Scouting Report and Prediction: #8 Michigan State 4-1 (1-0) vs. Purdue Boilermakers 3-3 (1-1)

A look at this week’s opponent… Once again we find ourselves facing another opponent where my opening line is “The Spartans are truly facing themselves

A look at this week’s opponent…

Once again we find ourselves facing another opponent where my opening line is “The Spartans are truly facing themselves this week.” For the record, I am a buyer on Coach Darrell Hazell at Purdue. He is a great coach. He is a tactician from the coaching tree of Jim Tressel and a very good one.

I said before the year I thought they were one year away from a bowl and still feel that way. This is a tough team that won’t quit, plays hard, and has pride. If MSU takes their foot off the gas, this could go from blowout to fallen apart.

Michigan State was embarrassed last season only beating Purdue by a score of 14-0 at home. Could we see the same this week?

Dantonio praised Hazell and his team’s progression. “I think they are staying the course and trying to be more consistent. Hunt, No.1 for them, the tailback, when you think about it Leroy Keyes, pretty good player. John Stanford, to get 21 catches in 1999 against us; I think Taylor Stubblefield, he was No.4 in all purpose yardage in the history of Purdue.”

He continued saying, “They are more productive on offense when you look at their numbers now compared to their numbers last year. They are trying to find their way in the quarterback position. He did a nice job last week. They have some guys hurt a little bit, in and out.”

He added, “But I think they are staying the course a little bit. Usually when you stay the course and you allow yourself or people allow you to critique what you're doing, you can get better. I think that's what they are doing. They seem to play up to their competition, and maybe when they are favored, they play down a little bit. I don't know.”

Dantonio went on to say, “But they seem to play up to their competition. And you watch the Notre Dame game, you watch the Iowa game, you watch this past game; you're impressed by what they have done. You look at last year's game, what they are able to accomplish. It's a close football game.”

Hazell thinks playing the highly ranked Spartans gives his guys a chance to make some noise. “Every game is its own separate entity. I say that every week and that's the truth in college football. You look across the country and the landscape of college football Saturday after Saturday and I will assure you our team will be ready to play on Saturday at 3:30.”

When MSU has the ball…

The Spartans need to spread their wings. I could care less what the score is. I don’t want their foot off the gas and I want the starters play significant time. I want to see Delton Williams who disappeared the last game when RB Coach and OC Dave Warner chose not to play him.

This game is about MSU. No one else. If and when the coaches call the big play attack off, I want to see guys running between the tackles with the hunger to drive the score up. I want aggression.

Hazell found himself gushing this week over the Spartans’ offensive weapons saying about QB Connor Cook and his maturation, “I thought at the beginning of last season he struggled and you can see his progress getting better and better and right now studying him this morning he's accurate with the ball, he throws a great route, he gets it out of his hands and doesn't take sacks very often, once in a while he will get a little rattled back there, but most of the time he cuts it loose, gets it out of bounds and makes good decisions with the football and he really has developed into a very, very good passer.”

Of the Spartans All American candidate Tony Lippett Hazell added, “He's got a little bit of everything, he really does. He's got patience in the route, you see him set defenders up, and he's got ability after the catch and he's a big guy that can run pretty well so we're going to have to do some things to stifle him a little bit.”

Let’s not kid ourselves. This side of the ball needs to show a lot. The nation is watching. The playoff committee is watching. Recruits are watching. Spartan Nation is watching and the MSU offense needs to come out and blow the Boilermakers out. No excuses.

When MSU is on defense…

The Spartans defense is elite. Again. That is the way they operate. As long as Pat Narduzzi remains, that is the way it is going to function. Coach Hazell knows that. Saying of the MSU D, “I haven't studied all the defenses in the conference but I would be hard fought to find a defense as good as these guys, they're excellent, they play typical 4 coverage where they're going to play man to man, nine guys in the box, they have great eye discipline, typically you will see guys peeking to see what the play action is, they have unreal eye discipline and their safeties are linebackers, they're down in the box as soon as the quarterback takes the snap. This is a sound defense when they get you in third and long watch out because here comes something. “

He continued raving about the Spartan Dawgs adding, “I think they're outstanding, their defensive end, No. 89 is different, he's a different player, so athletic for a big guy, he's 6'5'' 350 lbs, and he comes off the edge. We're going to have to do some things to make sure he doesn't get in the backfield, but I think what makes them so good is they do very few things but they do them exceptionally well and they know exactly where all their help is and their weaknesses are just as they know where their weaknesses are as well and they can compensate for those.”

After shutting down the best player in college football last week in Ameer Abdullah, Hazell knows running against MSU is very difficult. “I think you got to be creative but I think you also got to block 'em and that's part of it. If you can sustain blocks, not take negative plays, and try to establish some consistency, then you got to be good on third down so you have those additional plays that you need to have against a team like Michigan State and you gotta keep their offense off the field because their offense is better. The defensive gets all the "pub" but their offense is pretty good offense.”

At the same time he does see some weaknesses in the Spartans. “There are a few things that Michigan State does that we can attack. I don't want to go into great detail on that but there's a few things they do. We have seen this defense for the last seven years, since he's been there and we'll do some things. “

One thing that sets MSU apart is their single man coverage. Very little help, but very talented. Hazell thinks his team has to help out his wideouts. “We're going to have to help them. B.J. outside wide, he will get matched up, and you have DeAngelo outside wide and their whole plan, "they" being Michigan State is to play nine man football, take those two wide outs out of the game like they're not on the field and play with the safeties down in the box so we're going to have to do things to help our wide outs get cut free.”

With the MSU D you can expect the same. Dominance. I know they have talked a lot this week about a shutout. They go in to every game with that mentality. Purdue can’t beat MSU without taking risks. MSU must capitalize on them with turnovers and sacks. Motivating the Spartan D is never an issue. Narduzzi sees to it that the Dawgs are hungry.

Intangibles…

Can MSU remain interested and motivated with an eye on a bigger prize? When MSU calls off the offense it sends a clear message to the stands and the team. They have far too much at stake. I also know that MSU only won last year 14-0. Again, the MSU D did their job and the offense was abysmal.

With Hazell coming from the Tressel tree, Dantonio doesn’t want to blow out his Boilermakers. He didn’t want to do it with EMU either. If Purdue can avoid costly mistakes like EMU and simply not quit, the game will be closer than you want.

Prediction…

Dantonio said about this trip, “It's tough to play away. It's tough to play at Purdue. We have been there before. We have always had great games with them. I think there's sort of a history, there's a little bit of tradition there that we have always played close games. I can even think back to when I was here before, close games.”

I think MSU comes in, scores, and plays well; not great, not overwhelming, and doesn’t make a statement. Hit me once? Your fault. Twice? Mine. I thought the Spartans learned a lesson against Oregon. Last week we learned they did not.

Purdue is not EMU talent wise and MSU wins this 30-10.