After dropping the first game of the Mel Tucker era to Rutgers, Michigan State bounced back last week and defeated in-state rival, Michigan. We go behind Enemy Lines this week with Paul Konyndyk from SpartanMag.com of the Rivals.com network to discuss the success this season of former in-state standout Rocky Lombardi and what we can expected from a Mel Tucker coached team.
1. What are some of the initial impressions of Mel Tucker as he takes over the Spartans program? What have been his biggest challenge since arriving in East Lansing and how has he dealt with them?
KONYNDYK: Tucker is a no-nonsense, down to earth coach who understands the landscape of the Big Ten, having grown up in Ohio, having played college football at Wisconsin, and having begun his coaching career at Michigan State as a graduate assistant under Nick Saban, and later as defensive backs coach at Ohio State under Jim Tressel before going on to various coaching stops in the NFL before returning to college and making his way back to Michigan State after stops at Alabama, Georgia, and Colorado.
Tucker is a lot like Mark Dantonio in regard to his football philosophy and his background as a defensive coach. He believes in fundamentally-sound, hard-nosed football built on stopping the run, and playing with physicality at the point of attack. He is also big on giving his coordinators the freedom to implement the schemes that they want to run.
Tucker is an even-tempered coach that doesn’t get too high or too low. He has preached process and accountability since taking the job and the players have responded well to Tucker and his assistant coaches.
The biggest difference between Tucker and Dantonio is his emphasis on recruiting. He has more guys on his staff pulling their own weight as recruiters and he has also been given more resources to bring in the level of talent that Michigan State needs to keep pace with the heavies in the Big Ten East.
The biggest issue for this first-year coaching staff was the timing of the coaching change in relation to the COVID 19 pandemic and the inability to install new schemes without the benefit of spring football. The program was also had to shut down during the off-season for a couple of weeks because of a surge COVID cases on the team.
When the Big Ten initially announced that there wouldn’t be football in 2020, Michigan State moved directly into a off-season conditioning with the intent of making up for the time lost in the weight room. Tucker felt like Michigan State would benefit more from a five to six-week strength and conditioning boot camp than team workouts in spider pads and that sort of thing.
For the long term, I think that was a good move. I do, however, think it may have hurt Michigan State’s ability to get into the nuts and bolts of learning new schemes. I think it was pretty apparent in the Rutgers game that Michigan State players on defense weren’t completely comfortable running their stuff. Communication wasn’t great, and there were a couple veteran defensive players that struggled with taking the right steps. Real basic stuff.
The operation last week was a lot better. Communication and flow on defense was much improved. That improvement was evident in the product on the field.
2. Pretty wild start to the season for Michigan State. Turn the ball over a lot and lose to Rutgers and then turn around the next week and go to Michigan and beat the hated rival Wolverines. How does that happen and what changed?
KONYNDYK: The turnovers were kind of freakish and just sort of piled up, especially with the fumbles. Lombardi’s first pick was more on a receiver that didn’t sit down against a zone defense and tried to run route that was better suited to man coverage. The fumbles were contagious and bizarre.
Learn from it and move forward. That’s what Michigan State did. I’ve never really bought that the biggest improvement happens from Week 1 to Week 2, but that certainly appears to be the case for Michigan State in 2020. Aside from eliminating turnovers, Michigan State did a much better job of pass-protection against Michigan than they did the week before against Rutgers. The improvement in pass protection had a lot to do with communication between the o-line, tight ends, and running backs.
I do think that Michigan State came out of the Rutgers game with some things to build on.
Rocky Lombardi came away from the game feeling good about some of the weapons he had around him in the pass game. Sophomore Jayden Reed, a transfer from Western Michigan, had a huge game with 11 catches for 129 yards. Jalen Nailor, another sophomore receiver, also made a quality contribution to the receiving game, as did tight end Matt Dotson, who was a wildcard coming back from a serious Achilles injury last season.
I also think that the Michigan State o-line reshuffled its lineup some, moving Nick Samac into the starting line-up at center, and becoming more physical as a result. Tight end blocking was bad against Rutgers, but much better against Michigan. Tailback play was also more decisive.
Defensively, Michigan State got a lot of communication issues sorted out. Young guys in starting roles like corners Chris Jackson and Kalon Gervin, also appeared to get their first-game jitters out of the way. There was also improvement on the interior defensive line with back-ups like Jalen Hunt and Dashaun Mallory who are being counted on to play 25 snaps a game.
Things are never quite as bad or good as they seem. Michigan fans were ready to anoint Joe Milton and the rest of that team after the beating they put on Minnesota, and I’m not sure anyone associated with Michigan football realized that the Golden Gophers aren’t even close to where they were a year ago. On the flipside, nobody wins a conference game committing seven turnovers like Michigan State did against Rutgers. The Spartans weren’t as bad as they looked on paper coming out of the opener.
3. Rocky Lombardi, who went to high school in Iowa, is the quarterback for the Spartans. How has he developed this season and how much is he looking forward to this game?
KONYNDYK: Rocky Lombardi is playing with a lot of confidence and his teammates have a lot of confidence in him. He proved last weekend that he has the faith to put the ball in the air and he trusts his receivers to make plays on 50/50 balls. Lombardi’s teammates have rallied around him and believe in him. More importantly, Michigan State coaches believe him. Their faith has been rewarded thus far.
There is no comparison between Lombardi two years ago when he was pressed into duty after an injury to Brian Lewerke as a redshirt freshman and Lombardi as a junior. He sees the field better, and he is throwing the ball with better mechanics. His completion percentage was down a bit last weekend against Michigan, which is no surprise given the physical, clutching, holding pass defense they play. In the opener against Rutgers, Lombardi completed 73 percent of his passes, which I didn’t really think he had in him coming into the season.
