Answering Your Michigan State Football Questions and Email...

Answering your Michigan State Football Questions… I had a new question for you. The last two graduating classes left with most victories in school history.

Answering your Michigan State Football Questions…

I had a new question for you. The last two graduating classes left with most victories in school history. How many wins does this class need to continue that streak? Thanks Dan Moss

The 2011 class won 37 games in their four years of playing at MSU. Their yearly win total broke down like this: nine games in 2008, six in 2009 and 11 in both 2010 and 2011. For the 2012 class to beat them they will need to win 10 games to get to 28.

Hondo, It’s been a long time since I have been as excited to see a player like LT. My question to you is, is he the real deal and do you think he will be healthy by fall? My concern is how much time he has missed and has he had the full experience of Coach Mannie? Mike Lee

No doubt he has missed time with injury, but he will be fine. As the season went on and he got reps with the scout team and he was a beast. He has so much natural ability, like William Gholston, that it is only a matter of time WHEN he makes and impact and NOT if.

Last week I looked at CBS's list of the top 250 football recruits nationally for 2013. I saw a number of players committed to Alabama, and Texas which is no surprise but also a few for Michigan and Ohio State but not one ( repeat not one) for MSU. How can our team possibly continue to be effective in the big ten without any recruits in the top 250 players in the country? Does CBS not have a complete list? Jim

I respectfully reject the premise of your question. I could care less what CBS or anyone else thinks. I want to tell you a story that the late Ivar Frick once told me. I believe it to be a true story, but cannot confirm it. At an estate sale in Edina, Minnesota an auctioneer was selling a beaten down violin. When the cost could not get over $5 a man approached the front from the back and asked for a moment to inspect the instrument. He picked it up, spent a moment looking it over and began to play the most beautiful medley in the world. The bidding rose quickly as the people heard this lovely tool in a professional’s hand play beautiful music and sold for over $5,000. My point is simple. None of those schools wanted LeVeon Bell, Kirk Cousins, Joel Foreman or many other stars that Dantonio has produced. He will have two QBs that he recruited to MSU be drafted by the NFL in two weeks with Cousins and Foles. As long as he wins, that is what matters. Tom Osbourne did not win many recruiting rankings, but won big at Nebraska. Finally I will share a story that a national championship winning coach told me about recruiting rankings. He told me that when he offered a young man the rankings always went up. I spend time worrying about the final record and I would advise you to do the same. The last five years UM has owned the recruiting rankings, but not the Spartans.

 

Hondo each year you give us an amazing MOCK draft by your NFL friends. Loved it again this year. Any word on Cousins or where you think he may go? Kyle

Rick Gosselin from the Dallas Morning News who is widely accepted around the nation as the premiere voice of the NFL draft told me on Spartan Nation Radio this summer that in last years draft Cousins would be a #1 pick. There are certain people who believe with the new rookie wage skill in the NFL that think he could go in the first round and I agree. There is no doubt he goes no latter than the third, but I look for his name to come off the board with the 37th pick (fifth in the 2nd round) to Cleveland, 56th (24th in the 2nd round) to Pittsburgh or 57th (25th in the 2nd round) to Denver. I also know that Philly loves Kirk too.

Hondo I was reading the article about the scrimmage this past week and noticed that Connor Cook outplayed Andrew Maxwell. Is it time to panic about Maxwell? John

OK step back and take a dose of reality. #1 Maxwell is going against the #1 defensea in the COUNTRY. There are a lot of teams going to suffer to score on that unit this year. Secondly he had a mild sprain and lastly there were some dropped passes. Maxwell is the guy so relax and trust Roushar and Dantonio.

Hondo you were very vocal that the staff failed last year in getting reps for Maxwell. Can you explain, I am a new reader and listener and my father in law told me about your complaints. Thank you, Mike.

Great question Mike and welcome to the Spartan Nation family of services. As great as last season was, the staff failed this years team and Andrew Maxwell by not getting him more reps. Bobby Bowden at FSU used to play his backup QB in the first series of the second quarter every game. There will be a learning curve for Andrew this year that wouldn’t have to be what it is if they had thought ahead. Mark Dantonio is a great coach, as is Dan Roushar the OC, but they failed on that front.

Hondo it seems to me we had a new kicker last season that was from Georgia named Yang. How does he look? Chris

He was here a short time and decided this was NOT the place for him.

There you go everyone. Another week of your MSU Football Q and A in the books. Make sure to send in your questions for next week. Simply email them to SpartanNationMail@yahoo.com and put weekly Q and AFootball in the subject line.