Can Michigan State ‘Keep Chopping’ Its Way To Close Wins in 2022?
Mel Tucker has several catchphrases that he uses in press conferences and with his team, but few are as popular as ‘Keep Chopping’.
The moniker was a perfect fit for the program through the 2021 season. The Spartans played in five games that were decided by 10 points or less a year ago, and MSU went 5-0 in those games.
Those results didn’t come by accident.
“I think that comes back to preparation, just being prepared, and then also just preparing for the moment,” quarterback Payton Thorne said at Big Ten Media Days. “We talked about that, and Coach Tuck has talked to our team about that. The idea of staying neutral through games, not getting too high, not getting too low.”
No game embodied the ‘Keep Chopping’ mentality more completely than Michigan State’s come-from-behind victory over rival Michigan. The Spartans trailed by 16 points with under six minutes left in the third quarter before rallying for a 37-33 victory.
While Michigan State’s players already had faith in what Tucker and the coaching staff had been preaching to them in the prior year and a half, the win over the Wolverines cemented ‘Keep Chopping’ in the Spartans’ culture.
“That all came back,” Thorne said of Tucker’s catchphrase and message. “And we came back a couple times last year, or maybe really turned it on in the fourth quarter and really sealed games. So, that’s all preparation and preparing for moments like that.”
If the Michigan game is when the Spartans reaped the benefits of fully investing in Tucker’s culture, the Week 3 game against Miami is perhaps when Michigan State’s players first realized that Tucker’s plan was going to work in East Lansing.
The Spartans were on the road, playing in temperatures nearing 100 degrees, but it was Miami who faded late in that game, not Michigan State.
“That whole game kind of set the stage for our season,” Thorne said. “We went down there in their environment, it was 100 degrees, we prepared for three or four weeks to play in that heat. And we went down there, and by the end of the game they were tapping out, and we saw that.
“That was a sense of pride for us, that we went in their environment and were in better shape then they were. That was probably a turning point in our season early on.”
Tucker praised his nutrition coaches and strength and conditioning staff for helping the Spartans be at their best in South Beach.
“That was a program win for us, because it was a strong effort from everyone in our organization,” Tucker said. “You know how difficult it is to take the show on the road, from an operation standpoint.
“Strength and conditioning, and nutrition, really showed up. We had a really good hydration plan, and we worked that plan early in camp in anticipation of that game. Everyone was all in on what we needed to do to be in a position to be able to win that game, and we knew it was going to be a fourth quarter game. We knew we had to be strong in the fourth quarter, and so all of our guys were confident getting on the plane, knowing that they were conditioned to do it.
“From the time we got there, and then throughout the game, there was never a doubt. I never saw a doubt in our guys minds that we were going to find a way to win that game. And, they were confident because, as an organization, we were extremely prepared. So, they could trust in the plan and the process.”
That trust in the process showed up throughout the season – when the Spartans came from behind to beat Nebraska in overtime, in a hard-fought five-point win at Indiana, in a three-point victory in the midst of a blizzard against Penn State, and what Michigan State overcame an 11-point fourth quarter deficit to beat Pittsburgh in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
Catchphrases become nothing more than corny lines when they don’t produce results. But for Michigan State, ‘Keep Chopping’ is more than a catchphrase – it’s a reflection of the culture that Tucker has installed in East Lansing.
This summer, several publications questioned if the 2022 Spartans could replicate its close-game success of 2021. It’s a fair question to ask, but Michigan State’s close wins didn’t come by way of luck a year ago. They came by preparation and a trust in Tucker’s process, and that’s not going anywhere in 2022.
