Evanston, Ill. — MSU defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi stepped up to speak after MSU’s 37-20 win Saturday, let out a short sigh, as if to remember last year’s 48 points surrendered to the Northwestern offense, and finally appreciated his team’s defensive turnaround against the Wildcats.
In college football, players come and go. They leave their mark on the field and in the record book, and some, if they’re lucky, go on to make their marks in the NFL. In many cases, programs struggle to find new players who can fill the shoes of their departed stars. But in the case of the wide receiver position at MSU, that has very rarely been a problem.
With a 5-1 record, the Spartans have reached the midpoint of the regular season in good shape for a Big Ten championship run. From stellar running-back play to a surprisingly stout defense, the team has earned high marks through six games. Here’s a position-by-position breakdown of the MSU football team halfway through the season.
1) Last season, Northwestern quarterback C.J. Bachér, then a junior, threw for a career-high 520 yards and five touchdowns against MSU.
It’s that time of the year — the temperatures are dropping, the cider is flowing and fall has officially started.
Garrett Celek had large shoes to fill as a high school senior planning to attend Cincinnati for football.
Last week, Iowa’s front seven shut down running back Javon Ringer and kept quarterback Brian Hoyer in check. MSU’s offensive line will need a better performance this week against a strong Northwestern front seven.
For a defensive-minded leader with roots in the secondary, last season’s double-overtime loss to Northwestern couldn’t have sat well with MSU head coach Mark Dantonio. Northwestern’s then-junior gunslinger, quarterback C.J.
Football junior kicker Brett Swenson was named co-Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week last week after he was a perfect 3-for-3 in field goal attempts in MSU’s 16-13 win over Iowa.
The struggles of last year’s MSU football team are well documented. The Spartans went 7-6, with all six losses coming by seven points or less. That trend continued in the 2008 season opener against California, where the Spartans once again found themselves staring at another loss by seven points, with a 38-31 outcome.
Be it rushing or protecting the quarterback, MSU’s offensive and defensive lines were pass-happy against Iowa. With the ball in their hands, the Spartans’ offensive line has given up two sacks through six games, one of which came Saturday when Iowa defensive tackle Mitch King brought MSU senior quarterback Brian Hoyer down in the third quarter.
The hot seat just got a little warmer for Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz. Ferentz, whose contract runs through 2012, made one of those questionable coaching decisions Saturday that leaves fans at home thinking they’d do a better job making the calls.
After nearly 58 minutes of grind-it-out, pound-it-home football Saturday, Iowa turned the game against MSU into a game of inches. Trailing the Spartans 16-13 with 2:13 remaining, the Hawkeyes faced a fourth-and-inches situation at MSU’s 20-yard line. Instead of attempting a 37-yard field goal for the tie, Iowa opted to keep its offense on the field and go for the first down. Iowa quarterback Ricky Stanzi handed the ball to 5-foot-11, 235 bruising running back Shonn Greene, who ran to his left in search of an opening.
Feb. 7, 2007, was supposed to be the opening sentence in the next chapter of Arthur Ray Jr.‘s life. Not only was the 17-year-old set to graduate from Chicago’s Mount Carmel High in a few months, but he was about to announce his intentions to play football at MSU.
A breakdown of Saturday’s football game against Iowa.
Wherever coaches have wanted Dwayne Holmes to play in his five years at MSU, he’s been more than willing to make the position audible.
The weather outside is frightful; but these prognosticators are so delightful. And since we don’t actually want to endure the rain and watch the games, let them prog, let them prog, let them prog!
Thanks in large part to the success of senior running back Javon Ringer, the Spartans’ passing game has been almost nonexistent this season.
In what has become a season-long trend, the MSU football team went into Saturday’s game convinced that special teams would make or break the game. Although MSU’s special teams saw its fair share of dropped punts and missed blocking assignments against Indiana, junior kicker Brett Swenson and sophomore punter Aaron Bates did their share to ensure MSU’s 42-29 win.