Postgame Thread - Notre Dame 31, MSU 13
by SpartanDan on Sep 17, 2011 7:38 PM CDT
in Michigan State Spartans Football
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First of all, hats off to Notre Dame. The Irish offense was very effective at moving the ball when not shooting themselves in the foot (both aspects were on full display today, with 21 points creditable to the offense - not counting the kickoff return or the field goal set up by Harrison Smith's Robert Blanton's interception return - and two offensive turnovers plus a muffed punt). What I didn't expect was for them to completely shut down our running game - not counting sacks, we had 19 carries for 49 yards. That simply won't get the job done.
The good:
- The defense did fairly well against an explosive but turnover-prone offense; 21 points and 275 yards allowed is certainly nothing to hang your head about. Some tackling issues early (Isaiah Lewis, in particular, stood out to me as taking some bad angles on Cierre Wood on the Irish's opening drive), but they adjusted well after that.
- Nick Hill looked quite good on kickoff returns; after an ND scoring drive, we were regularly starting at the 40 yard line.
- Kickoff coverage was good on three out of four kicks, often forcing ND to start around the 20 or 25.
- B.J. Cunningham: 12 catches, 158 yards. Lots of key catches in big moments.
The bad:
- Skyler Burkland, starting right tackle, was injured in the second quarter. It did not look pleasant, with a pair of players rolling over his leg from behind. I haven't heard anything further about the injury yet, but it would not surprise me if it's fairly serious.
- Three out of four is a pretty good success rate for most things. Kickoff coverage is not one of them, especially when the one failure is an 89-yard touchdown.
- 12 penalties. Several pass interference calls and offensive holds (the latter, especially, on the late drive that ended in the Cousins interception). One of the PI calls turned an apparent 3-and-out into the last Irish touchdown drive.
- The aforementioned running game. Le'Veon Bell was modestly effective in very limited duty (7 carries, 3.9 YPC aveage); Edwin Baker somewhat less so (10 carries, 2.6 YPC). Our questions about the offensive line may have been answered, and not in a good way.
- The fake FG. I don't think there was anyone in the stadium who didn't expect it; after all, they remember Little Giants just as well as we do. Worse was the manner of the fake; even if they don't see it coming, a shovel pass right up the middle against a FG block is suicide. There's a reason fake FGs are almost invariably to the outside. If you're going to go for it there (which I think is a reasonable call), just put the offense out there; we shouldn't need trickery to get two yards.
- The offensive game plan in general. How was Michigan so effective against Notre Dame? They went deep frequently, attacking Gary Gray in particular, and used the aggressiveness of the Irish linebackers against them. Instead, we threw short route after short route right into those linebackers. We couldn't run the ball at all out of the crazy unbalanced line (five on one side of the center, one on the other) formation, though since we weren't very effective out of more standard sets either that may not have been the problem. (On the other hand, play action and weakside bootleg passes seemed to work well from that formation.)
Your thoughts here.
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Interception return
I think you mean Robert Blanton’s interception return, not Harrison Smith’s.
Yep. My bad.
Will be fixed shortly.
I've got this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left-hand side.
Bradley-Terry rankings for college football and basketball: because there aren't enough computer rankings already.
Humble pie for me.
I thought we had this no problem.
by SpartanBDF on Sep 17, 2011 8:31 PM CDT via mobile reply actions
Coaching Staff
I usually find myself in the position of defending the coaching staff on here. And don’t worry, I’m not about to be one of the Monday callers Valenti tweeted about after the game.
I’m not crazy, I know what Dantonio and his staff have accomplished here.
That said, I thought this was the worst coached game that I can remember in quite some time. The Bama game last year was a mismatch. They were simply better than us all over the field. The Iowa game we never really got to see the gameplan because Cousins early picks turned it into a blowout early.
If I were too summarize the coaching today in a cliche it would be “Too cute by half”. The fake FG was terrible, especially after a timeout when the team is going to be on even higher alert (if higher alert is possible against a team you famously beat with a fake a year ago, and that has been seeing replays of it nonstop ever since). I personally would have taken the 3 points there, especially getting the ball back after the half. But reasonable minds can disagree, if you want to go for the TD, fine. But just line up and run a play.
The third quarter was rough from an offensive playcalling perspective as well. After ND scored to make it 28-10, that next drive was huge. We had to score to stay in the game. A solid return gave us decent field position. Two relatively successful runs give us 3rd and 1, and we proceed to throw a low percentage deep ball to Cunningham. Obviously hindsight, etc. But in that situation I think you have to just keep the chains moving.
