Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast: A Quest for Relevance
Michigan State football has taken a massive step back in recent years, finishing with just one winning season in the last four seasons (the Mel Tucker era).
What was a well-respected program under Mark Dantonio became a laughing stock leading up to Jonathan Smith's arrival. Through four games and a successful first year of recruiting, Smith has shown he is capable of getting the Spartans back to relevance.
On this episode of the Michigan State Spartans Insider podcast, our Hondo S. Carpenter Sr. and Attorney Jonathan Schopp discuss the movement forming under this new regime, while also looking back at the Boston College loss, previewing the matchup with Ohio State this weekend and talking Michigan State men's basketball coach Tom Izzo.
You can watch the episode below:
Below is Coach Smith's opening statement from his press conference on Monday:
Smith: "After digesting the film, some good and some bad. I do look at the game as a whole; it was a good college football game, back and forth. I really talked to the team after the game in the locker room and yesterday. Momentum swings and whatnot, I did feel like he battled for four quarters. I think about the end of the first half, we kick a field goal, go into halftime with some momentum; we're up 7, starting with the ball in the second half and put the ball on the ground, defense shows up, backs them up, hold them to a field goal. Two plays later, offensively, false start, throw an interception, give them the ball again, they punch that in immediately. All of a sudden ... got to lead, momentum totally flipped, 10-point swing in whatever it was, 2 minutes. But the response, and we understand the things a long game. Battled throughout, huge goal-line, stop, huge fourth-down stop on the goal line. We take the ball over at the 2, march the thing all the way down -- multiple third-down conversions, fourth-down conversion, and we can't finish it in the end zone, and that really separated things. We kicked the field goal, which, again, [Jonathan] Kim had an awesome game, and yeah, we lost the last, last 4 minutes there with by them executing the scoring and us not. But we did play for four quarters, and I think that just continues to be a resounding theme with this team, which we need to keep moving forward. Overall, defensively, there's a lot to like there -- containing a really good player in that quarterback, but obviously looking for one more stop. Offensively, we got to two glaring things -- take care of the ball. Can't turn the thing over. And ... this red-zone touchdown percentage is not where it needs to be, and so we've got to continue to improve in that area. Special teams-wise, mentioned Kim, but I will say that the protection -- [Ryan] Eckley has a great hold on one of those field goal attempts. I think it was the last one. And he punted well. At the same time, we've got a protection issue there on punt. The second one we did, we got to clean that up; we got exposed there. Really fortunate that he got the thing off. And obviously, on the kick return, it's not just on Kay'Ron [Lynch-Adams] -- yeah, he's got to hold onto the ball, but we can't just give free access to getting hit on the 10-yard line. And so that's what we're looking at, and we'll be back to work and try to improve on some of that stuff. And we're going to need to do it because good opponent coming in. Looking forward to Saturday night against Ohio State in our place and whatnot. Got a bunch of respect for that program and those coaches and those players. And I think it will be a real, real challenge that we're going to put a lot of work in this week to take on."
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