JXC;1292145; said:
Iowa's defense isn't bad. I still think MSU's is though.
Thanks to Dantonio they've really taken a big step in the right direction this season, the DB play is the best since the 99' team.
They lost a projected starting safety before the first game to "personal reasons" (jenrette), and then lost his replacement (kendall davis clark - shoulder) in that first CAL game forcing the third string guy (Fortner) into the game, combine that with young but very talented corners and CAL ate MSU alive whenever DB's were needed to support in the run game or obviously the passing game.
The bad play in the CAL game makes sense because MSU has 2 years of starting experience total between the 3 LB's and lost 3/4 of it's starting DL and had the previously mentioned Safety problems. But they have jelled since then. Travelling to the west coast is tough, even when you are playing a comparable team, and I would argue CAL is comparable to MSU, and USC is comparable to OSU, so MSU didn't fare all that badly.
MSU's D has pretty much been bad from 2000-2007, for some reason John L Smith refused to recruit High School DT's or virtually any DB's but there are some very good signs this year,
1) the complete annihilation of Nortre Dame by the defense
2) a shutout of a crap team, FAU
3) Overcoming the NU spread which typically decimates MSU and baiting them into a ton of mistakes, and even a couple 3 and outs. NU is extremely hard to defend when you don't have the raw speed OSU can throw out there on D.
4) 2 4th down stands vs Iowa in the second half
5) forcing a ton of fumbles/picks
6) Fortner has been excellent after getting his feet wet in the first 2 games.
7) Ryan Wheat a very good Redshirt Frosh DL transerred out of MSU because he didn't see playing time in his future...
8) The scholarship limit is finally being reached at MSU.
9) Kendall Davis Clark is back healthy and MSU almost has 'legitimate' depth in the secondary, for the first time since the Kennedy Administration.
Bad signs
1) gimmicky crap still works against MSU (IU's 2 QB sets, spreads)
2) Giving up lots of yards
3) 1st string DT's don't have ideal size. 2nd stringers do though.
4) lots of nicked up guys among the DB's.
5) The talent level is very high, but it's vitually all young talent.
6) To be blunt we get the [censored] that runs down OSU's leg, so I don't exactly understand how we are supposed to match up with upper echelon.
thus ends my novela.
