On a 4^th and 1 play designed to sustain the drive, Kolton Browning ran to the endzone. The overtime touchdown sealed University of Louisana-Monroe’s win over the #8 Arkansas Razorbacks. ULM just knocked off the number 8 team in the land in their own house. The same ULM who hadn’t won their season opener since 2006, the same ULM who hasn’t had a winning season since ESPN started keeping W-L stats in 2002. There were mitigating factors, like the loss of Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson, but a team as talented and deep as Arkansas should be able to knock off ULM with their second string. This was a dang coaching mistake perpetrated by everyone’s favorite clown in head coach paint, John L. Smith.

So when I read Chris Vannini’s Free Press article today titled “Michigan State has no excuses for not winning the Big Ten this year" I get an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Logically, I agree: The Big Ten looks terrible this year, and MSU has the best combination of talent and eligibility to represent the Big Ten in Pasadena, despite some questions in the passing game. But still, my stomach feels wobbly at the idea of Michigan State being assigned the role of “Favorite”.

For this, fans owe one John L Smith a giant collective therapy bill. If you’ve rooted MSU football since prior to the arrival of Mark Dantonio, the scene which played out in Little Rock Saturday night is not all that shocking, it’s something we’re used to. Knock off a Goliath, lose to a David. It’s not solely John L’s fault, even St. Saban knocked off two top ten teams in 1998 while losing to Colorado State, Purdue and Indiana. And look at him.

But after a quarter century of inconsistent play and just two short seasons of ass-kicking football, MSU fans aren’t used to being the Big Ten’s steady hand. Yet, that’s exactly what’s happening in spite of MSU’s inexperienced QB and receiver corps. As fans, this is a difficult role for us to embrace.

Two years is an eternity in the sports narrative and the last two years have been the best MSU football has had to offer since the 60’s. The Spartans have won 15 straight at home since the opener in 2010. Their five losses have all been to ranked teams. MSU was a missed punt block away from playing in the Rose Bowl last fall.

The national sports narrative doesn’t remember the torrential downpour in which Brady Quinn piloted Notre Dame to a come from behind win in 2006. They don’t remember Jaren Hayes valiantly trying to knock jump balls away from Braylon Edwards despite being 7 inches too short for the job. You do. You were there. You were cheering and screaming. You remember the clock rolling zeros in excruciating detail.

The body of evidence is present. MSU has been one of the most successful programs of the last two seasons . Nationally, no one thinks of MSU as the “sleeping giant” anymore, the little engine that could if they only could stop tripping on their own feet. They’ve forgotten all of our worst memories of MSU football.Maybe it’s time for us to try and do the same.

Well at least the youtube era has yielded a positive outcome for us to show the world. Last year we only had the Horror! If you’re going to the game check out this Q&A with Mt. Pleasant tips. Little Brother Blog does a post on Maxwell’s chance to make a statement. You can get a Central fix over at the Chip Report. Enjoy the game everyone!

This weekend MSU travels to Central Michigan. Yes, you read that correctly. As a part of Mark Hollis’ State of the State Where MSU Football Plays Round Robin the Directional Michigan Schools State Series Continuum, MSU will travel to Central, Eastern and Western Michigan by the year 2020. First up, Central on Saturday.

After MSU’s fastidious but unspectacular win against Boise State last weekend they’re looking to get some glorified practice time against a school that’s struggled mightily since Dan LeFevour left Spartan fans after squeaking out a win in EL in 2009. Dan Enos took over as Head Coach in 2010 and has led the Chips to a 7-18 record since. This has not sat too well with Chip alums and fans who enjoyed the privilege of being the best team in the state of Michigan in 2009 as you might imagine.

The Chips are coming off a pretty unspectacular 38-27 win against Southeast Missouri State last Thursday night. The Chips conceded some points to the Redhawks and trailed or were tied until late in the third quarter. There should be a name for this phenomenon. When David plays Goliath in college football, David can hang tight until well into the second half, but, Goliath aint tired in the fourth quarter.

Last week Central was Goliath, this week, back to being David. This is undoubtedly the biggest game to come to Mount Pleasant since Soaring Eagle signed the paperwork and made it official. Local businesses are turncoating Spartan as well as some students. A win would secure another year for a Dan Enos head coaching gig that is trending, well, not well. A loss would be expected, a bad loss could give some fuel to the get rid of Dan Enos train.

On CMU Defense:

The Chips run a 4-2-5. The link in the previous sentence goes to Gary Patterson’s seminal work on why the 4-2-5 is cooler than Le’Veon Bell breakin’ fools all game long.The 4-2-5 is a defense similar to what Narduzzi runs here at MSU. The defense uses basic alignments but uses that simplicity to mask where the blitz is coming from on each play. As an added note of MACtion, the Redhawks are lined up in the pistol here.

Like MSU, CMU is very faithful to their base defense. Even on third and 20, CMU came out in this 4-2-5 they just gave up a bit more cushion from DB to receiver. On the Redhawks 55 yard TD run they ingeniously used all of their speed on offense to get the edge like so:

Redhawks are back in the pistol. Another speedy 1-AA dude goes into motion and starts running towards the QB.

