Michigan State TE Jack Velling: 'We Can Compete With the Best'
In its Week 5 loss to No. 3 Ohio State, Michigan State showed that it had the potential to go toe-to-toe with some of the best in the nation. While the outcome would say otherwise, had early mistakes on offense gone the other way, it could have been a much closer contest.
On Friday, that wasn't really the case as the Spartans were completely exposed by the No. 6-ranked Oregon Ducks. A fumble at the goal line early on may have changed the trajectory of the contest, but even so, Michigan State's offense wasn't able to capitalize on its defense's takeaways in the first quarter and was stalled for almost the entirety of the remainder of the game.
But Spartan tight end Jack Velling, who is quite familiar with the threat Oregon poses from his days in Corvallis, still thinks Michigan State learned something positive about itself.
"I think we learned that we can compete with the best [after playing Ohio State and Oregon]," Velling said after Friday's loss. "We can fight for four quarters. We just got to start faster from an offensive point of view. and like he [Charles Brantley] said, play complementary football. And I like us, and I think we can compete with whoever's out there in the field."
Is Velling's assessment fair? On one hand, Michigan State did jump out with an early control of the tempo, but it never got it back on offense. Oregon clearly had the Spartans' number. After that fumble on the first possession, the game was never in doubt.
At the same time, Velling is optimistic, which is all the Spartans can be right now after dropping three straight. He's keeping things in perspective, whether what he believes is true or not.
Michigan State just faced two top-10 teams and a very good Boston College team on the road that it should have beaten.
Noting this will be important as now, the Spartans will have more control of their remaining schedule. They get a bye week before hosting Iowa. If they win that matchup, they're right back where they want to be before they head to Ann Arbor for the biggest game of the year.
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