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.