It's a beauuuuutiful day for football! The Sunday MSU Weather Report is back to divvy up some suns for the bright spots and clouds for the not so bright spots. Each week I'll be letting you know my thoughts on the game and who knows, sometime some random weather anomalies show up. So, let us begin with Friday night's home opener and Pat Fitzgerald's Spartan debut.
My first sun for this game is going to be for the coaches and sideline energy. My was it nice to see some personality, energy, celebration, anger, all the feelings that we all have but actually visibly being seen. It creates such a different vibe to a sideline that has a pulse. The Smith era consistently had my singing The Smashing Pumpkins lyric from the 90's "the world is a vampire". I started to truly question the pulse of the sideline. Friday was a glorious change. To hear Fitz say in the press conference how the team came out for warm ups 40 minutes before the game and he could not get over the number of students in the stands and how loud they were. He said it was special. Well, Coach, keep winning and getting this team to improve and you will see just how special Spartan Stadium can be for a game, especially a big one in prime time.
My second sun is going to the special teams. My MVP of the game went to Liam Boyd. Without his kicks, we would have to phone the B1G like our neighbors to see if we could buy an extra second for a miracle. We know our call would have been sent to voicemail, but fortunately it wasn't needed thanks to Boyd. Boyd came to MSU as a transfer from Charlotte and in his MSU debut just casually kicks career longs and looks cool as a cucumber. His kickoffs gave the Toledo no opportunity to do anything. Yes, he had one blocked, but that was not on him. It looks like MSU has themselves a kicker. When I was at the spring game I had mentioned that the kickers were battling it out and mentioned that Ahmetbasic had missed some. Well, he was quite upset that I mentioned him and actually created a "burner" commenter to try and defend himself. He was clearly feeling the heat from Boyd and was nervous as he transferred to Memphis weeks later. What is funny though is after seeing Boyd in the presser I couldn't help but laugh at the thought of Boyd jumping through all those hoops. Clearly Boyd was more focused on the field and that showed up on Friday.
Special teams coach LeVar Woods had his entire unit ready and even one big return from Kenneth Williams had Toledo scared. After the 47 yarder, Toledo kicked little shorties the rest of the game keeping the ball out of the return teams hands. If Woods is striking that kind of fear after one return, perhaps there is more there that we can see.
There are a few things in the running for my final sun. Rodney Bullard Jr for one, the running game and Cam Edwards for another. However, I am going to give my final sun this week to the trenches. Both lines have been a serious weak spot in the last few years in Spartan football. Friday gave us a glimmer of hope. Alessio had time to throw, the backs had holes to run through. The d line forced scrambles, contained the edge and helped with a couple of sacks. These lines need to continue to improve. The fact that they looked respectable is already a step in the right direction.
The game got a bit dicey in the 4th, not "let's get on the phone and call Vegas" dicey but interesting. I, personally, didn't feel worried we would lose. What I was worried about was the big plays given up. The 60 yard pass in the second where Brantley was burned pretty good and the 71 yard rush where Vaught and Hall both lined up in the C-gap are the types of plays the likes of Notre Dame and Oregon would salivate at. MSU has to correct those mistakes and eliminate the big ones. Take away those two plays and Toledo has 142 total yards and 14 less points. The game feels very different and we as fans feel very different about the entire experience.
My second cloud is going to the eyes. First, the eyes of the secondary have got to start to turn around and look at the ball. We all know MSU already has 4 or 5 PI calls called against them in our game down the road that is still over a month away. They won't be the only ones benefitting from those calls though if the defenders don't turn and look back for the ball. Follow the receivers eyes and then turn and see what happens. Good things may be waiting for you like the inside of a fortune cookie.
The other set of eyes goes to QB1. Alessio seemed to me that he had his number one target on most pass plays but did not really check down to other options. He can't get caught staring an option down or he is going to have some ugly interceptions. It didn't feel like this was due to lack of time to throw the ball, he seemed okay for the most part there. He looked better throwing outside the hash marks but I'd still like to see him with a bit more vision and that may improve things over the middle. Savoury looked like he can handle himself just fine out there but he needs to be seen.
My final cloud of the game is going to the end of the first half. MSU killed themselves by being unable to get that ball in the end zone to end the half while also receiving it to start the third. If MSU capitalizes on that drive and heads into the half with that 7 and then they set themselves up for the opportunity to gut punch Toledo with a solid scoring drive to start the third. The blind side sack was brutal, the holding penalty was atrocious, and with all that they were still close! MSU needs to make sure they finish halves strong. They took care of things to close the fourth but if they close the second, maybe the fourth feels different. Smith teams struggled in this stat and I'm hoping Fitz can turn this around. Included in that turnaround are stronger third quarters. I know the heat and humidity made things rough. But, even Fitz said he was disappointed in himself for not having the team better prepared to start the second half. I like that accountability. I like that he felt, some type of way (pun intended there) about everything.
TOC Nation, it is your turn to share some weather in the comments. I know I spent most of my Saturday cleaning my yard up from 90 MPH winds on Thursday. Let's try to keep that weather out of the reports this year. It's fun to be back and I look forward to continuing to share my thoughts each Sunday with you all. Go Green! 1-0.
