Being an alumni, I follow Michigan State sports, primarily football and men's basketball. I hate to use the word fan, as I try to be objective and not overly emotional about the games. But this year is hard. Other than the win at Penn State in 2018, that year was a pretty disappointing season. This season is worse. What makes it even harder to take is that Dantonio recognized the team's problems in 2018 (anemic offense) and failed to make any improvements as far as I can tell. They…can…not ..score. I know you can have a great defense (which MSU does not this year) and win games. But you still need to score at least once. That is a fact. Michigan State is not a good football team this year, and quickly veering in to bad football team territory.
You play to win the game
You're right Herm. The season was basically headed down the toilet by 14 September when MSU lost to Arizona State at home. I know Arizona State is better this year, but if you are supposedly a good team (MSU was ranked at the time) you don't lose to them at home, under any circumstances. I discount the earlier games (Tulsa and Western Michigan) because who cares? They then beat two bad Big Ten teams, Indiana and Northwestern. Then began the three headed chimera known as Ohio State….Wisconsin and Penn State. A good team would win one of those games. Maybe two. A team that is not very good would lose all three but be competitive. A bad team would…you get the picture.
Land Grant trophy 2019 …aka slow motion train wreck
Which brings us to the 26 October Penn State game. Michigan State and Penn State are the first two land grant universities established in 1855 and apparently play for some sort of trophy I never heard of. I figured MSU would play Penn State tough at home, but I was wrong. What a snooze fest. The final score was 28-7 but it was not that close. MSU was never going to come close to winning that game. I am not here to analyze the game or break it down. Go to ESPN or the Detroit Free Press for that. I watch a lot of college football and this was terrible. I think at one point the two announcers even fell asleep.
Remember this….So where do we go from here?
Good question David Essex. MSU football is now 4-4 with four more games left.. Michigan. Loss. Illinois. Toss-up. Maryland. Win (hopefully). Rutgers. Win. (But maybe...please God…not Rutgers). So they end up 6-6, or 7-5...or worse. They then go to some bowl game on December 28th in El Paso and lose 6-0. Or not. What is the problem then? Were they overrated headed in to the season (Yes!). Is it a coaching problem? I don't know, but a lot of players seem to be transferring. When does college basketball start?