Spartan Football: The Outlook Moving Forward…Nebraska

Coming off their 56-14 victory over Wyoming to finish non-conference play at 3-1, the Spartans welcome the Nebraska Cornhuskers to Spartan Stadium for an 8:00 showdown on ABC.

Offense

When you’re stacked as deep as the Spartans at Wide Receiver, there’s a good chance that a different player each week will have a big day. “Every game has a new playmaker,” Mark Dantonio said earlier this week about the playing group that goes about a half dozen deep. “That’s been exciting for us.”

No question, that standout performance last week came from the Red-Shirt Senior from Vienna (vie-n-ah is how they say it), Georgia, Keith Mumphrey. The smooth slasher produced his first two-touchdown effort of a successful MSU career with a 6-yard touchdown reception and 33-yard end around for a score. Mumphrey was arguably the Spartans best receiver in the sluggish 2012 season and entered 2013 as a starter. He may not have had the 2013 he wanted, but did make some big plays on the post season stage. In reality, he’s been among the most reliable Spartans over the last three seasons. 

“He’s really a complete football player,” Dantonio said about the Senior who also plays on special teams and seems to get a lot of power and speed out of his six-foot frame. Last Saturday he made the point he’s more than just a possession receiver. Mumphrey and the rest of the 2014 Senior class is probably starting to feel the urgency that comes with a Senior season as they begin their last trip around the Big Ten. Keep an eye on him as conference play begins, things tend to tighten up, and experience usually makes a real difference.

We haven’t seen much from the Spartan Tight Ends yet but don’t assume they won’t be part of the Offense moving forward. Outside of a couple nice completions during the Oregon game, the Offense’s potential “X-Factor” position has been kind of quiet. Only ten balls have been caught by Tight Ends through the first four games, nine by Josiah Price and one for Jamal Lyles, but there’s likely a lot more to come.

“Last year we were looking for an identity (at Tight End),” Dantonio told us earlier this week. With the transition of Lyles to Tight End and the rest of the guys integrating into the 2014 playing group, the Tight Ends again have a solid identity for league play. “All five of those guys are guys that can go in there and play,” Coach D added about the position that has once again become a position of depth on this team.

With only one football around and such a deep group of Wide Outs that can play at the top level of College Football, you'd expect it could be difficult to see some big passing numbers out of these Tight Ends.  But because the Tight Ends matter so much to this Offense and they tend to create mismatches, keep an eye out for a Defense to be exploited. “They’re capable of creating big plays,” Dantonio concluded.  The bottom line is that MSU will not run many plays on Offense without a real threat lining up at Tight End.

“I know where guys are going to be, they know where I’m going to put the ball,” a confident Connor Cook said in post game interviews last Saturday afternoon.   Cook’s performance and the nearly dominant MSU passing attack has led this Offense into new found territory. “I think he gets better every week,” Nebraska’s Bo Pelini said about the Spartans second year starting Quarterback.  MSU took 11 games to score as many points as they have thus far in 2014. That’s a big difference, but Quarterbacks Coach Brad Salem said "it’s the little things that have added up," when interviewed immediately after the Wyoming victory. 

“You just want to stay consistent,” Coach Salem added before walking off to enjoy the victory and probably begin thinking about Nebraska. There should be opportunities to score against a less than dominant Nebraska Defense, especially playing at home. Nebraska may enjoy the best home field advantage in the league right now, so getting them in Spartan Stadium bodes well for MSU to score points. The Offense had great rhythm again on Saturday while the starters were in. That’s exactly how they needed to look to finish tuning up for the bright lights of an 8:00 national television stage with Nebraska coming to town.

Defense

Here’s “the short” of the MSU Defense right now. Should we be concerned about them? No. Are they as good as the 2013 model? No. Now let’s move onto conference play, keeping in mind that if Darien Harris or any other Spartan had brought Marcus Mariota down, this team would safely be ranked inside the nation’s Top 4 when opening Big Ten play. If that were the case, you’d be to busy loving all over the Defense to worry about its relative propensity to give up big plays. Am I wrong? “The pre-season’s over,” Pat Narduzzi said after the game Saturday afternoon. No need to say much more to this group.

Without a doubt the Spartans number one job Saturday night is to keep an eye on #8 of the Huskers, Ameer Abdullah. Make no mistake, he’s the best back in the league if not the best offensive player in the Big Ten too. He probably can’t win this game on his own, but he can be the difference if Nebraska is to pull a decent sized upset. It’s not that Nebraska is a one trick pony, it’s that they have one horse that clearly leads the rest of their attack that includes the Red-Shirt Senior Wide Out, Kenny Bell.

