While some things, like UCLA football, have changed, other things have remained the same, like Michigan State football being a mess. Last season, Michigan State was one of the three games the Bruins won. Overall, the Spartans finished with a 4-8 record. As a result, head coach Jonathan Smith was fired.
The very next day, Pat Fitzgerald was announced as MSU’s new head coach. Prior to his hiring, Fitzgerald had been out of college football since he was fired by Northwestern in response to hazing allegations by former Wildcat players.
A large group of Jonathan Smith’s staff was actually retained by Fitzgerald. Defensive coordinator Joe Rossi was at the top of the list of four assistants who kept their jobs after Smith was fired. Receivers coach Courtney Hawkins, safeties coach James Adams, and tight ends coach Brian Wozniak also managed to keep their jobs. I don’t quite understand the logic of retaining so many assistants who had been hired by his predecessor. To be sure, some of them could have been on multi-year contracts and MSU didn’t want to buy them out, too, but keeping so many of Smith’s assistants just seems like a bad idea to me and may explain why the Spartans have played so poorly this year, too.
There were three notable new hires. Former Michigan State linebacker Max Bullough was hired as the Spartans’ new co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach after spending last season at Notre Dame while LaVar Woods was hired as special teams coordinator and assistant head coach after spending all 18 seasons on the coaching staff at Iowa, including the last eight seasons as the Hawkeyes’ special teams coordinator.
Fitzgerald’s biggest new hire was offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan. He comes over from Kalen DeBoer’s staff at Alabama where he spent a season as the offensive coordinator and one more as the co-offensive coordinator. Sheridan arrived in Tuscaloosa after serving as DeBoer’s tight ends coach for two seasons at Washington.
Of course, the big problem that Michigan State has it that the results so far under the new coach haven’t been any better than they were under the old coach. After opening 2-0 with wins against Toledo and Eastern Michigan, the Spartans have dropped five straight. The slide began with a 27-10 loss to Notre Dame in South Bend. Then, they dropped a home game to Nebraska 31-13, followed by a road loss to Wisconsin, 31-3.
Now, all that isn’t to say that Michigan State is completely awful. Their last two losses came against Illinois and Northwestern by a total of just four points. The Illini won 38-37 and the Wildcats got by MSU, 24-21. So, they have come close twice recently.
Let’s look at the Michigan State special teams.`
Special Teams
Redshirt senior Liam Boyd will handle all of the kicking duties for the Spartans. Boyd is playing at his fourth school in five seasons, after transferring from Charlotte where he played last year. Prior to Charlotte, he began his career with a redshirt season at Clemson before spending two seasons at North Carolina.
This year, he’s made 10 of 13 field goal attempts and his longest was a 51-yarder against Toledo. All three missed attempts were the result of blocked kicks, with two of the blocks coming on attempts greater than 50 yards and the other was on a try from less than 40 yards. So, there’s an opportunity for Bruin special teams to capitalize if they can get through the line on a field goal attempt. He has been a perfect 15-for-15 on PATs.
When it comes to kickoffs, 23 of Boyd’s 32 kickoffs have gone for a touchback, and he is averaging 63.97 yards per kickoff.
Junior Rhys Dakin is an Australian punter who played the last two seasons at Iowa. So, it looks like he followed special teams coordinator LaVar Woods from Iowa. So far this season, Dakin has punted 18 times with an average of 51.0 yards per punt. His longest came to a stop after 74 yards and five of his punts went into the endzone for touchbacks. Six of his punts were fair caught while eight landed inside the 20-yard line. Eleven of his punts traveled more than 50 yards.
Redshirt junior running back Kenneth Williams has returned 19 of the kickoffs the Spartans have returned while defensive lineman Derrick Simmons returned MSU’s only other kickoff return. Williams is averaging 21.21 yards per return for 403 total return yards and his longest return was for 47 yards. So, he can be dangerous. Meanwhile, Simmons’ return wasn’t bad for a big guy. His return was a 13-yarder.
Redshirt senior wide receiver Chrishon McCray has returned all ten of the Spartans’ punt returns for an average of 13.10 yards per return and his longest return went for 41 yards against Northwestern. So, like Williams, he, too, is a dangerous return man.
Go Bruins!!!
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