Good Times, Bad Times, MSU has had its Share
College football is all about tradition. A new tradition at the end of Michigan State’s football season is discussing, or rather ranting, about how the program needs a new head coach.
Early in this season the thousands of fans who were calling John L. Smith the best coach in the Big Ten are now demanding he be fired. How quick things can turn!
However, does John L. Smith deserve all the blame for the Spartan’s 1-5 funk after a 4-0 start? Or is there a systemic problem with MSU football, in that the team has fast starts and cools as the season progresses no matter who the coach is?
Yes.
John L. Smith has been out-coached by himself all year long. He was too conservative versus U of M and allowed the biggest blunder in college football this season to occur at Ohio State as the Spartans were completely dominating the Buckeyes. He did not make adjustments in the special teams early enough in the season to account for such an awful place-kicker. Finally, he continually allows Chris Smeland to devise game plans that put MSU’s defense at a disadvantage before the game begins, i.e. he does not blitz enough, he plays the DB’s 15 yards off the line of scrimmage and there are usually only six players in the box. All of these schemes allow teams to nickel and dime the ball down the field.
But MSU has traditionally had great starts, only to falter as the season progressed. All of the MSU fans who have acquired whip-lash from jumping off the bandwagon so quickly, are stating things were better under Nick Satan, I mean Saban. But were they?
Nick Saban was 11-6-1 in his first six games of his first three years, including a 5-1 start in 1997. In that same year, 1997, Saban and the Spartans lost four of their last six games to end the season 6-5. Moreover, MSU never won a bowl game with Saban and the Spartans was outscored 134-49 in the three bowl games he coached (45-26 to LSU, 38-0 to Stanford and 51-23 to the University of Washington).
So fast starts are common at Michigan State and the Spartans have had trouble winning big games regardless of who was on the sideline.
In Saban’s sixth year, his team, full of his recruits, went 9-2 and was invited to the Citrus Bowl. It certainly has been a frustrating year for Spartan football, but give John L. Smith six years and see where this program is.
Now a counterargument to the simple wins and losses analysis is the quality of those wins and lopsidedness of the losses. That discussion is for a different time, but for right now all that needs to be pointed out is that the Spartans are on the same track with John L. Smith as they were with Beelzebub…I mean Satan…I mean Saban.
So go State! Eat them up, beat them up, kill them in their sleep.
MSU is 9-1 in its last ten games versus top ten teams at Spartan Stadium. The More You Know…
Early in this season the thousands of fans who were calling John L. Smith the best coach in the Big Ten are now demanding he be fired. How quick things can turn!
However, does John L. Smith deserve all the blame for the Spartan’s 1-5 funk after a 4-0 start? Or is there a systemic problem with MSU football, in that the team has fast starts and cools as the season progresses no matter who the coach is?
Yes.
John L. Smith has been out-coached by himself all year long. He was too conservative versus U of M and allowed the biggest blunder in college football this season to occur at Ohio State as the Spartans were completely dominating the Buckeyes. He did not make adjustments in the special teams early enough in the season to account for such an awful place-kicker. Finally, he continually allows Chris Smeland to devise game plans that put MSU’s defense at a disadvantage before the game begins, i.e. he does not blitz enough, he plays the DB’s 15 yards off the line of scrimmage and there are usually only six players in the box. All of these schemes allow teams to nickel and dime the ball down the field.
But MSU has traditionally had great starts, only to falter as the season progressed. All of the MSU fans who have acquired whip-lash from jumping off the bandwagon so quickly, are stating things were better under Nick Satan, I mean Saban. But were they?
Nick Saban was 11-6-1 in his first six games of his first three years, including a 5-1 start in 1997. In that same year, 1997, Saban and the Spartans lost four of their last six games to end the season 6-5. Moreover, MSU never won a bowl game with Saban and the Spartans was outscored 134-49 in the three bowl games he coached (45-26 to LSU, 38-0 to Stanford and 51-23 to the University of Washington).
So fast starts are common at Michigan State and the Spartans have had trouble winning big games regardless of who was on the sideline.
In Saban’s sixth year, his team, full of his recruits, went 9-2 and was invited to the Citrus Bowl. It certainly has been a frustrating year for Spartan football, but give John L. Smith six years and see where this program is.
Now a counterargument to the simple wins and losses analysis is the quality of those wins and lopsidedness of the losses. That discussion is for a different time, but for right now all that needs to be pointed out is that the Spartans are on the same track with John L. Smith as they were with Beelzebub…I mean Satan…I mean Saban.
So go State! Eat them up, beat them up, kill them in their sleep.
MSU is 9-1 in its last ten games versus top ten teams at Spartan Stadium. The More You Know…
posted by az at 10:55 PM
3 Comments:
I forgot to place this in the blog. Thanks to Jeff Zillgitt for looking up all those stats as well as showing me he's really smart. His assessment of MSU footbal is much more articulate and coherent than mine. But, back off man, I'm a sceintist. Thanks Jeff.
something about sports i know...msu men's bball on the cover of SI. let the curse begin! brown, nitzel, and namick look goofy!
msu is doomed. damn si
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