Historically Bad Offensive Season Leads to Staff Adjustments?

East Lansing – Following a historically inept offensive season going by just about any standard, Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio faced calls for sweeping changes to his coaching staff throughout the season and those calls eventually reached a crescendo that could not be ignored following the Spartans’ 7-6 loss to Oregon in the Redbox Bowl on New Year’sEve.

The loss put a stamp on a season that hit historical lows for the football program as the Spartans finished with just their lowest point total (243) since 2000 (197) and their lowest total yardage for a season (4,497) since 2008 (4,465).

Those statistics, which were compiled by Spartan Nation contributor Bob Tripi, led to an incredibly disappointing season and forced Dantonio’s hand as he made a number of changes to the offensive coaching staff, which were announced last week.

The most notable change to the Spartans’ coaching staff is the switch in offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach Brad Salem will take over the play-calling duties, while Dave Warner will transition from offensive coordinator to quarterbacks coach. Salem will also coach the running backs position moving forward.

Dantonio cited the fact that Salem has received offensive coordinator job offers over the past couple of seasons as to why tabbed him as the new play-caller.

“Brad Salem, moving to offensive coordinator,” he said. “He will also coach our running backs, which he's coached before with Le'Veon Bell and Edwin Baker who were here. He's been offered an offensive coordinator job the last three years at Power Five schools. I feel like this is a time that warrants his opportunities to coordinate our offense.”

Other changes that were made to the coaching staff include Jim Bollman going from tight ends coach to offensive line coach, Mark Staten moving from offensive line coach to tight ends coach and special teams, Don Treadwell will replace Terrence Samuel as wide receivers coach and Samuel will transition to being an assistant secondary coach.

While the changes were sweeping, to an extent, they also weren’t to the extent that many had hoped for, as many had hoped for a new voice, possibly an outside hire, to help jumpstart one of the nation’s worst offensive unit.

As to why Dantonio retained his entire offensive staff, rather than replacing the staff with a new group of coaches, he cited the knowledge and familiarity the offensive staff has with the Michigan State program as well as the loyalty he has with his staff.I think they bring a great wealth of knowledge from an offensive perspective and it stays in the offensive room,” he said. “I’ve always been the type of person – I’m a foxhole guy, I don’t apologize for that in any respect. I believe in surrounding myself with loyal people, I believe in digging in when things get tough. I’ve always said to our players and the reason I’m having this conference right now is because I’ve announced this to all of my players and other things to our players is we’re going to go like this (pointing upward) in 2019, we’re not going to stay still. We’ve been good on one side of the ball, we need to be better on the other.”

While the changes are a step in the right direction, only time will tell if they lead to changes in production on the field.

Dantonio made it clear earlier this season that he believes the secret to success on offense is running the ball 40-plus times per game, regardless of whether or not the run game is an effective one and that showed throughout the 2018 season for the Spartans.

For the first time since the 2012 season, Michigan State totaled less than 2,000 yards in a season, totaling just 1,673 yards on the ground, its lowest total since the 2006 campaign. The Spartans averaged 4.6 yards per play last season, which is the worst mark they’ve had since the 1991 season.

“We just need to have more production and that production can come from scoring in the red zone to having explosive plays to whatever it is,” Dantonio told reporters. “But when I made this decision, I really felt like the decision was made because nobody was immune from having -- nobody is, Oh, hey, those guys played tremendously. So that's on me, as well as on them and I'm going to try and do my best to correct it, but I also do not feel like, as I said earlier, I don't feel like -- I'm trying to create circulation. We didn't need to cut off a limb. We need to create circulation. New ideas and new patterns, new teaching. Even if it's just a different person, different face.”

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