Spartans to be Without Senior Captain for Next Week's First Half
The Michigan State Spartans (4-4) fell to the Michigan Wolverines (5-3) in their annual in-state rivalry matchup last Saturday night and lost one of their best defenders for the first half of next week's game.
Transfer senior linebacker Jordan Turner was called for targeting on the final play of the third quarter of the Spartans Week 9 loss which led to him being ejected for the remainder of the contest. Per the targeting rule, Turner will be suspended for the first half of the Spartans' next game.
It was a questionable call for targeting, and many believed it to be a legal hit, but it did meet the criteria of a targeting hit and the rule was enforced and upheld following the Spartans' appeal after the game.
"They reviewed it, we appealed it, and they denied the appeal," said Spartans coach Jonathan Smith in his press conference on Monday. "So, he'll be out for the first half."
Turner is a major loss for the Spartans defense as he leads the team in sacks (3) and tackles (48). He is arguably the best defender the team has and his loss will play a role in the first half of their game against the Indiana Hoosiers (8-0) next week.
Smith was asked later how Turner will deal with the short suspension and how the rest of the defense will need to step in a bigger role. Due to the depth of the Spartans roster, they should be just fine.
"Yeah that's not going to be easy on him, but he'll be locked in," Smith said. "He's one of our captains, his approach to the game. And some beauty [in it], we talked about it the other week, our front seven, we played 17 different guys in the front seven. So, Jordan Hall gets more snaps, Wayne Matthews, Cal Haladay. We've got some guys that need to step up and those guys will."
Next week, the Spartans will face the hottest team in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers have ripped off eight straight wins to begin their season and have a real shot at the College Football Playoff behind their starting quarterback, Kurtis Rourke.
Rourke had surgery on the thumb of his throwing hard this past week and did not play in Week 9 against Washington. He is expected to be healthy enough to play. The Hoosiers also have one of the best offensive lines in the conference, allowing just seven sacks over an eight-game span.
The Spartans will need to apply pressure early and often, without their sack leader for the first 30 minutes of the game.
"We want to affect the passer and again, I think about the last couple of weeks, not playing prolific passing games," Smith said. "So, your sack counts [are] probably going to be down when you're playing teams like that, but these guys can throw it. They do a nice job in the RPO game, they're going to have a balance of mixed run and pass but we want to affect the passer especially against a good quarterback."
After a disappointing loss to the Wolverines, the Spartans will need to regroup and look to pull off one of the biggest upsets of the college football season. They will be back at Spartan Stadium for the matchup and once Turner comes back in the second half, they will have an extra edge to get it done.
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