analysis from P.R.

Ohio State was good. The MSU offense was predictable and could not dominate the line of scrimmage like they had against Indiana, and found running the ball almost impossible. The defense looked quite bad at times, but in a 55 second series managed to score two defensive touchdowns, and almost scored a 3rd on the next OSU play. OSU was the better team and the final score does not reflect the disparity between the two teams accurately.

Iowa, at Iowa, should be an interesting "trap game" challenge. Iowa is miserable this year. Expectations were high but the offense is abysmal, and the defense has been forced to stay on the field too long. That said, MSU is not exactly clicking coming off last week...blown coverage, no pressure on the QB, no running attack, still have Hoyer at QB (because he's the only option)...who knows what will happen.

I mapped out the basketball ticket situation before leaving. I will be gone on Sunday when the selections occur but Ellie should be able to attend or teleconference in. You should contact her if you are going to be in town on a particular occasion...we aren't planning on getting Christmas tickets otherwise. Hopes continue to be high for this team. Izzo called Chris Allen [potentially] the best shooter since Respert. He also said a second freshman, Durrell Summers, is a "poor man's Jason Richardson." Hell, I'll take a vagrant Jason Richardson.

Yesterday was an interesting birthday. First, thanks for the gift, loved it. Second, I was in the airport at 6 a.m. Having breakfast and a shot of tequila at the airport bar at 7 a.m. Flying on THE WORST AIRLINE, in THE WORST SEATS, with THE WORST SERVICE ever from 8am-3pm, and arrived at our hotel around 4:30pm. The first half of the day was somewhat of a wreck. The second half was spectacular.

I had the 4 best seafood meals of my life. My team gets along very well and so we ordered different dinners and sampled. I got the Marlin w/ potatoes au gratin; Kelly got BBQ jumbo shrimp w/ black beans, chirizo, and rice; Kristen ordered the Mahi Mahi w/ coconut sauce; and Justin decided on the Halibut w/ mashed potatoes and a decadent cheese sauce. In a word, amazing. The Halibut was hands down the best fish I've ever had. My marlin was excellent as well. We also ordered and split 4 desserts. Unreal. I could have lived in that restaurant for months eating the same thing every day.

Today we practice, practice, and practice. We hope to see the island a bit--at least the parts we've been told are safe--and then have a mandatory teams meeting tonight. I'll try to take plenty of pictures.

Spartan Sports

Leading into homecoming weekend, the Spartans went back to basics. The defensive (see: defen-sieve a week ago) coaches decided to take a chance and return to full contact, full tackle practices this week. Although the defense has little depth--making any injury devastating--the gamble paid off. The defense played a bend don't break (or at least not as often) scheme and the offense continued to dominate. The final was 52-27...but the score is deceiving. MSU dominated this game.



In five words or less, MSU went back to basics. Javon Ringer (best name ever) ran for 203 yards on 29 carries. Jehuu Caulcrick ran for 94 yards and scored 3 TD's. Devin Thomas caught 13 passes for 148 yards and a TD. Brian Hoyer actually looked pretty good. Was this a reflection of a bad Hoosier defense (described by Rosenberg of the free press as having "a better chance of tackling the Palestinian question than Big Ten opponents"), having a combined 300 rushing yards behind, or some other factor? Probably. But the coaches seem to love him and think he has all the skills to succeed. Maybe this was a turning point. Maybe they'll make me Attorney General when I graduate.



Javon Ringer said of his own performance:



"Everything I did out there really has to go to my offensive line and my receivers blocking down-field. They kind of made my job easy. I might have broken a tackle here or there, but all the credit really has to go to them."



Uh-huh. Right.



#1 OSU is up next, in Columbus. The last time MSU went to Columbus and OSU was #1 the Spartans pulled off the upset. That was under Nick $aban. Dantonio was a defensive backs coach on that team. Don't expect either team to be ignorant of that fact.



Midnight Madness took place this last weekend as well. MSU took to Munn not as a media ploy, not as a clever Tom Izzo/Mark Hollis invention, not because the team needed to be put on ice. No, the real reason is both embarrassing and laughable. Cirque De Soleil is in town and had Breslin booked. Yup, the most popular man in Michigan was upstaged by acrobats and ribbons.