The following drive again started with a Bell run for 8 or so yards, at this point I am thinking ok, maybe the line is starting to get a little momentum. And we proceeded to attempt to run wildcat, and then the inexplicable double reverse pass to surprise them, except that when you are running the double reverse to your QB they are probably going to expect him to be throwing.
Between that and all of the penalties, and the fact that I just did not think we had a very effective gameplan put together on offense, it was not a good day for the coaches.
I agree with the above that the Defense was at least solid. They played well enough that a win could have been had. But the offense just did nothing.
As you said, the offensive line didn’t look like a questionmark today, it looked like a problem.
Still think in terms of talent the two teams on the field today weren’t that different. I think for the first time I can remember in the last couple years Dantonio got outcoached. And it kind of pains me to say that.
That 3rd and 1
The deep ball there only makes sense if you’re planning to go for it on 4th down. I wouldn’t be opposed to such a thing myself (in general, I think coaches are way too conservative when it comes to going for it on 4th down), but if you aren’t going to go for it, then get the first down first.
I've got this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left-hand side.
Bradley-Terry rankings for college football and basketball: because there aren't enough computer rankings already.
Very good point
Checked out after the 3rd-and-1. Wasn’t going to be our day.
Does it seem like Roushar gets locked into certain plays? The stretch against YSU and the screens today.
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by PittsfieldIndex on Sep 17, 2011 10:05 PM CDT up reply actions
Roushar is clearly not ready for the big time
Horrendous offensive gameplan. It had no logic. When your options are run up the middle and get stuffed, or throw to loosely covered TE’s and WR’s and you choose run, run, screen pass, punt, you are getting outcoached. Also, what was up with all the 5 yd screens on 3rd and long? Also, on the Cousins INT at the end, it was a terrible pass, but also such a terribly drawn up play, a quick slant into the teeth of the linebackers and secondary? Why?
I agree on faking the FG. Why not line up offensively and give it a try. But if you are going to fake it the worst conceivable play you could run is a shovel pass straight into the defensive line. We were really outclassed in every way today. It became clear today which of our three games was a fluke this season, and it was last week. The other two weeks we have looked sloppy and utterly uninspired.
by Chitown Spartan on Sep 17, 2011 11:03 PM CDT up reply actions
I'm depressed.
Our O-Line is bad and we don’t seem to show up for road games.
I don’t anticipate these issues being solved anytime soon, so this could be a rough season.
"Everyone who drinks is not a poet. Maybe some of us drink because we're not poets." - Arthur Bach
The fake...
The fake field goal drove me up a wall. Had ND blown up our line and sacked Aaron Bates on Little Giants or Gantt doesn’t get open everyone would have been all over Dantonio for not letting Conroy just kick the ball to tie. However, at 4th and short Dantonio has three options at his disposal, kick the field goal, keep the offense on the field and line up and go for it, or fake the field goal. He chose the option that had the lowest probability of scoring against the team that would anticipate that call the most. It is hard to think that pride didn’t have something to do with it. Either way that was really bad judgement.
All in all it was very hard to watch.
The fake field goal sealed our fate...
It seems pretty ridiculous to suggest that a play in the first half of an 11-point game can be the reason a team loses, but from my vantage point (my couch) it seems the fake field goal call crushed any hope we had from a momentum standpoint. You are absolutely right, the play made no sense whatsoever. Take the 3 points and head to the locker room down one a possession knowing you get the ball to start the second half. I actually would have been upset with Dantonio if we had tried, by actually lining up for it, to get the touchdown and failed. I see no reason whatsoever to not cut the game to one possession given the way the first half had gone for us.
The fake was so badly run, too, that I thought it was a botched snap… it wasn’t.
From that point on, it felt like Notre Dame knew they were going to win and we were accepting of that outcome. I realize the run game was not very affective, but the screen pass game plan displayed throughout the second half made us look desperate. The deep pass on 3rd-and-1 made no sense. I know no one likes to bring down Coach D, and believe me, I hate it too, but today I could have sworn John L. was back on our sideline.
We have a lot we can learn from this game, and we better. Otherwise it is going to be a long and painful season for us all. Hopefully people’s egos were brought back down today so we can get back to winning football instead of embarrassing ourselves on national television again.
