It’s Time to Go Big, Starting with Wisconsin

When you get down to it, the Big Ten season is what matters most. To me, it means more than national rankings, any Bowl appearance not named The Rose Bowl, and

When you get down to it, the Big Ten season is what matters most. To me, it means more than national rankings, any Bowl appearance not named The Rose Bowl, and any non-conference schedule imaginable. If you remember back to this summer, I wrote an article proclaiming that we should put conference first and play a full conference slate of games to produce a true champion. While that is not in place quite yet, the Big Ten will still award a Conference Title later this fall, and as of now the Spartans have as good a chance as any other team to take the crown.

Whatever your record might have been during non-conference play, the Big Ten Season zeros you out. For a team like MSU, it's a much needed fresh start. For a team like Penn St., who played competition largely softer than their own practice squad thus far, it could be a bit unnerving. The best part about getting the conference slate going is getting a real chance to identify the contenders and pretenders in the Big Ten. Don’t be surprised if we take a look at the Conference standings a month from now and find some teams' fortunes reversed from their non-conference performance.

Running Game Foundation Begins to Settle

This team can move the ball through the air with a deep compliment of Wide Receivers and Tight Ends, and two guys capable of delivering the ball. Yet, the Offense is still working to develop a consistent running attack. After last week, the Running Back picture became a bit clearer, perhaps, as Fr. Larry Caper, Rs.-Fr. Caulton Ray, and So. Glenn Winston developed a bit more of a working rhythm as their roles appeared to take greater definition. 

At this point, it appears a question mark whether Fr. Edwin “Rock” Baker will play any more this year. If he doesn’t, there’s a chance he could qualify for a Medical Red Shirt, and then have four years of eligibility remaining. That would only add to the quality depth at the position. Baker has already showed flashes of being a difference maker at the RB position, but if he’s injured, the option of a Medical Red Shirt could be quite beneficial.

Coach D told Spartan Nation Tuesday the staff likes what they’ve seen thus far out of So. RB Glenn Winston. “He’s physical, he runs downhill, he’s gotten himself in shape, and he’s doing what he needs to do to put himself on the field.” Winston has had to catch up after returning to Spartan Football from a much discussed and debated off-field incident last fall. To this point, Winston has appeared to handle the comeback well, and is also showing serious signs of taking over the primary Kick Returning duties permanently. When he gets enough space to get going, he’s a freight train that’s becoming awful tough to pull down. Look for Winston to get more carries as the Big Ten season unfolds.

But wait a minute, you can’t discuss what’s happening with the running game without discussing what’s happening up front on the Offensive Line. Maybe half of the running game production is a direct result of the play of the Offensive Line. As Spartan Nation told you before the year began, the development of this unit is a major key to the ’09 Spartans winning 8 or more games. There’s reason to be optimistic, as the line appeared to make progress up front with a couple line up adjustments in the Notre Dame game. If you check this week’s depth chart, you’ll see the changes that have been made since Montana St. But before getting too far ahead of ourselves in declaring the line is fixed, let’s see what happens in the first three conference games. I’m not yet sure the Notre Dame defense is quite Big Ten quality.

Defense Must Tighten up for Spartans to Compete

The Spartan Defense has struggled through its first three games. Especially at the unit’s front and back, Defensive Coordinator Pat Narduzzi’s group must play much better in Big Ten play or the Spartans could struggle to qualify for a Bowl game. What’s concerned the Spartan Nation most thus far has been pass defense. Pass defense is a group effort, with the secondary and line playing the biggest roles. The focus, therefore, should not be on both the line and secondary play, not one or the other. 

The biggest concerns deal with the Defense’s ability to consistently execute their fundamentals with an attention to detail.  In game play thus far, fundamentals have been inconsistent and shaky all over the secondary, and somewhat across the line. This Defense is relatively deep with game experience in spots, which allows the coaching staff to put the pressure of “playing time” on the whole unit. It’s getting to the point where guys who aren’t getting the job done are being shuffled and moved around on the depth chart.

It’s time for this unit to gel and communicate at a new level. It’s time for the leaders on the Defense to speak up and lead a little stronger. As Tom Izzo has always contended, as a football coach locked in a basketball life, leaders need to do drag others with them to get a team to the next level. There are players on this defense who need to continue their development as leaders in order for MSU to win consistently in the Big Ten.

The defensive front must find a way to create a pass rush on its own, starting with Wisconsin this Saturday. Anytime a Defense cannot create a pass rush out of the front four, they must begin blitzing. Narduzzi loves to blitz, from multiple locations, but as he first said after the Notre Dame game in 2007, ideally you’re in “base defense” more often than not, and getting to the passer regularly. Blitzing creates holes on the field, and sometimes those holes can lead to big plays. The defensive line needs to come together and play with tighter technique and explosion off the ball than they’ve shown thus far.

The secondary is obviously not a strength of this football team right now. That is somewhat of a surprise given the amount of depth returning to this unit. With so much depth, and playing time to be earned and lost in the first three games of the year, perhaps we shouldn’t be as surprised at their struggles. Rhythm in a secondary can be a tricky thing. Defensive backs are often hanging out on an island with nowhere to hide. It’s inherently a tough position to play. And as Coach D has said recently, it might be tougher to play those positions today than in the past, as big plays are more prevalent in modern day College Football.

As disappointing as the DBs have been thus far, there is a potential upside to the Big Ten season. The unit has been tested, the unit has been beaten, and the unit has room to grow. Coach D constantly reminds the Spartan Nation that football is a game of inches. In the secondary, it might be even less than an inch sometimes. So as bad as the defensive backs have looked at times, they’re probably not that far off. And they have looked good in certain spots. The primary mission of this critical unit for MSU football is to play consistently throughout the 60 minutes of a football game. 

Big Ten, Big Chance

Last week we talked about this three game stretch (ND, UW, UM) being the most important of the Spartans’ season. A big part of that begins Saturday with the conference opener/road opener in Wisconsin. Make no mistake, the conference race is probably more wide open than it appears. As many as half the teams in the conference go into play Saturday believing they have a legitimate shot of winning the Big Ten.

Ohio St. Head Coach Jim Tressel told Spartan Nation Tuesday “I really felt going into the season that this would be one of the strongest Big Ten groups we’ve had.” Tressel noted that many teams in conference were returning a lot of key game experience, which should make things tighter from top to bottom. “You can see the upward progression in a lot of folks…it’s going to be a highly competitive league.”

The Spartans can be a factor in the Big Ten race. Or they can be complete non-factor. That may sound overly obvious and a waste of words, but this year I think it actually applies directly to MSU. This is a young 1-2 football team that has lost their two games by a total of 5 points. If you spread out 7 points over those two loses, you’d be talking about the 3-0 team many in the Spartan Nation expected to have going into this Saturday. The truth is, this team is probably a lot closer to 3-0 than it appears. The reality though, is that 1-2 is a hole that must be dug out of, and really can’t be dug much deeper. 

Saturday the Big Ten race begins. It’s time to bang up on Bucky and the Badgers.