I did not attend but have reviewed most of the shows (Tim "I repeat what I've heard more intelligent people say, only 5 days later when it's not news anymore" Staudt) and read all the articles (if you're looking for one source, and can deal with pop ups, I would use msuspartans.com, where there are quotes from post game interviews, box scores, etc.) and done my own analysis, so here goes:

- I'm concerned this team, after playing w/ a chip last season will be full of itself

- I'm comforted to know that there is depth, and if the previous is true, there is plenty of room on the bench until you remember how to defend, rebound, and hustle (*Implicit comforting factor: Tom Izzo is still the coach)

- The big men will be MUCH better this year, with depth (Herzog is off the redshirt), experience (Marquise Gray has GOT to be ready to dominate and iDunk iBlock (mini version now in production by Apple) knows the plays finally), and lots of prayer (Goran Suton...we've been praying for you)

- Travis Walton is one man I would NOT want to piss off. The team entered to the 300 movie theme (Warriors from Sparta) and were shirtless with shields. Travis Walton barely made it on time, as he was busy with his Bowflex commercial shoot that apparently finished just seconds before he ran out. Chuck Norris was upset to lose the Bowflex contract, but when he found out it was Walton that was replacing him, Norris simply asked if Walton wanted both cream and sugar in his coffee.

- This is the most athletic team we've had in years (from top to bottom)

- This is the deepest team we've had in years (w/ frosh as good as Torbert, Hill, and Anderson, if not better)

- The Big Ten is going to be good this year. Things will appear to be down, since the teams will beat each other up, but expect a couple of Big Ten teams in the Elite Eight at the end of the season.


Our NCAA championship hockey team took the ice for their season opener. They were ranked #3, and traveled to North Dakota to play the #1...something (Buffalo's? Plains-Dwellers? Sioux? Actually, yes, the Sioux). And, as usual, they got handled. The championship was a fluke, sorry to say it. ND 6 MSU 0.

Open Tryouts: Golf Team and Band members welcome

We are currently searching for a few replacements. First, and again, a QB. Applicants need only have seen a game or two before. No special skills, footwork, or timing necessary. Second, we are looking for AN ENTIRE SECONDARY. All positions. Corners need only have two legs, two hands, and one good eye. Finally, punter needed. Someone to get the ball across the line of scrimmage. 25 yard average desired, fewer yards per punt and comparable background in kicking into endzone from opposition's 40 will be considered.

Today you are in luck. I have 3rd degree sunburn on my face and arms, I just returned from a 4 hour OT LOSS to Northwestern (yes, that Northwestern), and I may or may not have had a drink or two. Settle in, this is going to get ugly.

This is the story of MSU football this year: 4 steps forward, 1/2 step back, warp speed time machine-like effort in Michael J. Fox's Delorean to the Stone Age, where defense was apparently yet to be discovered. Also offense was limited to a four (yes 4) play playbook. MSU looked like a public school JV team trying to tackle the Dallas Cowboys. In fact, the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders could have tackled better. Today's team would have made former Lion Joey Harrington look like Peyton Manning. On steroids. That's how bad the defense was. ALMOST as bad as the second half against Michigan a few years ago, when we gave up a 21 point lead in a quarter. That bad.

The final score was 48-41 in overtime. That was lucky.

WE
LOOKED
LIKE
SHIT

Let's just say--assume NU had 600 yards of offense (which I honestly think is less than they really had)--500 yard were after the catch/after the first tackle was missed. I'm not kidding. NU ran: screens to wide receivers (laterals that went for 15 yards), draws (late handoffs for 15 yards), and slants (4 yard passes that go for 15 yards). NU was, I think, 13 for 19 on 3rd down. That's a joke. We should have lost by 20 the way we played defense. No coverage or tackling at all. None.

Special teams. Wow. We had an extra point blocked. I mean...an extra point. An extra point. Blocked. (yes, those are complete thoughts, and thus sentences on a day like this) Did we settle for that achievement? Hell no. We decided to have a punt go approximately 15 yards and directly out of bounds. From where? Oh, I don't know, about our own 30. No big deal. Is that the worst of it you ask? Oh no, we can top that. We had a punt blocked from our own 45. On 4th and 2. When we probably should have gone for it, we played it safe, and GOT A PUNT BLOCKED.

I'm getting a headache just writing this.

Finally, our beloved offense. I will say this: if Javon Ringer wasn't such a GD stud we would have lost by about, oh, I'd say, 3000 points today. He had (pause, looking up stats to support article) 12 carries for 185 (ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY FIVE) yards. We lost the game. That is only (pause, using calculator) 15.4 yard per carry. We actually had an 80 yard drive that took 13 seconds. Ringer took the pitch down the right sideline and scored. I suggested he then be moved to QB, corner, and safety. No word on whether the coaches are considering this for next week.

