all of the above, coach, all of the above. 

If anyone says "jet lag" is an issue, then I'll throw back atchya one of Coach Tuck's comments to his players: "if you're 30 seconds late (to a meeting), then get up 10 minutes earlier."  Here's an idea - fly in more than one day before kickoff.  

It was frustrating to get your ass kicked on national television.  He’s a better coach than that crap we saw on Saturday. He needs to do some introspection as much as teach the DBs how to play football with some aggressiveness. It was embarrassing to look unprepared, to be outplayed and outcoached.  At least the Spartan Nation showed up. Too bad the team didn’t.  Tuck Comin’?  Hell no, Tuck Leavin’. 

Pics from the trip below:

Lovely Seattle from I-5

Don't order the Fish & Chips!  At best a 6 of 10.  Shoulda got the pizza

Rip-roaring Husky Stadium.  It was loud. 

There's Coach Tuck, lost in space.

U-Dubb, watch out: Tuck Comin'

 

ES Preview: Spartans at U-Dubb

#9/#11 Michigan State University at University of Washington
September 16, 2022. 4:30 pm. PT.
Husky Stadium, Seattle.

TV: ABC

Weather:  63 and cloudy

Sagarin Ratings:  UW #21, Michigan State #24

Line outta Vegas:  UW by 3-1/2

The ES is in town for the MSU-UW tilt, and visited his friend (a professor at UW) yesterday.  Walking the streets, going up to the rooftop at the Graduate hotel, lots of GO GREEN GO WHITE!  My friend said “what if I just say GO WHITE”?  I said “it would fall on deaf ears, you gotta say GO GREEN and the other says GO WHITE!”  She was impressed by the enthusiasm of us Spartoonies. Right on!

View from the Graduate Hotel, UW District

UW has Michael Penix, the former Indiana QB that torched us for a few years before transferring.  UW is averaging a whopping 571 yards per game on offense.  That will test the Spartan secondary.  Expect Penix to put up some points. Wait, who have the Huskies played?  Nobody, just like Michigan State.  There’s plenty of API talent on the UW roster with names I can’t pronounce.  

But, MSU has its pair of RBs: Wisconsin transfer Jalen Berger, runs hard and fast and leans forward; Colorado transfer David Broussard dances through tough traffic to find yards. The pair make a good duo, averaging 5.7 ypc and 228 ypg, good for 24tth in the country.  Payton Thorne has underperformed, throwing off his back foot and overthrowing receivers; he needs to be solid.  Thorne is a fourth-quarter QB, and improves as the games go along.  He's a gamer.  Let’s hope Jaylen Reed returns for MSU after the injury vs. WMU. Expect points on this end.

This game will come up to turnovers and possibly the kicking game.  The ES was telling his dad our punter, the bespectacled Bryce Ballinger, can flip a field and drop a punt inside the 10; he’s ranked #21 in net punting at 43 ypg.  That might bode well for the Spartans in this game and help the defense by giving UW a long field.  Washington’s net punting, with Jack McCallister, is ranked #79 at 39 ypg.  MSU’s kicker, Jack Stone, is fresh outta high school, an 18-year-old, and is 1-2 on the season.  Untested, indeed.  UW has an advantage here, with senior Peyton Henry 2-2 on the season.  Last year, he was 11-14, but only with a long of 38 yards (0-3 beyond 40 yards).  

I'm guessing 20,000 Spartans will fill the 73,000-seat Husky Stadium.  Watch a back-and-forth game, momentum back and forth, with the game hinging on a turnover and field position.  That gives MSU an advantage.  Despite the 0-13 history regular season out west dating back to a win over Cal in 1957, expect the Big Green TD Machine to notch a win.

Prognostications:

College FB HQ/Fan Nation:  UW 31, MSU 25

CFN: UW 27, MSU 23

MLive: MSU 30, UW 27

LSJ:  MSU 31, UW 24

The Only Colors: MSU 24, UW 27

Sporting News: MSU 28, UW 23

ES Sez:  James Caan 31, Bruce Lee 27. 

Time to get a win out west: MSU 0-8 regular season vs Pac-10 since 1970

UW calls themselves the "Dawgs"

The last (only) time the Spartans visited Seattle to play the University of Washington was in 1970.  It was a different era; Duffy Daugherty was the Spartan coach, nearing the end of his Hall of Fame era.  Jim Owens was the coach at UW, nearing the end of his 17-year career.  UW won this game, 42-16, to begin a 6-4 season in 1970.  The Spartans won the previous year, 1969, 27-11 in East Lansing in an unforgettable season for both schools (MSU 4-6, Washington 1-9).  The ES was one year old the last (only) time the Big Green beat UW. The last time the two played was at the Aloha Bowl in 1997, where #21 U-Dubb beat the #25 Spartans, 51-23. 

A warning about the West Coast during the regular season

In the last 50 years, the regular season on the West Coast (Pac-10, not Pac-12) has been unkind to the Spartans on the gridiron.

In 2018, the Spartans lost to Arizona State in Tempe, 16-13, in a terribly coached game by Dantonio. They also lost to ASU in 1986, 20-17 in Tempe under coach Perles.  In 2014, Oregon defeated MSU 46-27 as both teams were ranked in the top 10.

The ES attended MSU’s thumping by Cal in Dantonio’s first game of his second season, 2008, losing 38-31 in Berkley.  Cal’s Jahvid Best and Shane Vereen (future NFL RBs), ran all over MSU for 268 yards on the ground.  Nick Sabin got whacked at Oregon, 48-14, in 1998; the ES walked out of Autzen Stadium at half-time and had to take his shirt off as to not be laughed at.  So did Muddy Waters, getting his butt kicked 35-17 in 1980 at Oregon; the ES was just getting exposed to MSU and was living in California as a 12-year old, making the trip to Eugene. The ES is 0-3 watching MSU out west.

Way back in 1974, Dick Vermeil led UCLA to a 56-14 win in LA over Denny Stoltz and MSU. 

That’s 0-8 vs Arizona State, Cal, Oregon, UCLA, and Washington since 1970. Time for a W over UW!