Grades for Michigan State football's performance at Minnesota
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Lansing State Journal columnist Graham Couch grades Michigan State’s football team after its 23-20 overtime loss at Minnesota on a scale of 1-10.
OFFENSE: 5
MSU moved the ball pretty well at times Saturday, racking up 212 yards on the ground (losing 56 of that to sacks) and 311 yards passing via the arm of new starting quarterback Alessio Milivojevic. The Spartans produced a few explosive plays, including a 71-yard catch and run for a touchdown by Rodney Bullard, a 49-yard throw and catch to Nick Marsh, and a late 85-yard run by Elijah Tau-Tolliver. That two of those plays didn’t end in touchdowns left the Spartans with work to do near the goal line. Both times, they had to settle for field-goal attempts. MSU was not very good in the red zone Saturday and that’s one of the reasons they lost this game. Another reason: The Spartans’ pass protection in the first half was abysmal (allowing six sacks) and left the Spartans down 10-0 at the break. To their credit, they were better after halftime and continued to create in the running game.
DEFENSE: 6
The Spartans are a flawed defense. We know that. But they played hard Saturday — and pretty well, relative to their capabilities. Until Minnesota’s final and game-tying drive at the end of regulation, MSU had only allowed 247 total yards by the Gophers. That last drive dinged the entire performance. As did the overtime defensive possession, though they weren’t bad in overtime (other than a pass interference call). They stopped the Gophers on four straight possessions at one point. They held Minnesota to six conversions on 15 third-down attempts and a modest 4.9 yards per play. They tackled well in space for the most part and were sound in coverage more often than not. They were playing a limited Minnesota offense, but this was an energized showing on a day you wondered how much fight they had left.
SPECIAL TEAMS: 2
Kicker Martin Connington has been really good most of this season. He wasn’t Saturday. His two missed field goals were killers, one from 46 yards out and, more costly, from 23 yards away late. That kick wasn’t set up well. It was at close range on the right hash, and so the angle wasn’t ideal. But he’s got to make that kick. If he does, MSU wins. Ryan Eckley’s punts were mostly Eckley-like, averaging 46.2 yards on five kicks, with none of them returned more than nine yards. MSU didn’t get anything out of its own return game and caught a break when Elijah Tau-Tolliver muffed a kick return into the end zone, which became a touchback.
COACHING: 6
When you bring a 3-5 team to an off-the-radar game, after two tough losses and five in a row, there’s a non-zero chance that your team gives in to its reality and lets the game get away from them. That didn’t happen. And there’s no reason to think it will based on the effort and performances we saw Saturday. The offensive coaches did a nice job at halftime of figuring out what was going wrong in pass protection and getting that cleaned up. And, more than anything, they made a change at quarterback coming into the game, benching the player who’s been tied to them since they arrived to start redshirt freshman Alessio Milivojevic, who looked ready for the opportunity. That was a big decision. And one that worked out. MSU still had a few play calls that didn’t make much sense, including a short-yardage toss-sweep call that didn’t work against UCLA and didn’t work again. And penalties continue to plague this team. They had 11 more Saturday. That hasn’t gotten fixed.
BOTTOM LINE:
This was a tough defeat for an MSU team that did a lot of good Saturday and wasn’t helped by the refs in overtime. I don’t think anything that happens from here is likely to save this coaching staff. But the Spartan players haven’t quit on their coaches. Nothing that happened Saturday suggests a change needs to be made before season’s end. And if it doesn’t need to be made before then, I don’t see a benefit in doing it.
MORE: Couch: 3 quick takes on Michigan State’s 23-20 overtime loss at Minnesota
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky @Graham_Couch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU football grades for the Spartans’ performance at Minnesota
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