What Did We Learn in Spartans 28-13 Win Over Furman?

Let’s get one thing straight right away. Contrary to the “media” preseason account of the Spartans, this is not the 2012 team. These early games of the season always intrigue me. Many times you struggle against a team you are expected to blow out, only to find out at the end of the season that they are one of the better teams in the country. I suspect that’s what we will see from Furman. This is a team that gave Virginia Tech all they could handle in the first half last season. Remember the name Darius Morehead. This 5’8” 175 lbs. true freshman scat back is amazing! This kid will give teams problems all season. Couple him with QB PJ Blazejowski who was impressive as well and don’t be surprised to see the Paladins win the Southern Conference. This is a very well coached team that plays with precision and makes few mistakes.

So what did we learn? Defensively the front looked solid with Malik McDowell looking every bit the All American. Considering the coaches were cycling in a number of young guys, and considering we really didn’t blitz until the very end (I’m sure we didn’t want to show Notre Dame anything), these guys looked extremely good delivering two sacks on the night. This defensive front could end up causing teams problems by mid-season. The defensive secondary was impressive as well. To the man this is a solid group and way ahead of the 2013 no-fly-zone at this point of the season. Copeland coming back was important. Although Hicks got beat on a key play, he also made some absolutely great plays. The linebackers were as advertised, very good. Andrew Dowell’s circus catch for an interception at a key juncture near the end of the game was something. If Ed Davis returns they could be scary. The coaches feel this is Dantonio’s best defense to date, and you certainly could see flashes of that tonight. Twice they held Furman to field goals on goal line stands. Impressive again considering the coaches had dialed back the blitz packages. If this group stays healthy and can continue to improve week-to-week, this unit could be the best in the nation by seasons end.

Offensively, the much maligned receiving corps (or at least that was the preseason hype by the “media”) was absolutely impressive. RJ Shelton caught a 31 yd pass on the first play of the game, then the coaches (seeing enough) promptly sat him down for the rest of the game to give the younger guys some reps. Monty Madaris had 85 yds on five receptions. He and O’Conner used to team up on the second team last year and it shows. There is no question Madaris will be O’Conner’s go-to-man. We haven’t heard much about sophomore Felton Davis III, but he demonstrated last night he will be playing a major role this season. Davis had three catches for 40 yds and a TD off a play-action pass. At 6’4” he will be hard to stop once he has a couple of games under his belt. True freshman Donney Corley did well for his first outing, making two catches for 17 yds. He will be good. The strength of the receiving corps was to be the tight ends, and although the coaches only went to them twice all night, it was lethal. Josiah Price scored on a 21 yd pass in the corner of the end zone, and Jamal Lyles followed that TD with a 12 yard score of his own, both on O’Conner play-action passes.

Similarly, the offensive line was supposed to be the weakness of this team. If so, it wasn’t evident tonight. Although the coaches rotated a lot of young bodies, they looked good giving Tyler O’Conner plenty of time to throw. In fact they looked dominating in the first series of the game, which ended in an LJ Scott TD. The Spartans marched 76 yards on seven plays with Scott carrying the ball on all but one play. Scott appears to be on a mission this season to separate himself from the other backs.

Tyler O’Conner had a solid outing for his first game, going 13-18 for 190 yds passing, three TD’s and one interception. He averaged almost 11 yards per completion. Tyler made good decisions throughout the game, and looked composed and comfortable under center. Again, comparatively speaking, he looked every bit as good as Conner Cook in his first game. O’Conner’s pick was when he starred down his receiver- lesson learned. Most impressive was the way he spread the ball around to his receivers. That bodes well for the offense. You could tell this offense was still thinking about the mechanics of the game, resulting in a lack of urgency, a number of stalled drives, and probably reflected in going 4 of 10 on 3rd down conversions for the night. Jake Hartbarger was the highlight of the special teams averaging 44.7 yards on three punts.

The downside of the night was the numerous mistakes and penalties. Michigan State was penalized ten times for 120 yards, often in key situations. There were a lot of young guys playing tonight. That no doubt contributed to the problem. It reminded you of the Spartan team a few years back that looked every bit as penalty prone until Dantonio got on their case. They went pretty much penalty free the remainder of the season. I have no doubts Dantonio will address it this time as well.

Take away the penalties and the Spartans blow Furman away. If this team stays relatively healthy and continues to work hard, it could be scary good by the end of the season. The biggest jump in improvement typically comes from week one to week two. The Spartans have two weeks to work hard and focus on fixing some things during their bye week, before traveling to #9 Notre Dame. We should learn most everything we need to know about this team in that game.

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