1-AA Dude actually turns around and starts running behind the QB getting ready to set up the option.

The two backs originally lined up in the backfield go upfield to block out(read: slowdown) the offensive line from reacting to the option.  Now this is just a “simple” option play.

QB holds on til the very last second and pitches.

But by now Number 4 is off like a bat out of hell and gets in for the touchdown.

MSU Rushing: If Le’Veon Bell played for Southeast Missouri State he’d be like the third fastest dude on the field. SE Missouri State made it’s hay off of having a bunch of little dudes who can run like the wind. (See: State, Appalachian). When SE Missouri State tried to run power  they didn’t try to run power really. If MSU wanted to challenge itself, they could use this game to try running speed to the outside so they could get a sniff on how much Baker might be missed for the Michigan game or something. Power running looks like it should be there all game,we all know it was against Boise who also ran a 4-2-5.

MSU Passing: I couldn’t find an up-to-date depth chart, but, the problem with the 4-2-5 is frequently your Star/Robber/Bandit is tiny.Sims will be open even when he isn’t because he’ll 80 lbs heavier than the fifth DB lined up across from him. Additionally, the way Central plays with it’s four DB flat with a ten yard cushion Maxwell should get oodles of practice throwing safe intermediate passes.  Don’t expect lots of deep throws,CMU’s defense is designed to give up small to moderate gains and work to string together three stops.

On CMU Offense:

CMU runs the Multiple Offenses similar to MSU. Some of which are screencapped below.

This I-Formation should look familiar. They come out in the I “a lot”. Like “4 out of 5 plays I’ve watched so far” a lot.

Here CMU runs a Pro Set. You don’t see this at MSU, MSU almost exclusively lines up in some variant of either the Single-Back, the I Formation or the Shotgun 5WR. You don’t see a Pro Set very often in college football and in fact this may be the first time it’s use has been recorded in MAC history. Enjoy folks, you’re seeing Bigfoot here. The pro set offense helps take advantage of CMU’s running backs Zurlon Tipton and Garland/RB2?.

On 3rd and Long, CMU runs Shotgun 4WR. So I’m pretty sure you know how this all goes.

CMU’s offense is constructed similarly to MSU’s, if you didn’t know better you might think Dan Enos coached at MSU. The only thing “new” to the defense that they might see this weekend is the introduction to some pro-set formations.

MSU Run Defense: Keep CMU’s running backs in the middle of the field, Garland/RB2? looks quick enough that if you let him get the edge he has the speed to burn you. Both have good vision and respectable speed.

MSU Pass Defense: This game is going to have sacks and sacks and sacks and sacks. Shotgun appears to be a formation reserved primarily for third and long. The problem for CMU is that MSU’s front four can get respectable pressure without Narduzzi crazy blitzes. So, they should just motor right through CMU’s Offensive Line. If MSU struggles for any reason to generate pass pressure, that’s not a very encouraging sign.

Overall:

CMU is Diet MSU. There’s almost nothing here that MSU hasn’t seen before or doesn’t practice against everyday with Big Ten Legends Division Championship players. Worry if the Defensive Line isn’t forcing Radcliff into all kind of bad decisions, but the offense should be able to sustain itself based schematically on CMU’s defense. Le’Veon Bell is just a huge plus. Maxwell will get lots of medium range target practice in this one and MSU officially doubles up the series 6-3.

Score Prediction: MSU 38 CMU 10.

The offense stepped onto the field friday night for it’s first series. There’s a good chance the poor kids in Africa who get all of the Buffalo Bills Super Bowl championship t-shirts from the 90s knew that MSU was going to hand off to Le’Veon Bell on the first play. So MSU lining up in the I formation should be expected, right? RIGHT? MSU lines up in the I Formation and Roushar tosses in his first wrinkle of the season on the very first play.

Yes, that’s right. Larry Caper was lined up as the fullback. Boise doesn’t appear to react at all. There’s really no reason for them to, after all the I formation is still the I formation and Bell is still getting the ball.

The ball snaps and Caper goes out to get his block on this HB sweep.

Caper gets popped here. While he doesn’t lay waste to second level linebackers like an Offensive Lineman would, he does manage to take a potential Bell tackler out of the play at the Line of Scrimmage, which allows Bell to pick up four on this play.

The strange thing is that one of the things I’ve learned from rewatching Friday night’s game is that Palazeti is a definite upgrade from previous years in the run blocking game at Fullback. He routinely took his guy out of the play all night long. So why even bother with this wrinkle?

Then in the second quarter:

Notice how much farther back Caper is lined up in this instance? He’s almost an extra yard back, which doesn’t seem like much, but it might be enough to telegraph the upcoming “FB handoff”.

Caper gets the handoff and start his off-tackle run. The linebacker who is correctly crapping his pants everytime Bell touches the ball tonight, freezes when he realizes Bell doesn’t have the ball and that Caper in fact has the handoff. MSU has handed off to the Fullback probably less than two dozen times since Dantonio came to town, so it doesn’t surprise me that Boise would ignore the notion that MSU might have handed off here.