Go Green for Life.
agreed
I was so pissed to see the fake FG. and then the deep pass on 3rd and 1.
very frustrated with the coaching/gameplan today.
I'd be okay...
….with the call if it hadn’t come after a timeout. If you just run the FG team out there, maybe ND doesn’t have time to think about the fake.
by witless chum on Sep 18, 2011 10:58 PM CDT up reply actions
Do they really need time to think about the fake
after what we did last year? I’m pretty sure “WATCH THE FAKE” is engraved on the inside of their eyelids at the beginning of MSU week now.
I've got this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left-hand side.
Bradley-Terry rankings for college football and basketball: because there aren't enough computer rankings already.
Yeah...
….but don’t you think the chances are better if you don’t give them a minute 30 seconds or whatever to think? But no question, I think the better bets are take the points or just go for it in that situation, but I think it’s more defensible if you get out there quick. Especially if you keep the offense out there for a bit and then run the kick them out a little late.
NBC was, of course, busy showing us that stupid leprachaun or a replay, so I didn’t get a good sense if the timeout was because the coaches needed time to think, or if the players were confused, or what? Maybe it was, let’s take a timeout and think about it all the way, but I think the offense sorta has a mental advantage as far as hurrying up and running a play.
by witless chum on Sep 19, 2011 9:17 AM CDT up reply actions
Aside from the fake field goal debacle...
The two biggest problems were very apparent, the offensive line and penalties.
First, let’s talk about the O-line… oh boy. The key to any successful football team is the O-line, it literally affects every other aspect of a team’s performance. Unfortunately, it is pretty clear, we are in trouble here. First off, the injury to Burkland looked very serious. I’m no doctor but when your leg bends that way, well, that’s no bueno. This obviously affects the depth of an already weak line that is fairly easily pushed around by FBS D-lines. We all bore witness to that against Bama last season. I know we were all hoping for the O-line to surprise us this year, but it looks like it’s going to hinder our capabilities to run an effective offense.
Secondly, the penalties. What a mess. It seemed like any opportunity one of our players could take to turn a positive into a negative, they took. The O-line is a problem because of lack of depth, size, and experience. There is never an excuse for such poor play when it comes to penalties. We shot ourselves in the foot more times than I care to count. That, to me, was disgusting.
One more thing: I can go the rest of my life without hearing the phrase “Where’s Waldo” again.
Go Green for Life.
+1 in regards to questioning the offensive game plan
The way to beat ND was to attack the secondary. Clearly the coaching staff didn’t want to get into a situation like at Iowa last year where we are playing from behind because of a couple bad interceptions. The problem is that our commitment to running the ball put us in a position where we were playing from behind anyway.
Cunningham and a TE.
Essentially, we only have two receiving options: Cunningham and whichever TE is playing. I don’t know why Nichol has to be on the field so much. I know he blocks well, but he isn’t a threat otherwise. Apparently the coaching staff doesn’t have much confidence in K Martin catching anything other than a screen or a 5 yard dump across the middle. Maybe if B. Fowler played we could have attacked the otherside of the field more effectively?
On a different topic
I only saw the first half, but it was sobering watching William Gholston get knocked all over the field. He looked like a stork next to the Notre Dame linemen, and once they got their hands on him it was over. Now I know why we tried him at linebacker. The coaches have to find a way to play him in space, or gamma irradiation may be in order to pack on an extra 60 pounds of muscle mass.
Eh gonna disagree a little bit with you
I thought he made quite a few plays. I think it’s important to remember as well that he’s a true sophomore, that didn’t see much field time as a freshman. Is he out there dominating, no. But I don’t think he’s a liability in any way.
by trivialstuff16 on Sep 18, 2011 8:21 AM CDT up reply actions
You want Gholston...
…to weigh 340 pounds? The guy’s listed at 6’7" 280.
I didn’t see that at all. He made some plays, including one where he blew up NDs right tackle and dropped the runner for a loss.
And I think they tried him at LB because that’s what he played in high school. Supposedly Dantonio also promised him a shot at that position, but I can’t remember where I heard that.
Gholston doesn’t seem like anywhere near the problem. Our D played well enough to win this game. The offense didn’t.
by witless chum on Sep 18, 2011 11:03 PM CDT up reply actions
Like I said, first half only
But I saw him manhandled. And I’m not buying the 280 figure on his weight, based on sheer eyeball value. If he’s 280 and looking that angular, he really could stand to weigh 3 bills. As for the linebacker thing, I heard it the opposite way—that he was on the line in HS and preferred staying there.
