Michigan State 42, Indiana 29: post-game thoughts

Just finished watching the Spartans wear down the Hoosiers and get out of Bloomington with a win. Not pretty by any stretch, but I'll take it. Very nice to start off the Big Ten season at 1-0. MSU's next opponent is Iowa on Homecoming in East Lansing. The Hawkeyes lost at home to Northwestern, so next week's game for the Spartans is definitely winnable. (Having said that, Northwestern looks like they will be a tough team to contend with this year. They are still undefeated. With the parity in college football, which became particularly evident this weekend, that's saying something regardless of the competition the Wildcats have faced).
 

Back to MSU/Indiana: First of all, I could not believe the number of empty seats at Memorial Stadium. Is Indiana that indifferent towards football? (The answer must be a resounding "yes." I suppose the Hoosier faithful are too busy counting down the days until basketball season). If I didn't have responsibilities at home (or have to take my son to his soccer game this morning) I'd have hopped in the car bright and early, driven down to Bloomington, and bought a ticket at the stadium. (These are the kinds of things I wish I'd done when I was young and single with virtually no responsibilities and lots of time on my hands).
 

As far as the actual game goes, it was way more of a nail-biter than I'd have liked. Years of following Spartan football have made me uncomfortable with any lead that is less than two touchdowns. I thought Indiana hung in there pretty well, but dropped passes, too many penalties, and a little too much Javon Ringer was just enough to keep them from making this a closer ball game.
 

Some random thoughts:
 

Extremely rough game for Otis Wiley, but he redeemed himself somewhat by falling on that fumble.
 

Another good game for Ringer, but I sure wish the play calling was a bit more imaginative. I worry about what will happen when State plays better competition.
 

Our backup tailbacks have got to get more touches. Ringer is not going to be able to carry the load the entire season.

 

 

That's all I have for now. Gotta catch some of that Michigan/Wisconsin game now.

Michigan State 23, Notre Dame 7: post-game thoughts

As I write this post, I am relishing my "victory beer," a very smooth Indian Pale Ale from the Michigan Brewing Company. It's tasting pretty darned good right now.

Nice, solid win for the Spartans today. I knew that Dantonio would have the boys ready today, and MSU as a team was about as good as I have seen them in quite some time. I felt that for any Heisman talk regarding Javon Ringer to be truly justified, he'd have to bring it against big-name competition. Yes, I know Notre Dame is not a great team, but they have improved from last year and they are still NOTRE DAME. That name is nationally recognized and if you can light them up, you can guarantee that the national pundits will take a shine to you.

Having said that, the long Big Ten season is still in front of us, and the test for the Spartans will be if they can stay healthy enough to finish with a winning record. I am still maintaining relatively low expectations until proven otherwise.

I know that many of the MSU sports chat rooms and blogs will rip Brian Hoyer from here to Grand Rapids for this performance today, but he really was not that bad. Sure, he wasn't great, but he didn't make any mistakes that hurt the team. In fairness to Hoyer, there were some dropped passes that should have been caught. I was happy that when he didn't have an open receiver, he threw the ball away. Jimmy Clausen, who has a great arm and will be a solid quarterback for the Irish, made some mistakes that really hurt his team (particularly the throw into double coverage that Otis Wiley picked off in the end zone). The bottom line with Hoyer is that he's what you'd call a solid "program player," a little like former Spartan quarterbacks Bill Burke and Dan Enos. Some people expect him to be Tim Tebow, and that's just not going to happen. I still believe that Hoyer can have a solid year (have I used the word "solid" too much?). Let's not forget that, although he did have a bad game against Boston College in last year's Champs Sports Bowl, he did play a brilliant second half in last year's comeback win against Penn State.

After giving love to Hoyer, I have to admit that if anything bad happens to Ringer, MSU's football season is in serious jeopardy.

During the game, I was thinking that this may have been the best performance by an MSU defense since the Nick Saban era. Otis Wiley is a stud (and if he continues to play as well as he has--will be a high NFL draft pick) , Adam Decker is one tough hombre at linebacker (although does seem to be a bit of a hothead--he needs to temper some of that aggression), and Greg Jones will be playing on Sundays. Fortener had one of the game's most important plays breaking up a sure touchdown pass late in the game.

Overall, a good, tough, hard-hitting game (as would be expected in this rivalry) and a great win for the Spartans. I continue to be impressed with the way Dantonio consistently has this team ready to play, ever since his first game on the job. Bring on Indiana!