Biggest Challenge for MSU Now
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Michigan State has now shifted its attention to Boston College, an opponent it knows well as the Spartans suffered their first loss of the 2024 season against the Eagles in Chestnut Hill last year.
This game is going to be about Michigan State itself. The Spartans hurt themselves in last year's matchup, and that was ultimately the determiner in the final result.
With one week now under its belt, we now know what Michigan State needs to work on going into this Week 2 contest. What's going to be the biggest challenge for this team now?
Our Aidan Champion identifies this on this episode of the Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast.
You can watch the episode below:
Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith addressed the media on Monday.
Below is a partial transcript of his presser:
Jonathan Smith
Q: How much do you want to put on tape and not put on tape when it comes to the non-conference schedule?
Smith: "We don't put a ton of stock into it, to be honest with you. We're trying to play as well as we can. And to me, if you can do that, what you practiced in training camp, getting ready for, that's what you're putting on display in the first few weeks.
"Now, each week, you're playing a different opponent, there's some schematics that go into that, strategy of new schemes or we're showing some different looks. But there's not a ton of -- especially, offensively, defensively, like, 'Hey, we're not going to call it this week so that we can use it next week.' There's a little bit of that, but not much."
Q: What did you learn from last year's loss to Boston College that you can use on Saturday?
Smith: "You got to play for four quarters. These games are won in the fourth quarter. It came down to that, execution at the end of the game. That particular one, yes, but there's multiple other ones throughout the season when we had opportunities to finish the thing (in) different ways -- offense, defense, special teams even.
"That particular one, both sides. We could have got a stop last year but didn't do it. Had the ball at the end of the game, couldn't finish it And so, yeah, that's a learning lesson that happens multiple times, but I knew we'll be watching some of that tape because of the continuity staff-wise, schematics. We'll be watching some of that."
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