I’m not blaming him for the loss. But I wanted to contribute a different impression than “Gee, that fake field goal was dumb and our OL was sub-par.” We can stop the discussion after three comments if that’s all that’s required.
Sure
I’m just a little grumpy at this time and I’ve heard some comments that irk the crap out of me (not yours) saying Gholston is a bust because he’s not dominating as a true sophomore. Maybe you’re right on his weight, though looking at someone 6’7" can be deceiving. (He was listed at 237 coming out of high school.) In this highlight video he’s playing a 3-4 linebacker in all the plays in the first few minutes.
I wonder if we’ll ever see MSU switch to a base 3-4 as has been talked about a few times and standing him up? Seems like we’ve got the personnel where we could run it. Anthony Rashad White is a 3-4 nose type, Gholston and Rush could stand up as OLBs and Pickelman and Hoover would fit the body types of 3-4 ends but Jerel Worthy and his penetrating ability would be a bit wasted as a 3-4 NT. I guess you want to use your best player to his best advantage.
by witless chum on Sep 19, 2011 11:26 AM CDT up reply actions
12 hours later
I am coming down emotionally after the loss to Notre Dame it’s a great thing it wasn’t a conference loss and our defense did play well minus a couple of penalties we held Notre Dame in check.
Offensively we were just atrocius it doesn’t matter how good our RB’s are but if we don’t create holes there is no way we are going to run the ball. Even Barry Sanders had Lomas Brown even though the whole offense sucked but if you don’t have a line that is going to help your team win your not going to win against Nebraska, Wisconsin, Ohio State(even after the loss at Miami they will beat our O-Line if things don’t change), maybe even Michigan.
Valenti is right this was a program game and we didn’t show up when the time called for it.
Major Concern
Every game that can seemingly do a lot for the program-like this one, bowl games, Iowa last year and the year before-we are getting our asses kicked, for the most part.
The improvements to the program made by Dantonio are easy to see. But that “next step” which can elevate the program’s status seems to be not happening. There are more opportunities ahead though. It’s just seems like we go up, than come down and hit the ground really, really hard.
Yikes
This was bad. How bad? Really bad.
It all comes down to, like previous posters mentioned, the o-line. France got abused, physically & mentally, at LT. Treadwell had some serious issues at center, especially with snaps out of shotgun. And of course Burkland went down hard, I scoured the twitterverse and could only find a report from Hondo in 4th quarter that he was on crutches.
If this team is going to even sniff 9 wins this season (I’m assuming CMU will be one, so 6 W’s in conference play), it will have to rely on having a huge advantage in turnovers & special teams. This line is not built to sustain drives in the B1G at all.
I don't think the offensive line played that poorly
I thought the worst part of our game, by far, was the play calling. One week after Michigan’s rubber-armed quarterback flat-out exploited the Notre Dame defense through the air, we decided it was a good thing to try to pair our greatest positional weakness – offensive line – against one of Notre Dame’s strengths.
I don’t care what our ‘identity’ is; it should shift, from game to game, depending on who we’re playing. This week, we should have thrown the ball in an effort to set up the run, instead of what we actually did. Not to mention, there were multiple ‘trickeration’ plays, and each of them (the lone exception being the imbalanced line) single-handedly stalled our drives. If we just lined up in a traditional single-back, 3WR, 1TE set instead of trying the stupid ‘trickeration’ (not to mention that ridiculous fake field goal), my guess is we would have scored a minimum of 10 points before the 4th quarter started. Which would have put us in a position to make a dent in this game.
Also, Keyshawn, don’t let the ball bounce on punts unless you’re at the 6 or further back. Catch the damn thing.
Our players didn’t help themselves much, but my gut feeling is they would have made a game out of it if the offense just play called better.
Clarification on the first line
…we decided it was a good thing to try to pair our greatest positional weakness – offensive line – and run the ball up against one of Notre Dame’s strengths.
Trickeration only work
when they are expecting run, or have to over-pursue to the side they think the play is going to in order to stop an effective running game. Since we didn’t have much of an effective running game, they just stayed in their lanes and stuffed those plays. Going downfield was our best option.
by TheCrestedHelm on Sep 18, 2011 9:09 AM CDT up reply actions
Identity?