Conference play always starts up front, and the Spartan Dawg Defense may be better on the Defensive Line than the program has seen in the modern era of this sport. “Like you’d expect from Michigan State’s Defense, they’re extremely well coached and they play hard,” Nebraska Head Coach Bo Pelini told Spartan Nation earlier this week. Just look at the roster and remind yourself how their 5th year Senior leader spells his last name. It’s kind of natural for him to cause havoc in the backfield.

“He’s been a cornerstone for the last three years, and he’s a playmaker,” Mark Dantonio told Spartan Nation earlier this week about the former Moller High School (Cincinnati, OH) standout, Marcus Rush. “I don’t think there’s one player who better exemplifies what they’re all about than Marcus Rush,” ESPN analyst Matt Millen said during his broadcast last Saturday. Millen isn’t the only one that’s noticed the consistent level of effort the Red-Shirt Senior brings play in-play out. Rush has proven over time that he’s far more than a serviceable “blue collar” guy, as one Notre Dame color TV man said in 2013. “He’s extremely, extremely competitive,” Dantonio added.

Rush has been a decorated member of one of the top Defenses in College Football the past couple years.  His honors include being named a Freshman All-American in 2011, a couple of Honorable All Big Ten mentions, and he’s again likely to be up for post season honors. “Right now he’s playing like an All-Conference Defensive End,” Pat Narduzzi pointed out after last Saturday’s game. Beyond 2014, Rush should have a decent shot to play on Sundays.  “Marcus is a really good player,” Pelini told us this week about the Spartans' stalwart of the Defensive Line.Â

But Rush knows those are only a couple favorable opinions. If he completes another outstanding Big Ten season, he will go down as more than one of the most underrated players of the Mark Dantonio era. He will leave MSU with a personal playing record. “He will have started more games than any person in Michigan State history,” Dantonio confirmed.   

The Defense looked less than sparkling last weekend because of the big plays they gave up. At this point we should conclude that an occasional big play is out there to be made against the 2014 edition. That’s more the norm in the sport than the exception. It’s just that the last couple seasons around here featured abnormally stingy Defenses. Unlike the past few years, the Defense doesn’t have to be nearly perfect for MSU to beat quality opponents.

Nebraska could probably produce big plays against a brick wall because of Ameer Abdullah, Kenny Bell, and a couple other slick skill players that were nationally recruited to play for the Big Reds. Whether the MSU Defensive issues have been communication based, resulted from lining up less than 100% perfect before the snap, or any other reason, all eyes will be looking for whether Nebraska breaks any big ones Saturday night.

In reality we didn’t learn too much from the last two weeks because so many different Spartans played and the competition level was so far from even. This week we’ve got a 5-0 Nebraska team coming in with more explosive talent that MSU will face the rest of the regular season. We should learn a good bit about this Defense come late Saturday night.  Can they handle their business and tighten up in time to defend the Big Ten Championship, or will they be exposed as a group that has some permanent looking holes that opponents will try to exploit form here? It will be a very interesting Saturday night for this unit as they return to the national primetime stage, and the entire nation sizes up this year’s bite of the Spartan Dawgs. 

Special Teams

Last week’s highlight was without a doubt the blocked Field Goal try by Shilique Calhoun. Blocked Field Goals are rare and usually only pop up when there’s a clear disparity between the talent level of the two teams. That fundamental makes you realize, looking back, how surprising and impressive Anthony Rashad White’s block was to win the Citrus Bowl in Overtime a few years back. Saturday Calhoun slid through the line and knew what to do with his hands on what could well be the only blocked kick of 2014. It was another play for his highlight reel.

“That’s (Special Teams) a make it-break it thing for us,” Calhoun said after the Wyoming victory about the sometimes forgotten efforts of the Special Teamers that don't usually touch the ball. As impressive as Calhoun is, Nebraska has athletes too. Like MSU, they put many of them out there on Special Teams. As the competition level jumps back up for MSU so should the importance of these sometimes overlooked snaps during a game. So maybe hold off on sneaking in another round of Candy Crush during these snaps this weekend, multi-taskers.

It was odd that MSU went for a 4th and 5 from the Wyoming 18 late in the 4th last Saturday. We talked in past weeks about keeping Michael Geiger’s game-leg warm, not leaving too much of a gap between Field Goal tries for the excellent Sophomore. The decision seemed like a mistake at the time, and doesn’t seem any wiser today. But thankfully Geiger got a try against Eastern so he didn’t end up going an entire month without attempting an actual Field Goal. Plus, he’ll be kicking in the friendly Spartan Stadium confines that should favor his accuracy as well.