Oh, Hoyer blows. I mean BLOWS. He's not a division one QB. I suppose he could be, there are a lot of Division I schools. He is not a BIG TEN, ACC, SEC, PAC10, WAC, BIG 12...who am I forgetting...BIG EAST, SWAC...he shouldn't be playing for any school in any of those conferences. He's slow. Not in the feet (well, yes, in the feet too), but in the head. He takes bad sacks. He makes late throws into coverage. He had a certain first down today scrambling but decided to throw into double coverage in the end zone. That was 3rd down and 10 in overtime. It was bad. 4th down and game? Incomplete pass to a guy that had coverage on him like white on rice. Just bad.

Play calling? Bad. Bad. Bad. Northwestern, and I'm not kidding, ran about 7 plays all day. Screen, slant, draw. Screen, slide, draw...3rd and long? Throw a fade to a wide receiver...1. he won't be covered, 2. he'll be given a 15+ yard cushion when you only need 12 yards for the first down . Just walk to the first down marker, turn around, catch the ball. Same goes for offensive play calling. We have the imagination of Alan Greenspan on offense. Run, run, then pass to someone who is covered. Punt (poorly). I like running the ball, but (and I'm not kidding) I said out loud 75% of the time what the offense was going to run. I COULD PREDICT IT. I'm retarded. Think it would be easy for the future doctors of America (Northwestern University) to figure out?

This coming weekend is homecoming. Indiana is in town. They run the spread offense as well. Hopefully this week's open tryouts find a few tuba players, a sand trap specialist, and a standout pole vaulter to take over at a few specialty positions. This week was embarrassing. How bad? A few weeks ago NU lost to Duke (yeah, that Duke). Next week we look to move toward 4-3 when we lose homecoming to IU.

MSU Basketball Related

Cool article from the Lansing State Journal

Joe Rexrode
EAST LANSING - After putting 21 media members through two hours of practice Thursday, Tom Izzo showed us a highlight video of Michigan State basketball, interspersed with scenes and sound bites from the recent war film about Sparta, "300."
"Tonight," King Leonidas screamed, "we dine in hell!"

For most of us, that will be breakfast today.

But the soreness, stiffness, aches, bruises and bunions will be well worth the experience. This was a chance to see the process of an MSU basketball practice from the inside, to live it and to match skills with our peers.

After all, most sports media types used to be athletes, thought they were athletes or wished they could have been athletes. There seemed to be a lot of the latter in the auxiliary gym at Breslin Center's Berkowitz complex.

MSU associate sports information director Matt Larson came up with the idea for a media practice about a month ago. Izzo loved it and they put together a comprehensive experience. Empathy was a big motivator here.

Reporters got a feel for what it's like to be a player. Players got a feel for coaching (they drilled us and coached us in a scrimmage) and reporting (they interviewed us afterward). Coaches got a feel for what it's like to watch reporters eat, at the post-practice training table.
Plus, Izzo now has video evidence of half the media in the state wearing MSU basketball jerseys. That has to come in handy at some point.

The day began with the signing of waivers. Gotta have the waivers with this group.
Then we suited up and filed into Berkowitz's plush film room. There, Izzo laid out what we'd be doing, with examples of each drill on the video screen.

Everything would be timed to the second. This was serious, much more regimented than a high school practice. Many of us have seen the MSU team practice many times, but this gave us a better understanding of the detail involved.

We hit the court and stretched out. Then came the practice.
Ballhandling drills. Passing drills. Shooting drills. Defensive drills. All at a brisk pace, or at least they were supposed to be. Izzo got frustrated with our sloppiness a few times. We ran some sprints.
"Listen to learn and learn to listen!" he bellowed.

By the time we learned three plays and ran through them, botching them to various degrees, Izzo was laughing.
"Some of you have written about teams collapsing in the second half," he said. "Well, right now you're collapsing."

The print and broadcast media were split apart. We shot pressure free throws against each other, with the losing team forced to run. Before my foul shot, WLNS-TV 6 sports director Fred Heumann jumped in front of me and lifted his shirt to expose his belly.
Oh my lord.

Somehow, the shot rattled home. We ended in a draw. No running! Everyone wins!

Then we finished the practice with a scrimmage. Print against broadcast. We were coached by Drew Neitzel, Goran Suton, Drew Naymick and others. The "talkies," as I call them, were coached primarily by Travis Walton, whose frustration was evident early.
Thanks to our guards, Dave Birkett and Sam Hosey Jr., we raced to an easy 15-7 win. Our running neutralized the inside ... size ... of Heumann and WLAJ-TV 53 sports director Hondo Carpenter.

I managed six points, although that was mostly the result of shooting from two feet away with no talkies near me. On the defensive end, I received a facial from TV-6 reporter Lisa Byington, who drove on me for a bucket, plus the foul. (Byington played college ball for Northwestern, you know).

