Michigan State Blowout Victory over Eastern Only a Step on Road to Rematch With Oregon in the College Football Playoff

Spartan Stadium East Lansing, MI It was a day of mixed emotion when the ball was kicked here at the High Cathedral of the Spartan Nation: Spartan Stadium. The

Spartan Stadium

East Lansing, MI

It was a day of mixed emotion when the ball was kicked here at the High Cathedral of the Spartan Nation: Spartan Stadium. The Spartans still smarting from a loss to Oregon, where they beat themselves more than the Ducks beat them, was a bitter taste that had not yet left their mouth.

Glad to be back in action, the opponent didn’t really matter. The Spartans were going to eat. They were like starved Dawgs and someone was going to pay. Unlike past Spartans teams, it wasn’t raw and undisciplined emotion. They knew the Oregon loss was on them and they longed to get back on the gridiron to right a wrong.

Losing to Oregon was not going to be righted by blowing out a lowly Eastern Michigan team, but it would be a start. The Spartans dream at night of a Rose Bowl national semifinal playoff with the Ducks, but a lesson learned in Eugene was that it is this moment you control. It was the Eagles of EMU that was another hurdle to overcome to truly right the loss.

The game was over before it started. Coach Chris Creighton comes to EMU with perhaps the most difficult rebuilding project anywhere to be found in the nation. He is not a good coach, he is a great coach, but a program ignored by the EMU administration for years and pummeled by bad hires and bad PR left the program in despair. If anyone can rebuild EMU it’s Creighton, but they would struggle to compete with his former FCS team, let alone the mighty Spartans.

Creighton acknowledged that saying afterwards, “To really do something special at Eastern, it's not going to be easy, and this is as hard as it gets. I've got a lot of proud guys. The scoreboard is pretty big here. We can see it, and that's hard. For nine months I've been dreaming about winning every single game, but the reality of it is that this is going to be hard. And so you have to be able to endure really, really hard times in order to achieve something special. So that's where we are undeterred. So a game like this, I'm not raising my hand and volunteering to get beat badly like that; I don't want to go through tough times. But the reality of it is you have to go through tough times to get to where we want to be, to where it's special.”

Dantonio admitted the bitter taste remains from Oregon, but he also was quick to point out the Spartans are not out of anything. “We are always moving forward as a team. We have to move on. Young people are very resilient. We will take 24 hours to enjoy this win and then move on to Wyoming. The past is in the past and you have to continue to move forward. Our focus has to be on coming out every game and playing with excitement and enthusiasm. We have to take care of our job with our mind, our heart, and our legs. You play them one at a time.”

I mentioned in my pre game prediction and scouting report how I had talked to Dantonio this week about more mobility from the QB spot and he said it was imperative. The Spartans offense came out with more of it than we have seen at any time under Dantonio. Something that OC Dave Warner was pleased to add, “I think it is critical that our quarterback is able to move in the pocket, drop back and pass, scramble and create; stretch plays out a little bit. Connor (Cook) has been good at that for the most part in his career. We try to implement a little more quarterback run game in here as well. It's good stuff as long as our quarterback is going north, south and getting positive yards. We are getting into it here this year, it’s good stuff.”

Dantonio was pleased with his quarterbacks touting the ball. “I thought we came out ready for some quarterback runs. We need to get everyone involved. Players make plays. Plays don't make players. People got touches out there and we needed to see who made the most of those opportunities. We need to be hitting on all cylinders moving forward. That was sort of the intent today with some of those quarterback runs.”

MSU played five quarterbacks on the day. Of course the top three, but to see walk-on signal callers Paul Andrie and Tommy Vento get into the action was special.

Star QB Connor Cook admitted it is nice to see some QB runs instituted in the Spartans arsenal. “Yeah, I think last year I only had one rushing touchdown. I wouldn't even call it a rushing touchdown because I think Fou Fonoti kind of pushed me in. I want to get in the end zone and I want to be a legitimate rushing scorer. When you're that close, you have to give it 150 percent and that's what I try to do.”

With the “Big Three” QBs all seeing reps in the first half, Damion Terry said it was just great to play. “It's huge; the difference of high school to college is crazy. We can scrimmage all we want but there's still something different about being out there during a game, especially because a lot of young guys got out there in the first half. Going against their first team defense, that's really big for us and just with that experience we get that comfort level.”

Tyler O’Connor, the 2nd string gunslinger, loved the chance to play in the first half and with many of the first string players. “It's huge. Coach (Brad) Salem preaches the value in reps and the importance of learning as much as you can from each snap. It was great to get snaps at the end of the first quarter and then put together a great drive in the second quarter with the ones. When our offensive line plays like it does, the playbook is wide open. The first-team offense certainly did more than hold its own in the first quarter and gave us a nice cushion. There's nothing like getting `live' reps. Today was a lot of fun, and I thought I played pretty well.”

Today was NOT about EMU. Their time will come. You can’t take too much from this game. MSU should beat the Eagles like this. This was about MSU. It was about MSU being good enough to make Pasadena and meet Oregon again, but they have no margin for error. No room for a letdown or to relax again.

Today they passed that hurdle. There are ten more hurdles to cross to reach that chance at redemption. They can do it. Will they?

DC Pat Narduzzi liked what he saw in the first half, but in the second half the Spartans started to relax. There is zero room for that on this team. He agreed. “In a game where our guys played really well in the first half, we came out in the second half with a couple of lapses. Gave up a couple of plays in the second half we would have liked to not have given up. Just two little coverage things we need to clean up.”

The entire team would do good mimicking junior defensive end Shilique Calhoun’s mentality. He doesn’t take plays off and he doesn’t take one snap off. He said afterwards, “I want to make plays on defense. I've always felt that I have to be the aggressor. You have to be aggressive, especially in our style of defense. You have to be aggressive to make these types of plays. I feel like it's not hard for us to come out and try to be aggressive, try to stay focused and try to be positive. No matter what the score is, come out and try to create turnovers and create three-and-outs.”

One hurdle down. Ten more to go. The Spartans have the talent and they have the coaching. Do they have the discipline? The 2014 team will be known for their discipline or their lack thereof. We don’t know yet which, but if today was any indication, they are heading in the right direction. This much is true. They all count one, but from here on out they all get much harder.