MSU football head coach Mark Dantonio addressed some of the issues he talked about following the loss to Indiana last Saturday, starting with the offensive line. Dantonio shuffled around some pieces to make the unit hopefully more concise to protect fifth-year senior quarterback Tyler O’Connor and open up holes for a running game that has struggled since its 260-yard explosion against Notre Dame.
The offensive line has now shifted fifth-year senior Kodi Kieler to left tackle in replace of David Beedle, and junior Brian Allen has shifted from guard over to center, where his older brother, Jack, held the reins prior to him. Seniors Benny McGowan and Brandon Clemons now are listed as starters at each guard spot, previously listed as co-starters at guard up to this week. Miguel Machado remains the starter at right tackle.
There is one problem with the depth chart given by MSU football’s staff. They have a defensive line decimated by injuries and suspension, with junior Malik McDowell out for the first half following his targeting penalty and Raequan Williams down for one to two weeks with an injury, it leaves a hole at guard. That means Clemons seeing the field at defensive tackle against BYU, something he has already done in past games this season, is as Dantonio called it, “a for sure.”
That’s where redshirt-freshman Tyler Higby comes into play. Higby saw a lot of time on the field against the Hoosiers and helped lead the blocking on Madre London’s 24-yard scamper to the outside in the third quarter –– MSU’s longest run of the game.
“It’s really I think just learning the offense,” Higby, who hadn’t seen much of the field prior to Indiana, said. “I struggled with it during fall camp and now that I’ve started getting in the flow of things and the season, just knowing the offense is really helpful.”
Dantonio also praised Higby, who impressed him and the rest of the coaching staff with his performance against Indiana.
“I think (Tyler) Higby has played pretty well, he’s been coming,” Dantonio said. “He’s had two, I think, solid games, so he’s playing and he’s maturing as a redshirt-freshman. So it’s a little bit of a trying-to-figure-it-out type situation. We’ll try to always hinge things on making decisions based on who has played the best in the last couple games and what we have to do.”
Higby’s addition gives the offensive line some much-needed depth, especially with Clemons preoccupied on defense, where he said he has been playing exclusively this week.
Overall, however, Allen was critical of the offense and said there needs to be improvement made on the line this week.
“If we get rid of penalties, we finish drives, you know we score points,” Allen said. “We are on the defensive side of the 50 (yard line) a lot and don’t produce. Once we start doing that the points are there and every game the score hasn’t been indicative of how we played.”
As for Kieler, he replaces Beedle who started the first four games for MSU at left tackle. Kieler started the first three games at center and saw his first start of the season at right tackle against Indiana. Dantonio said the change was because Beedle struggled last Saturday and they wanted to put a more experienced guy in Kieler on O’Connor’s blind side.
Dantonio also mentioned that Kieler would continue to move around, and it’s not something that really bothers the 6-foot-6, 319-pound fifth-year senior.
“It keeps me fresh I guess,” Kieler said. “It’s a big responsibility bouncing around all over the line but I’m happy to do it and I’m willing to do it and I’m comfortable doing it.”
With these potential offensive line improvements, Dantonio and the Spartans will look to open up a balanced offensive attack against a BYU defense that gives up 444.2 yards of total offense per game, 310.2 of which comes through the air. With better protection, O’Connor can find receivers without pressure and those receivers can get an opportunity to break away from coverage.
A good passing offense can also open up the run, where MSU has averaged 170.3 yards on the ground per game.