The offense lacks any identity at the moment. While the widely-held opinion that Dantonio prefers to run a three yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust offense isn’t accurate, this game plan seems to be a lot more finesse on offense than power so far this season, and I don’t think it fits State right.
We heard all about how Anderson is this bulldozer, yet the team lines up in Double Tight Ace more often than not. That may not be accurate, but it sure seems that way.
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by PittsfieldIndex on Sep 18, 2011 10:14 AM CDT up reply actions
Ditto
I thought coming into the game the coaches would have learned something from watching their first two games. The #1 takeaway from those games is that they are really good at stuffing the run, but susceptible against the pass (Michigan didn’t run on them – at all – except on broken plays). I know we want to be a power running team, and I didn’t have a problem trying to run it down their throats the first couple of possessions, but we would have been better off attacking their secondary more often on first and second down. We supposedly have one of the best QB’s in the nation – we have to trust him to take advantage against a team that is vulnerable against the pass. We can’t completely abandon our strengths, but when a team has a glaring weakness you have to be willing to attack it. I thought our game plan played right into their strength on D.
Also, our screen passes look terrible, and it starts with the pass – our RBs are always having to waste an extra split second corraling a pass that is way to high, or low, or off to the side. Why don’t those passes wind up in their chest so they can turn up field immediately? That lost time lets the D get back into the play.
As for the fake – that was just a bad decision. It was a gimme, and in that situation you take the points. Little giants would have been a really long FG, so there was a decent chance Conroy (as good as he is) would have missed and we would have lost. That’s a reasonable time to fake it. When you have a gimme that can cut the game to one possession with half a game left to play, you take the points hands down, or trust your offense to get the TD.
On D, we played OK after the first couple of possessions they had. It was maddening that we couldn’t stop those draw plays, but at least we were stout when they tried power runs against us. I thought our coverage was pretty good, and we got decent pressure. Our D-line wasn’t dominant but was adequate. All in all not a dominant performance but good enough if our offense had been as effective as I was expecting.
We looked pretty flat coming out of the gate and never really got our heads into the game. Give ND credit though, they really stuffed our running game and overcame some adversity (lots of turnovers, again) to beat us. They must have seen something on film that lead them to believe we were vulnerable against delay running plays, and they exploited the hell out of it. Would that our coaches had done the same.
Well that was rough
I’m not hitting the panic button just yet, but considering our schedule this year… yeah I guess I’m panicking. As has been covered the o-line was overpowered and the offensive game plan was severely lacking in common sense. Unlike some of you, I don’t think the D played well. The reason for the low yardage for ND was they took their foot off the gas. It took us WAY too long to adjust to those stupid delay draws and we did not get much pressure on Rees all day. In my opinion though, the biggest problem was the attitude of the coaching staff once we got behind.
Early on nobody panicked. They came out strong, fed off the crowd and took an early lead. We made a few adjustments, threw some PA passes and got right back in the game. However, after the much maligned fake FG our play calling panicked. We started alternately playing way too cautious with a TON of 3rd down give ups, or way to aggressive with trick plays. And then, the play call that had me most infuriated… the punt with about 4 min left. I know it was 4th and long, but that punt was a giveup on a two score game. Somehow we miraculously got a fumble out of it, but that doesn’t change the intent of the call, or the message it sent to the players. Our coaching staff had thrown in the towel on a game that was still winnable. Unacceptable.
That punt call pissed me off too.
I got up and started walking out of the stadium when the punt team came on the field, only to be caught halfway down the aisle when the returner coughed it up. I thought we had a shot at that point. You could hear all the ND fans going “Oh no, here we go again”
"Everyone who drinks is not a poet. Maybe some of us drink because we're not poets." - Arthur Bach
All my worst fears realized!
The offensive play calling was awful. Our O line was terrible and they can’t run block at all, which put us in obvious passing downs and Cousins had force the ball all day. How on earth do we start two DT on the O Line anyway Treadwell barley puts a hand on anyone and clearly isn’t ready to start. I could go on forever but if the O Line plays like this we are in trouble which is totally a bummer since we have all those RBs and WR.
by MSUMC25 on Sep 18, 2011 6:16 PM CDT via mobile reply actions
tough loss...but
How was Michigan so effective against Notre Dame? They went deep frequently, attacking Gary Gray in particular, and used the aggressiveness of the Irish linebackers against them. Instead, we threw short route after short route right into those linebackers
To be fair, our offense did better against ND until the fourth quarter. Michigan got lucky on several big plays against terribly blown calls. ND seemed to seal those shut against us. If you really look at the Michigan “win”, they only had 1 first down the entire first half, and almost all their yards / scoring came in the fourth quarter…half of which came in the last 3 minutes. I think it was more of ND giving the game away than michigan being good.