Late in the game, Walton benched Heumann, preferring four players to a five-man lineup with Heumann. Then, Walton raced onto the court and picked off a pass I was trying to get to teammate Larry Lage, with the clock winding down in a sure victory for the "typies."
Izzo was asked for his assessment of the media as basketball players.

"It was actually better than I thought," he said, which means the bar in his mind must have been set pretty low. Like, cockroach low.

We finished back in the film room, watching the MSU "300" video, then the highlights of the practice. It was a hilarious finish to a memorable day for those of us in the reporting business. A fortunate day.

And today? I think I'd rather face Leonidas' sword than this morning's creaky walk to the breakfast table.

Week 5: The Badgers

This past Saturday the Spartans took on Wisconsin at Camp-Randall Stadium in Madison. The badgers came into the game ranked #9 in the country, the Spartans were on the rankings radar at #23 and both teams were undefeated.

I'll cut to the chase. The Spartans lost 37-34 after a valiant comeback effort failed on 4th down and 2 around the Wisconsin 40 with just over a minute left. Now I'll work to piece together the key plays leading up to the close loss.

The Spartans continued to run the ball fairly well and continued to have trouble at QB. Hoyer again had a deceiving stat line at the end of the game (22-36 for 323 yards) with most of his yardage and completions coming on screens and slants. In the second half, with the bulk of the roster being J.L.Smith recruits, Dantonio went to a pseudo spread offense. It worked. After finding themselves down 34-24 in the 4th quarter, the defense tightened down and the offense dinked and dunked it's way down the field, capping drives with big plays from short yardage passes. Suddenly the score was 34-34.

After scoring to tie the game at 34, the Spartan defense backed the Badgers up to a 3rd down and 14 from Wisconsin's own 27. Things were looking good as Wisconsin's QB dropped back, scrambled away from pressure, and threw an incomplete pass. 4th down and long with Wisconsin pinned deep was just starting to sound good when a little yellow flag came out. Roughing the passer, late hit on the QB. 15 yard penalty, automatic first down. A few plays later the Spartans picked up a 15 yard face mask penalty. The Spartans were responsible for almost as many yards of offense as Wisconsin during the drive. The defense held strong on a goal line series limiting the Badgers to a field goal and giving the offense another chance.

The offense drove down the field seemingly at will. On 3rd down and 7, rather than passing the ball, the play call was a draw to Javon Ringer. He was stopped after a 1 yard gain and on 4th down MSU tried a 53 yard field goal. It really wasn't even close; while the distance was enough the kick was pulled left by about 15 yards.

Wisconsin took over and began to milk to clock. The defense stood strong and forced one last Wisconsin punt. The offense had no timeouts left and began on its own 15 yard line.

Short passes, screens, and draws were again used on the final drive. Hoyer was not asked to make difficult throws or tough decisions. Get the ball to your playmakers and let them make plays. Unfortunately the offense went to the well one too many times. On 4th down and 2 the coordinator again dialed up a screen pass. The defense read the play perfectly, and with the receivers busy blocking downfield and the running back smothered, Hoyer had no place to go. Ringer, instead of staying put in the backfield, cut upfield to try to get open. A pass was lofted just out of reach and the game was over.

My take? 2 things: the defense was solid in the second half after a rough first half. I enjoy the Thornhill Family stories, the plays Charlie and Josh made as Spartans, the leadership current Spartan Kaleb provides. That said, Kaleb is the epitome of a legacy player. He is likeable, he's wearing his late father's number this year before it is retired, he has great intentions. He looks as though the jersey has already been retired. He can't tackle. Sure, he could tackle me, but he misses more tackles than he makes. He's a liability. Second, the offense is suspect so long as Brian Hoyer is QB. The bad news is I'm about 99% sure we don't want to see 2nd string take the field, so we're stuck with what we've got. I compare Hoyer to Trent Dilfer, of the NFL. Dilfer won a superbowl with the Ravens by "managing" the game while the defense shut teams out and/or outscored the offense. Hoyer seems to have all the skills, he is just not wowing.

This week the running backs should parade up and down the field. Northwestern is in town. They make good doctors, not so good at the football thing though. The talk all week has been about "Same old Spartans;" strong starts (4-0) with laughable finishes (losing 5 of 6). I'm sure this team is tired of hearing about it and will come out strong. NU also has reason to be motivated. MSU is the team that pulled off the NCAA's biggest comeback of all time last year, on the road, at Northwestern. I'm pretty sure being on ESPN Classic for a month following that game has gotten to the fine future M.D.'s of Northwestern. The BigTen Network will televise the game this week so we, of course, will be at a local establishment.