2020 First Glance Week 4: Indiana Travels to Michigan State for the Old Brass Spittoon Game

Written by T.J. Inman

Week Four: Michigan State Spartans

Date & Time: Saturday, November 14 - TBD

Venue: Spartan Stadium, East Lansing, MI

TV: TBD

Spartans at a Glance

Head Coach: Mel Tucker

Record at Michigan State: 0-0

Overall Record: 5-7 in one season at Colorado

Last Season: 7-6 (4-5)

Spartans Returning Leaders

Passing: Rocky Lombardi – 7-21 for 74 yards

Rushing: Elijah Collins – 222 rushes for 988 yards with five touchdowns

Receiving: Tre Mosley – 21 catches for 216 yards with one touchdown

Tackles: Antjuan Simmons – 90 tackles

Preseason Predictions

Pick Six Previews: 5th in Big Ten East (#52 overall)

Impact Newcomers

Jayden Reed – transfer WR from Western Michigan

Ricky White – Freshman WR

Biggest Questions Facing the 2020 Spartans

1.     Much like Greg Schiano and Rutgers in a previous preview, Michigan State is faced with installing a new system and a new coaching staff in the midst of the strangest offseason in college football history. How well will the Spartans be functioning with all of the change they experienced this offseason?

2.     MSU’s offense struggled mightily to generate explosive plays. Can a new offensive coordinator and a change in personnel lead to more big plays?

3.     The Spartans were consistently excellent on defense under Mark Dantonio. Mel Tucker is a defensive minded coach. Will the transition be seamless on that of the ball and see the Spartans continue to land in the top ten of most defensive categories?

Program Preview

Mark Dantonio leaves Michigan State as the most successful coach in school history. He has a school record 114 wins and, perhaps most importantly to MSU fans, he was an impressive 8-5 versus the hated Michigan Wolverines. After back-to-back 7-6 seasons and several off-field controversies, Dantonio stepped down late in the coaching cycle. Instead of being able to take a run at someone like Luke Fickell or Matt Campbell, MSU turned to Mel Tucker. Tucker is from the Nick Saban coaching tree and he had an uneven lone season in Boulder at Colorado. He takes over a program that has seen recruiting decrease in the past few seasons and the offenses have completely cratered. Tucker will need to figure out to how to continue to play strong defense while increasing the offensive output.

Offensive Preview

Jay Johnson is the new offensive coordinator for Michigan State. He came to East Lansing after one season in Boulder with Mel Tucker. Johnson ran a no-huddle spread offense at Colorado and is expected to do the same at Michigan State. It is expected that we will see more three wide receiver sets instead of the Spartans traditional two tight end look. It is fair to say that we have one certainty for the MSU offense and then a whole host of questions. The lone answer is at starting tailback as Elijah Collins returns after a strong freshman campaign. He needs to be more explosive and show some breakaway speed but he’s a good building block. Rocky Lombardi is likely to be the starting quarterback and we have seen him in limited action before, none of it all that impressive. If Lombardi struggles in the first three weeks and the MSU offense keeps floundering, IU could face redshirt sophomore Theo Day or redshirt freshman Payton Thorne. Jalen Nailor will be the top wide receiver and I think he could be quite good. Jayden Reed and Tre Mosley are probably the next two up. Defenses will need to keep an eye on the shifty Anthony Williams Jr. who should play primarily as a second running back. The offensive line has been a major question mark recently. There is experience returning but this doesn’t figure to be a strength. Michigan State needs to be better on offense and it should start by finding a way to manufacture more explosive plays. They could not do enough of either on the ground or through the air over the past couple of seasons.

Defensive Preview

Mel Tucker is a defensive-minded coach, at least that is where he came up in the game and had his greatest success as an assistant. He is not calling the defense though as he brought in Scottie Hazelton to be his DC. He’ll have a bit of a rebuild on his hands as only 49% of the defensive production returns, just 109th nationally. Kenny Willekes, Raequan Williams, Josiah Scott, David Dowell, Mike Panasiuk and Joe Bachie are all gone. Antjuan Simmons was the top tackler on the team and he will anchor the defense at linebacker. The defensive line has Jacub Panasiuk at end as a pass rush specialist but major holes and inexperience at the tackle position and the secondary is only returning one starter. Naquan Jones is a redshirt senior defensive tackle that will finally be starting and fellow interior lineman Jacob Slade looked good in the Pinstripe Bowl last December. A drop in the defensive performance has to be expected but it would be unwise to assume the defense will be less than at least decent.

Special Teams Preview

Matt Coghlin returns for his senior season. That would have been a major positive before last season where he struggled mightily, missing ten field goal attempts. Still, he’s shown he can do the job and a bounce back season is certainly possible. The punter will be graduate transfer (UTEP) Mitchell Crawford.