But by now Caper is already out to the same level as the linebacker and appears to have a hole the size of Rhode Island to run through. Sims is already engaged with a second level blocker and Caper looks almost assured to pick up the first down.

Caper cuts inside instead of outside. Just outside of the frame to the upper left of where it says “Wide Open Spaces” lurks a deep safety who is probably just waiting for Maxwell to drop the hammer on playaction. So the space is open for now, but cutting outside isn’t the obvious good I thought it would be when I screencapped the play. So to answer my own rhetorical question, you bring Caper in as the “fullback” so he can take an unexpected handoff later in the game and pick up some needed yards.

This is the kind of Rousharian quirk that’ll get you some extra needed yards out of this run formation when you really need them.  By having Bell and Caper(both capable receivers) in the backfield the potential to move into a 5 WR set is there, the potential to motion Sims(Dion) back as an H-Back into a heavy run formation is there. This ties strongly back into Roushar’s shared tendency with Scott Linehan to line up in a typically strong run formation and switch to a pass play or vice versa.

Or maybe it’s just a quirk MSU played with once and we’ll never see again. You just never can tell.

My wife is a former bando. As such we tailgate on Adams Field and the beginning of every home game starts for us by following the band in after they’re doing Series. If you haven’t yet done this, it’s a part of the gameday experience not to be missed.

On the ensuing walk is one of my favorite moments of coming to Spartan Stadium. As you walk towards the Sparty statue the stadium comes into view from behind the trees and that’s the moment it all comes together. I’m no longer part of pedestrian crap like having a job or worrying about paying bills. The next 3-4 hours belong to me, my friends and my family.

Last night we round the bend and the very first thing I see is HOLY SCOREBOARDS. I had intentionally avoided going to see them in person so my first experience would be last night. People say the pictures don’t do their size and grandeur justice. People were right.

Through a ticketing snafu we ended up sitting detached a couple rows over and up from our main block of friends and I got to watch the game with my wife and a couple friends from out of town. The last time she and I watched the game alone was probably MSU-Hawaii in 2004 and she fell asleep at 2:30, like a reasonable person should. The scoreboards were beautiful and amazing and frankly distracting at times. We watched our new Quarterback lead his new receivers against a Boise State opponent that had no business at Spartan Stadium and the whole game just felt surreal.

It was like watching a game in an alternate universe where what I know about Michigan State football offensively felt broken. MSU ran on third and short to wild success. The sure handed receivers were trying to catch a buttery football all game. Maxwell managed to avoid getting sacked, but probably would have been safer to get sacked a couple times. The PUNTER got a late hit penalty. (I actually thought this was kind of badass.)

The most amazing thing about it though is outside of the fact that Bell CANNOT tote the ball 44 times a game all season, nothing about the offense was statistically broken. Except turnovers obviously, but that can be fixed. 10/19 on 3rd down? In 14 games last year MSU did that once. Time of Possession of 39 minutes I suspect that’s a Dantonio record as well. The defense stayed fresh and only allowed three earned points.

The challenge as fans was adjusting to something new. This was not the Michigan State team we had come to know and love the last two years. It also wasn’t the Michigan State team of 2009 with the offensive sputters or the 2008 Ringer throws to Ringer who passes back to Ringer or even the 2007 Ringer/Caulcrick Offensive Victory march. This was just something altogether different and different is bad and scary and new. The newness is certainly not over yet either, what we saw on offense last night is unlikely to reflect the polished product of 2012, but it won’t be what we’ve seen before.

Bullets?

Bullets

The Good

• Le’Veon Bell scored himself a pair of the hover shoes from Back to the Future II. His ability to get positive yardage on every single play won MSU the game last night. A beautifully executed performance by him.
• Dion Sims and Maxwell are going to cause some problems for anyone who doesn’t have 260 lb linebackers this year. Which is to say, everyone.
• I don’t know if there’s an English word to describe our defensive performance last night. Inexorable comes to mind. Merciless is another.
• I’m actually going to put Maxwell’s performance in the good category, but only just. Of the three picks only one goes squarely on him and MSU was pressing because it was the end of the half. What concerned me more was the throwing the ball while he was getting sacked. Take a sack dude, we’ll still cheer for you.
• The defense sniffing out the two throwback plays in a row. I’ve never seen a team, not even Boise, do that before. Keeping on their toes for a second trickeration play was sharp.

The Bad

• Uhm, the receivers had a bumpy night. I’d wager a guess(I haven’t rewatched yet) that of Maxwell’s 16 completions that roughly half were catchable balls.
• The offensive gameplan cannot be to run Bell 44 times a game, he will need new legs by season end if MSU even a few more times.

The Ugly

• I know Roushar gonna Roushar, but the reverse pass to Lippett made me crazy. Overall I thought he called a pretty good game, but we were moving the ball well on that drive. The trickeration seemed unnecessary.

1-0. On to Central.