That being said, ND put up over 500 yards of offense on michigan, and we helf them to almost half that..what 275?
I have no doutbt that ND was underrated, michigan is overrated, and our penalties really hurt us. But the good news is that I feel really confident that we will get to humble once again our overconfident and arrogent “big brother”.
Having to watch the game on tv
and listen to the NBC broadcast??
"We were a little fat and sassy" -Tom Izzo
by itsalwaysunnyinEL on Sep 19, 2011 10:13 AM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
And for Cousins, it's shades of 2009
Tom Hammond looks and sounds like a bloated old woman.
Tonight's going to be a good night.
by Spartalytical on Sep 19, 2011 10:40 AM CDT up reply actions
It was posted
on Spartanmag.com that Skyler Burkland is out for the season. Broken bone in his foot.
I’m really trying not to be a ‘the sky is falling’ fan, but the sky is starting to get pretty heavy…
I don't think...
…they bring that cart out because gas is cheap.
The only thing positive you say is that I think Fonoti and McGaha may have gotten more reps than the average backup right tackle because of the competition at LT through camp. Of course, France not winning the job outright wasn’t a good thing, because he’s still learning the niceties, such as don’t get Cousins nearly killed by an unblocked OLB. Let’s have the free rushers impacting the QB’s left kidney be smaller fellows. Corners and such. There was also talk about Chris McDonald maybe playing RT, so maybe you move him out, move Blake Treadwell to guard. Travis Jackson was reportedly looking best at C through camp, but hurt his ankle. He’s supposed to be backish from the injury.
by witless chum on Sep 19, 2011 11:38 AM CDT up reply actions
Tip of the hat to One Foot Down
I’m glad we didn’t have money on this game otherwise, they’d have pretty much all of ours.
"We were a little fat and sassy" -Tom Izzo
by itsalwaysunnyinEL on Sep 19, 2011 10:05 AM CDT reply actions
Yup
I’m so used to ND being overrated, but ought to have known better, as I shake my head at people who think MSU’s identity is the still the John L. years’ crazy mood swings.
by witless chum on Sep 19, 2011 11:28 AM CDT up reply actions
Had to stay away from TOC at first
But I’m glad to see that I wasn’t the only one questioning the play-calling all game long. I thought I had to be missing something. The run/pass mix, the fake, the depth of passing attempts, take your pick, it was all befuddling.
Tonight's going to be a good night.
Burkland...
….confirmed out for the year by Rexrode. My sympathies to Burkland and hopes for a full recovery. Football-wise, maybe he can get a sixth year from the NCAA if he wants one? (He’s redshirt freshman)
Too bad about Burkland
Sounds like he worked really hard to get himself at the top of the depth chart at RT.
Hopefully the coaches can get a replacement in there & up to speed ASAP, I didn’t pay too much attention to Fou when he came in the ND game, but it sounds like he will be the man there rest of season.
O-Line Question
Can someone help me understand why we are in this situation? I don’t follow recruiting much, but to me, don’t you anticipate this issue sooner? Fou is a JC transfer, so is that part of your normal plan or did we have some things not pan out? Just trying to understand why we would be in this spot?
Serious Injuries have accounted for a good portion of it
David Barrent was a 4 star Tackle we got a couple years ago who was also recruited by Iowa, Wisconsin, many other B10 schools. He may have been our highest rated recruit in 2009. Anyway, he injured his back sometime during his freshman year and never recovered. Announced he was retiring going into this season. I would guess that in the long term plan the coaches had him penciled in as a starter at LT this year
Henry Conway was also expected to compete for a starting job. He got hurt going into last season and was out and precluded from practice for the entire season. Came back this fall but obviously missing an entire year is tough to recover from.
Believe there was another candidate to play tackle that also unexpectedly had to leave the program, but I am forgetting his name.
This type of serious injury attrition will happen to a program. It’s just unusual for all of it to come from the same position group.
by trivialstuff16 on Sep 20, 2011 11:52 AM CDT up reply actions
Lost Arthur Ray, too, he was in Cousins class so would be a senior starter this season.
by MSUDersh on Sep 20, 2011 9:08 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
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