One of the things that Lombardi does better now than he did earlier in his career is throw a catchable ball. Lombardi is making good decisions and finding his check-down options.
Lombardi said earlier this week that he’s had this game circled since the day he committed to Michigan State as a junior at Valley High, so I’m guessing that it was easier for him to turn the page from Michigan to Iowa than some of his teammates.
4. Who are some of the other key offensive players that Iowa fans need to be aware of and how is the offense different from the Dantionio era?
KONYNDYK: Michigan State has a good group of young receivers to keep an eye on. Jayden Reed and Jalen Nailor are a couple of guys that I mentioned earlier. Both have some explosive-play threat, as does true freshman Ricky White, who had eight catches for 196 yards and a touchdown against the Wolverines.
There’s no way that the deep ball is there for Michigan State against Iowa this weekend the way it was when the Spartans went downfield 13 times against their rivals and completed four passes of 35 yards or more.
It’s ironic that Michigan State went deep as much as it did against Michigan considering that the Spartans didn’t take many shots downfield against Rutgers, who played more zone coverage.
Offensive coordinator Jay Johnson has some basic philosophies. He wants to be able to run the ball and achieve balance on offense, but he also does a nice job of tailoring what Michigan State does on offense to what the opposing scheme give up.
It looks like junior Connor Heyward and freshman Jordon Simmons are the guys that will get the bulk of the carries at tailback. Heyward is a bit of a plodder, but he is reliable. He is also good at catching the ball out of the backfield. Simmons is a first-year player from Georgia with a lot of ability. He runs hard and is a home run threat. Both he and Heyward are guys that you could see in the screen game.
We expected to see a lot more of Elijah Collins at tailback this season, but he hasn’t done much with the opportunities he’s had. He could always resurface, but for now it seems like Heyward and Simmons are the guys.
Matt Dotson, Trenton Gillison, and Adam Berghorst are the three tight ends that will get most of the work for Michigan State on Saturday.
The biggest difference between this offense and the Dantonio era offense is the increased effectiveness of some of the screen passes that always seemed to be problem with the previous staff. I think you could also see some more tempo on offense from Michigan Sate this weekend than you would have typically seen from some of the offenses during the Dantonio era.
5. Who are the key players on defense and what the scheme like under Mel Tucker?
KONYNDYK: Schematically, the biggest difference is that you’ll see Michigan State play nickel defense as its base. Defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton had a lot of success with the 4-2-5 at Kansas State and he’s brought it with him to Michigan State. I thought there was a good chance that Michigan would put hole in Michigan State with the run game given the new defense, but the Spartans played really well against the run last weekend.
The heart and soul of the defense is senior linebacker Anjtuan Simmons, who has played slot linebacker for most of his career but is playing inside in the new scheme. He is up to 225 this season and he is all over the place. He played a whale of a game last weekend and I expect him to do it again this weekend. He’s just one of those guys that seems to be around every play. Linebacker Noah Harvey improved as much as anyone on defense from Week 1 to Week 2. Harvey is a sturdy kid who can thump and he runs pretty well.
Junior safety Xavier Henderson has been the leader of a young Michigan State secondary that lost a good one to the NFL in Josiah Scott, but also has some good young talent in the back end. Kalon Gervin took big strides last weekend at corner and made some big plays when challenged down field. Chris Jackson is another guy to know.
Nickel back Shakur Brown is a guy with a lot a lot of energy, who plays the ball in the air pretty well, and isn’t afraid to mix it up as a run stopper.
Michigan State lost a lot on the d-line from a year ago with Kenny Willekes, Raequan Williams, and Mike Panasiuk graduating. The interior d-line has been pretty good with Naquan Jones and Jacob Slade starting inside and getting help from Dashaun Mallory and Jalen Hunt. Former walk-on Drew Beesley is playing really well as a senior defensive end, and Jacub Panasiuk had a strong game against Michigan starting opposite Beesley.
This is a developing defensive line with solid starters and emerging back-ups. It isn’t anywhere near as imposing as the d-line Michigan State had in 2015 when the Spartans and Hawkeyes met in Indy. Those guys could generate four-man pressure. This group struggles in that regard.
6. What will be some of the keys to victory for Michigan State and how do you see the game playing out?
KONYNDYK: Michigan State took some big steps last weekend on the o-line. The pass-blocking operation gave Lombardi a clean pocket and he was able to make good decisions with the ball, finding playmakers that could exploit Michigan’s defense.
Lombardi isn’t going to have the same downfield passing opportunities against Iowa. He is going to have to be patient, not force the issue and take what he can get without being greedy. That could be difficult for a quarterback returning home and looking to make a statement.
Michigan State hasn’t run the ball well in either of its first two games. The Spartans at least presented the threat of a run against Michigan, and they need to build upon that performance this weekend. I was really impressed with the steps the o-line took between Week 1 and Week 2, and I guess that I am looking for the o-line to take another step forward this weekend.
If Michigan State can establish the run game against Iowa and avoid turnovers the way they did against Michigan, I think chances are pretty good that the Spartans can leave Iowa with a win. Be that as it may, I expect Iowa to play physical football and limit Michigan State’s ability to run the football, forcing Lombardi to throw the football and win a one-dimensional game.
I have a lot of respect for what Iowa does as a football team and winning a one-dimensional football isn’t going to be easy on the road. Having lost its first two games, Iowa is going to play with something to prove this weekend.
Somebody has to lose this game. I’m gonna say Michigan State is that team because Iowa is playing at home and is in desperate need of a win.
Iowa 24, Michigan State 20
