HALF: Purdue leads Michigan State 21-14; Spartans on upset watch in West Lafayette statenews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from statenews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Michigan State down 3 key players vs. Purdue, including Matt Coghlin freep.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from freep.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
MSU's offensive line improvement has helped create a Heisman candidate statenews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from statenews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Michigan State Spartans host the University of Michigan Wolverines on Saturday, Oct. 30, a game between two undefeated teams. Head coach Mel Tucker has not released a depth chart this season.
It's rivalry week here at FFFF! Michigan and Michigan State will clash in what is the rivalry's biggest game in decades on Saturday, two 7-0 teams facing off. Michigan State has attracted lots of attention this season with an offense powered by several elite playmakers and a surprisingly good quarterback, leading them to their perfect start. Is the Spartan offense an invincible whizbang unit of home run hitters? Or can Michigan keep them locked in a cell? Let's take a look: The Film: For the second straight week, we're using Nebraska's defense for an opponent's offense due to the scheme similarity between Michigan and Nebraska, as well as the fact that that Nebraska is one of two defenses Michigan State has faced that are comparable in quality to Michigan's. The other is Indiana, who don't run a 3-4 like Nebraska does. So, we're rolling with the Huskers, but we will be sure to reference some of the other games MSU has played too, in order to take a full scope of their season. As an additional note, because I've already combed through this game, quite a few of these clips you will have seen before if you read the Nebraska defense FFFF. Perks of using a game where two teams on your schedule played each other close. They are still useful, and so I'm still using 'em. Personnel: Seth's chart (click makes big):
Michigan State has landed on Payton Thorne at QB after fielding a QB competition between himself and Anthony Russo in the offseason. Mel Tucker definitely made the right decision, as Thorne has had a fine season for the Spartans, 15 TD to 4 INT on 61.2% completion and 9.3 yards per attempt. We will discuss Thorne quite a bit, and dig into his stats later on in this piece. At RB, they feature a Heisman contender in Kenneth Walker III, a master at making opponents miss and grinding out yards after contact. Like Thorne, we'll see Walker a lot in this article. At WR there's a bang-bang tandem of big play threats, Jayden Reed and Jalen Nailor, who are each averaging ~20 yards per reception, and both have at least one 60+ yard catch on the year. Both have breakaway speed and while Reed is the slot guy, both can line up outside and both go long. Tre Mosley is the "go over the middle for the shorter pass" guy, but even he is averaging 15.3 yards per reception with a 50+ yard catch of his own. The only other pass catcher to note is Connor Heyward, a beefy ex-RB who is now a sorta-TE, too short for the position at just 6'0", but his weight is sufficient enough to block (230) and they line him up all over the field. Those four all have 16+ catches, while no one else has more than 5 catches. The last name to note is blocking TE Tyler Hunt, who comes on in two TE sets and has five catches on the year. MSU's solution to their usually terrible OL has been to rotate 9-10 bodies and get by on committee, something that has worked decently well, although that might be a figment of weaker competition (we'll examine that later). The starters from left to right are Jarrett Horst - JD Duplain - Matt Allen - Kevin Jarvis - AJ Arcuri, many of those being names you may remember from the past, though Horst is a transfer in from Arkansas State. The second team includes Luke Campbell at tackle, Blake Bueter and Matt Carrick at guard, and Nick Samac at center. Each of those four players have received 189+ snaps on the season across 7 games, meaning that they are more than just a second string: there's real rotation at every position, hence the non-solid around every MSU OL starter. Special teams note: Jayden Reed is also the punt and kick returner and he's engineered some incredible returns. He's averaging over twenty yards per return on both punt and kick returns. Two of his punt returns were cashed in for TD's. [AFTER THE JUMP: Boom or Bust?]
Previously: Northwestern Offense Given that Northwestern's offense has always been a weak spot under Pat Fitzgerald, it's the typically stingy defenses that have transported the Wildcats to being respectable. Last season was no different, as Northwestern posted a defense that ranked 3rd in SP+ and allowed just 15.9 points per game, helping to get the Wildcats to their second B1G championship game in three seasons. The offseason saw heavy turnover on that side of the ball, not the least of which came at the top, where the brain behind the great Fitzgerald defenses, Mike Hankwitz, called it quits and retired at the age of 73. The transition to a new DC has been bumpy, and the losses of top tacklers Blake Gallagher and Paddy Finisher, in addition to first round draft pick corner Greg Newsome II, have taken their toll. The result is a defense that has struggled mightily against higher-end competition, giving up 38 to Michigan State and 56 to Nebraska. So, today's FFFF will be looking at where the (many) weak points are, and how Josh Gattis should draw up a game plan to rip open the purple and black and coast to an easy victory tomorrow. The Film: For this one, we're using the Michigan State game. As noted in our last piece, NU has really only played two good(ish) teams, Nebraska and MSU. Of those two teams, the Spartans' offense more closely resembles Michigan's, given how heavily Nebraska builds its offense around Adrian Martinez's legs, something you absolutely cannot say about Michigan and Cade McNamara's legs. Thus, we're rolling with the MSU-NW game from week one. It is quite a bit ago, but the personnel is largely still the same and in totality, it should be useful footage. For reference, Michigan State won the game 38-17 after jumping out to a 21-0 lead early on (not unlike the way Nebraska blitzed the 'Cats out of the gate). Personnel: We have fixed the problem with making the image big, so it should work now if you click it:
