More Questions Will Be Answered, Some of Them Never Will

The Michigan State Spartans will host Pittsburgh in Spartan Stadium this weekend. There have been many questions answered through the first two games this

The Michigan State Spartans will host Pittsburgh in Spartan Stadium this weekend. There have been many questions answered through the first two games this season. I expect a few more to be answered this weekend. The first question that comes to my mind surrounds MSU’s ability to stop the run against a traditional “power I” team. Pitt features a big and talented offensive line that likes to out-physical teams at the point of attack. How will MSU’s defensive line handle a big brute force type of offensive attack? Can our linebackers shed their blocks against Pitt’s “big-uglies” and force Pitt into 3rd and long passing situations?

Other than basic game day responsibilities, other questions seem more relevant. The biggest question I have is directed at the previous regime that occupied the Spartan sideline. What was really happening with player development? Is Dantonio’s staff truly head and shoulders above the “Idaho Cowboy” and his bunch of “bandit” toting staff members? Here are a few of my early season observations.

•Devin Thomas is going to be a star at Michigan State. We are going to talk about Devin in the same breath as Mushin Muhammad, Plaxico Burress, Andre Rison and Derrick Mason. Where was this guy all of last season? What was the previous staff doing with Devin when MSU’s wideouts routinely dropped the ball during crucial drives? I just have to scratch my head with this one. Is he that much better than he was a year ago? Maybe, but it has to be a clear case of identifying field ready talent and coaching kids to be successful when game day arrives. How did Devin Thomas see the field so infrequently last year?

•Jonal Saint-Dic is another guy that leaves me asking more questions than I have answers. Sixteen total sacks last year by the MSU defense and somehow Saint-Dic spent most of his junior year on the sideline. We had a horrible pass rush. It was glaringly obvious during the last quarter of the Notre Dame game in 2006. Saint-Dic finds his way into the starting line-up, raises his helmet to the crowd, finds the bench for the first defensive series and then blows the doors off of BGSU’s right tackle the rest of the game. Jonal finished the game with three sacks and caused two fumbles. How did Saint-Dic spend so much time on the Spartan bench last year? Is he that much better because of Coach Gill or is it a clear case of JLS’s staff not knowing who should be on the field Saturday?

•Brian Hoyer has got a cannon. He has an NFL arm. The kid flat out throws the ball on a frozen rope and delivers it in a hurry. Drew Stanton was a true Spartan warrior. But you have to ask yourself, was a “banged-up” Drew Stanton a better QB than Brian Hoyer in the second half of the ND game last year? Would we have won the Illinois game last year had JLS started Hoyer and given Drew a week to heal? I’ll take Hoyer at 95-100% over Drew Stanton at 65-70% any day of the week and twice on Saturday. Hoyer has moxie; he is the perfect QB to run this offense.

•Kellen Davis truly makes other men look like boys. Big?… yes he is. Fast?… for a 6’6” man, this is an understatement. Athletic?… check! Strong?... like a rodeo bull. Let me just try to make sense of Kellen’s previous three years at Michigan State. John L. Smith, David Baldwin and Chris Smeland must have fallen head first off the pumpkin truck. The only person that knew Kellen was ever on the field or that he should see the ball was Brian Hoyer. Hoyer knew that when he needed a first down, #80 would run to the sticks and pull the ball down. How did Hoyer have it figured out when no one else did? It is probably because Kellen Davis seems to blend in so easily among the other players on the field. He’s a half a head taller than everyone else, he is faster than most linebackers and he weighs somewhere between 260-270 lbs. In other words, he is just about as inconspicuous as the Sears Tower on the Chicago skyline. When MSU desperately needed QB pressure last year, where was the “Idaho Cowboy’s” sense of creativity? Holy Christmas, John L used Drew Stanton on special teams, but couldn’t make KFD productive? If you weren’t going to throw Kellen the ball, John L, you may have found a place on the field for him at DE. Kellen is a weapon on offense and defense having a handful of receptions and registering two QB sacks through two games.

•The MSU secondary. Don’t get me started. Magically, in one year, this MSU secondary plays assignment sound. They hit like a Big Ten secondary and they are sure tacklers. Somehow, MSU’s CB’s went from not being able to cover the Little Sister’s of Saint Mary’s to shutting down a pretty darn good MAC conference spread that was run to perfection. Hmmmmmm… maybe it’s because our corners no longer line up 10 yards off the ball. Maybe it is because we got rid of the gimmick defense that used a “bandit.” It was more like a band-aid. This was an MSU secondary that could not cover or tackle anyone a year ago and now seems to be in position 98% of the time. No one has benefited more from Narduzzi and Barnett than Nemo. He plays fast, creates collisions and it playing with confidence. Is anyone around here missing the “bandit?”