Answering You Michigan State Football Questions and Emails...

Hondo I know you are probably sick to death about officiating comments, but seriously - is there a rule about blocking when a player seems to be out of the

Hondo I know you are probably sick to death about officiating comments, but seriously - is there a rule about blocking when a player seems to be out of the play? Rick

No hard fast rule Rick. The game of football is changing. I got two well respected officials to speak about the officiating on Saturday. Both agree that the game is changing and it isn’t the officials to blame. You can read it when you CLICK RIGHT HERE. The same PC police that are hurting our nation as a whole are hurting our beloved game of football. People know when they pad up the risks. Officials are afraid to not make the call and are being encouraged to err on the side of player safety.

Hondo I don’t understand the use of the timeouts by MSU at the end of the Nebraska game when the Huskers had none left and needed two scores. To allow them the extra time to plan on the sidelines can only help them, not to mention stopping the clock. Can you explain that? John Martin

John I can’t explain. Especially on the 4th and ten. Nebraska coaches were stunned that MSU called it. I think that was the biggest mistake so far this year. Coach D did talk about his use of timeouts this week. Here is what he said:

“I sort of felt, first of all, that the timeouts were two‑fold. One we'd know what formation they were lining up in so we could look at that, two, we could settle our guys down a little bit and just say, okay, here's where we're at. Here's what's going on.

We talked to them about the reroutes of things, talked to them about how to play that coverage a little bit. In retrospect I didn't say don't lineup too deep. In the last play down here, Coach Narduzzi called the first one, the pressure, and I called the second one.

I just felt like we had a chance to get home. We were sending one more guy than they had to block. So you're going to have a quick throw. You're going to have a guy that's going to have somebody in his face.

The coverage, because it was so close down there, they pick routes and different things and wanted to make a throw quick. That's what I decided to do. We've got to reengage. The tight end block, so the guy with the tight end needs to reengage and blitz and he didn't.

Again, it's selection of plays and I'll take responsibility for that and it's execution. Tough deal.”

Hondo I am sick of Izzo and Dantonio calling out fans.  Easy thing to do when you are paid millions to be part of this stuff. Hey Dantonio I have Breslin seats, near yours and often yours are empty and rarely are you there. Same with Izzo, he misses MSU football games. Sorry the rest of our lives aren’t as important as their lives, but let me give you to a hint. Stop taking shots at the people who pay your salaries. Bottom line, want better crowds? Win more and schedule better. I know you can’t post this in your Q and answers articles Hondo, MSU would get hot with you, but it is how I feel. Cassandra

Don’t really know what to say Cassandra, but at least you got that off your mind. For the record, NOBODY dictates my coverage.

Honda, One thing I have noticed (and it might just be me) we play not to lose instead of to win. Example, we gave Nebraska three extra timeouts Saturday. Pressure is on them not us. Also, once we go ahead late in the game it seems we go into prevent defense instead of putting pressure on the QB. this is not a complaint just an observation. Tom

I alluded to it above, that 4th and ten just floored me. This is NOT a game of field goals. I realize that when OSU won the national title with Dantonio they won a lot of close games with a great D and an anemic offense. Sound familiar? MSU has to go for the jugular. They don’t and it concerns me. I have no doubts that Dantonio is a great coach. If I could change anything it would be that his offensive philosophy more mirror his defensive attack philosophy. BTW Tom I may be as big as a Honda, but it is Hondo. J

Hondo I have two questions. 1) Will Mark Dantonio fire any staff after this year? 2) Do you think he should fire any of them? Brent

Brent, 1) No 2) Yes Not all, but I would make two changes for sure.

Hondo I know you say we put them on an island and it’s a difficult position in this defense, but analyst say he (Adams) will play on Sundays! Not only that, but we have other seniors that are breaking my heart. Conroy has been inconsistent and Caper is all but absent. Is Norman's reduced role game plan scheming or is he just not as good as others? Teams seem to be defined by their seniors, is this team the definition of ours? Alex

Great question Alex and one I was already thinking about. I couldn’t agree more. This team is struggling and it has a struggling senior class. I asked Dantonio about it and he did a lot of dancing. He says regularly that you are only as good as your seniors. Here is my exact question and his answer.

Q. Do you believe you're only as good as your seniors and you'll have seasons that reciprocate that. Several of your seniors are having disappointing seasons. Is that why you think maybe the team is struggling this year?
COACH DANTONIO: First of all, to me struggling is cashing it in. You lose a close game, to me, that's not struggling. That's the game. That's people making plays. That's inches away. We're inches away from being 9‑1, 8‑2, inches, seconds. So we've rallied back every week and played and played hard. So I wouldn't say that we're struggling.
When you look at our seniors, you know, Fou is out, disappointing. We lost our center. I can on go through all the injured guys. When you look at our seniors, there are not that many seniors, really. We've got a young offensive group. So on the defensive side of the ball, we've got a couple of seniors, but not very many.
I don't know. Maybe the lack of the numbers of seniors. Sometimes when you win 11 games in back‑to‑back years, people sort of take it for granted that you're going to continue to win 11 games. Maybe we could. You know, with a little this, little that at the end, different call, different decision by a coach, maybe by me. If I go 4th and 2, and we get that one, I go 4th and 1 on Michigan, maybe we win. Maybe we don't. I don't know.
Those are the things that you have to ask yourself, the tough questions you have to ask yourself. But I don't think that our seniors are having bad years and saying, oh, we're losing because we're seniors. I don't think that's the case.
We have to make a play down the stretch. Sometimes it's the call, offensively or defensively. I know that everybody's got a hand in this. I know that on Saturday we could have won the game by getting a first down. We could have certainly won the game by stopping them. That is the same situation in Michigan. That is the same situation in Iowa. Ohio State was a little bit different, and there are your four games.

OK everyone, there you go. Our weekly Q/A article. If you would like your email to be considered for this article please add to the subject line Football Q/A. Email me at SpartanNationMail@yahoo.com