[NOTE: your attempts at cyberbullying have worked and you have beaten Seth into submission. McNamara is no longer cyan'd] Northwestern's defensive line sees a good amount of rotation. Adetomiwa Adebawore starts at one end position opposite Samdup Miller, but Jeffery Pooler Jr. also has plenty of snaps under his belt. Sean McLaughlin is the fourth option and he gets on the field too. The problem is, none of these players are good. It's a similar story on the interior. Joe Spivak and Jeremy Meiser are the starters on Seth's diagram, though Trevor Kent has moved ahead of Meiser on the depth chart that Northwestern posts. Those three get the lion's share of the work inside. Between these seven linemen, four will see the field on nearly every play, with the 'Cats running a strictly base 4-3, rarely deviating from having four down linemen on the field. The LB level contains the last remaining remnant of 2020's Irish Law Firm, Chris Bergin, who we took mercy on by making him the only LB not to be cyan'd. His compatriots, Peter McIntyre and Bryce Gallagher, were not as lucky. Those three had gotten the bulk of the snaps at the position throughout the season up to this point, but some recent depth chart changes have shaken things up. Khalid Jones is now listed as the starter at MLB on the depth chart, ahead of Gallagher. But since Jones only has 78 snaps through 6 games, we kept him on the bench of this diagram. Don't be surprised if Jones indeed is the new starter on Saturday, though. The secondary contains AJ Hampton and Cameron Mitchell as the starting corners who play nearly every play. Rod Heard is the nickel, getting plenty of work each week, but he is not quite the every-down fixture of Mitchell and Hampton. Coco Azema and Brandon Joseph start at safety, with the latter entering this campaign with gargantuan expectations (to be discussed later). Those two starters have each logged a lot of time, though Azema plays a tad less than Joseph, sometimes being lifted for the nickel, or #3 safety Bryce Jackson. [AFTER THE JUMP: Has this defense ever seen a zone read?]
Previously: Northwestern Offense Given that Northwestern's offense has always been a weak spot under Pat Fitzgerald, it's the typically stingy defenses that have transported the Wildcats to being respectable. Last season was no different, as Northwestern posted a defense that ranked 3rd in SP+ and allowed just 15.9 points per game, helping to get the Wildcats to their second B1G championship game in three seasons. The offseason saw heavy turnover on that side of the ball, not the least of which came at the top, where the brain behind the great Fitzgerald defenses, Mike Hankwitz, called it quits and retired at the age of 73. The transition to a new DC has been bumpy, and the losses of top tacklers Blake Gallagher and Paddy Finisher, in addition to first round draft pick corner Greg Newsome II, have taken their toll. The result is a defense that has struggled mightily against higher-end competition, giving up 38 to Michigan State and 56 to Nebraska. So, today's FFFF will be looking at where the (many) weak points are, and how Josh Gattis should draw up a game plan to rip open the purple and black and coast to an easy victory tomorrow. The Film: For this one, we're using the Michigan State game. As noted in our last piece, NU has really only played two good(ish) teams, Nebraska and MSU. Of those two teams, the Spartans' offense more closely resembles Michigan's, given how heavily Nebraska builds its offense around Adrian Martinez's legs, something you absolutely cannot say about Michigan and Cade McNamara's legs. Thus, we're rolling with the MSU-NW game from week one. It is quite a bit ago, but the personnel is largely still the same and in totality, it should be useful footage. For reference, Michigan State won the game 38-17 after jumping out to a 21-0 lead early on (not unlike the way Nebraska blitzed the 'Cats out of the gate). Personnel: We have fixed the problem with making the image big, so it should work now if you click it:
[NOTE: your attempts at cyberbullying have worked and you have beaten Seth into submission. McNamara is no longer cyan'd] Northwestern's defensive line sees a good amount of rotation. Adetomiwa Adebawore starts at one end position opposite Samdup Miller, but Jeffery Pooler Jr. also has plenty of snaps under his belt. Sean McLaughlin is the fourth option and he gets on the field too. The problem is, none of these players are good. It's a similar story on the interior. Joe Spivak and Jeremy Meiser are the starters on Seth's diagram, though Trevor Kent has moved ahead of Meiser on the depth chart that Northwestern posts. Those three get the lion's share of the work inside. Between these seven linemen, four will see the field on nearly every play, with the 'Cats running a strictly base 4-3, rarely deviating from having four down linemen on the field. The LB level contains the last remaining remnant of 2020's Irish Law Firm, Chris Bergin, who we took mercy on by making him the only LB not to be cyan'd. His compatriots, Peter McIntyre and Bryce Gallagher, were not as lucky. Those three had gotten the bulk of the snaps at the position throughout the season up to this point, but some recent depth chart changes have shaken things up. Khalid Jones is now listed as the starter at MLB on the depth chart, ahead of Gallagher. But since Jones only has 78 snaps through 6 games, we kept him on the bench of this diagram. Don't be surprised if Jones indeed is the new starter on Saturday, though. The secondary contains AJ Hampton and Cameron Mitchell as the starting corners who play nearly every play. Rod Heard is the nickel, getting plenty of work each week, but he is not quite the every-down fixture of Mitchell and Hampton. Coco Azema and Brandon Joseph start at safety, with the latter entering this campaign with gargantuan expectations (to be discussed later). Those two starters have each logged a lot of time, though Azema plays a tad less than Joseph, sometimes being lifted for the nickel, or #3 safety Bryce Jackson. [AFTER THE JUMP: Has this defense ever seen a zone read?]
Michigan State Spartans football team looks to improve to 6-0 | News, Sports, Jobs thealpenanews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thealpenanews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.