Overall

The Spartans took care of business as you would expect a legitimate Playoff contender would against three overmatched opponents. They dodged a major bullet in the opener thanks to a knee brace on the left leg of Connor Cook, but may have suffered a season impacting blow if Jeremy Langford doesn’t get back to 100% again this season. Time will tell there. Otherwise, MSU got out of the pre-season relatively healthy based on what we know to date. Then there was the Oregon experience.

MSU was in a better position to get out of Autzen with a victory than most saw possible about half way through the 3rd Quarter. They were in control and ready to start closing the Ducks out for good. Then came a flash disguised as Marcus Mariota, and their edge was gone. Oregon regained control, tacked on a garbage time score late to impress the pollsters, and altered the Spartans’ 2014 trajectory. Though disappointed in coming up short at Oregon, this team is far from out of the Playoff running as conference play begins. More importantly, however, they know they’ve got to take care of their own back yard of the Big Ten first.

Nebraska is a notch tougher than they may have looked before the season began but they have yet to face anyone near as talented and deep as MSU.  They clearly feature a serious talent in Ameer Abdullah that change the final score quite a bit if he gets loose and scores more than twice.  And MSU was far from perfect looking last Saturday. Five penalties in the 1st Half, for example, was not the clean effort Coach Dantonio and staff were looking for heading into the Big Ten play.

The Huskers and Spartans looks like a closer matchup than it might have in late August because Nebraska is a little better than we thought, and the MSU Defense is more gettable than they've been in the past couple years. After last Saturday’s action, this Big Ten opener may be more of a “first to 40” kinda game than a lower scoring grinder. You can count on the intensity being raised, Ameer Abdullah looking to break a couple big runs, and Connor Cook to lead the Spartan passing game, spreading the ball all over the field.

If you just look at the rosters, the Spartans have more talent and depth than Nebraska. Nebraska may have the best individual player in the game and a couple names you don’t know now that might rise to the level of the competition. But MSU is gathering steam and for the first time in ages, has a top flight Quarterback that is leading a very talented and deep set of skill players around him. We’ve seen good signal callers around here before on average or less teams, Drew Stanton and Brian Hoyer come to mind, but never a guy as hot as Connor Cook is now on a complete team that looks this good. When you think back at where this team was a year ago starting Big Ten play, how much more could you ask for?

P.A.T. (Perhaps Another Thought…)

1. This was the 2014 week for Spartan Stadium to call for a white-out. The game is at night on national TV, with relatively clement weather to boot. More people can find something white to wear when temps are expected to be around 50 than have November outerwear that is white for the Ohio St. game. It would be fun to see the place covered in white with the players in either the all whites, helmet included, or a contrasting all green look. I suppose we'll have to wait for the Oregon game next September instead.
2. I don’t think the sport helped itself this September by hyping the Playoff slots from the season’s opening kick. All that did was make the average fan think less of the non-conference snoozers that were played too often during the month, and encouraged them to just tune in around Halloween to hear about the few teams that actually matter to the sport this year. That agenda, led by ESPN, has only shrunk the importance of the regular season overall.
3. I’d say that Nick Saban guy made it pretty far from his MSU career opening 50-10 squeaker of a loss to Nebraska. That Dantonio guy went pretty far too I recon. After all, Nebraska only threw for 114 yards on that day in 1995. The 552 they gained on the ground wasn’t much on Dantonio and his Defensive Backs, right Nick?
4. Since we're talking Nebraska and I know there's at least a dozen Bruce Springsteen fans out there, check out the "Nebraska" version of "Born in the USA" if you get a chance.  It was released as part of the comprehensive "Tracks" project the Boss released a while back, but is also easy to find on Spotify or whatever else the kids are using today.  It is a totally different take on highly misunderstood song.
5. If the Shane Morris concussion management debacle is really that big a deal, Morris will transfer. At this point we don’t know the extent he was actually concussed or who cleared him to do what after he wobbled off the field. We may think we do, but do we really? We all saw a kid that should’ve been removed from the game and at least evaluated further, but no one played enough of a competent adult soon enough to protect Morris. If he leaves Michigan before winter term or next season, we’ll have a better idea of how he feels it was handled. As a side note, does anyone out there still question ESPN’s massive influence? If they didn’t mention it during the broadcast, it wouldn’t even be an issue this week, let alone the lead story in the sport.