Kirk Herbstreit: Michigan State is ‘the biggest surprise in the country’
Prior to kicking off the 2021 college football season, the betting line for wins for Michigan State was set and 4.5 games.
The Spartans have smashed that expectation with seven straight victories to open the year, and find themselves in the thick of a three-team race for the Big Ten’s East division.
Michigan State has defied all expectations in their second year under head coach Mel Tucker, and the college football landscape is taking notice.
“I think Michigan State has been the biggest surprise in the country, not just in the Big Ten,” said ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit. “To think about where they were in Mel Tucker’s first year. Keep in mind, like a lot of other first-year coaches in 2020 – it’s a global pandemic, heavy restrictions, no spring football, cancel the season, oh no, now we're going to have a season, and it’s just unprecedented what he went through his first year. They looked like, obviously, a severe work in progress.”
The Spartans went 2-5 in Tucker’s debut season. As Herbstreit noted above, the challenges facing the program were unique, especially given former head coach Mark Dantonio’s decision to retire on Feb. 4, the day before National Signing Day.
But Tucker wasted no time in going to work in East Lansing, orchestrating one of the most remarkable turnarounds in college football’s modern memory.
“I don't know if anybody took advantage of the transfer portal as much as Mel Tucker did,” Herbstreit said. “And you look on their roster now, most notably Kenneth Walker from Wake Forest and it’s sprinkled all throughout their roster. They've upgraded and taken advantage of the 2021 way of doing business, and now they've got a confident football team.”
With that confidence has come a toughness, instilled by Tucker and his staff. Michigan State doesn’t have a perfect football team. They’ve been tested. They’ve been pushed to the brink by the likes of Nebraska and Indiana, but they have found a way to prevail.
“They could have lost a couple games, but to their credit, they found ways to win against Nebraska, they won against Indiana,” Herbstreit said. “Those games could have gone the other way. But when you find ways to win games, your team starts to believe in your culture, starts to believe in your way of doing things, and I think that's where Michigan State is right now. I think they’ve become a really confident, dangerous team, and they're always tough in East Lansing.”
Last season, the Spartans caught Michigan by surprise in a 27-24 upset victory in Ann Arbor. This season, Michigan State has caught the nation by surprise – starting 7-0, climbing inside the Top 10 in both national polls – but the Spartans have the attention of the nation now, and all eyes will be on East Lansing come noon on Oct. 30.
