What in the world has happened to Sparty?

[BigRedBuster]

I think this year the lack of talent on both lines is starting to catch up to them. McDowell is great, but who do they have after that?

I actually thought about him the other day.

He left here because he wanted to play for a contender and he wasn't real happy with his coach at Nebraska.

Well....as of today anyway, Huskers have a pretty good DL coach that the players like and we are a contender. MSU???? Not so much.

So, unfortunately for him, he went from a really bad season at Nebraska to a really bad season at MSU. That has to really suck.

 

[NUinID]

Well...they went from having back to back NFL QB's...to not having that and instead have a statue QB that also can't throw.

They have lost their DC who is doing a good job at Pitt and after while that was going to catch up to them.

They also loved living off the "no on respects us" bit...that only works for so long.

This is the basic truth of the matter. Their QB play for them is sup par. The defense misses NarDuzzi. That wouldn't show up the first year it will show up in the second and beyond. It may happen to Wisconsin in the next few years without Aranda. I think they got a little compacent and have lost their edge.

 

[Mavric]

Probably a couple things with their defense. Obviously losing Narduzzi hurt. But there were already rumblings before last season that they might not have the elite DBs to run their Quarters defense. We found out last year that Quarters doesn't work very well if it's not run right.

Their defense has been on a bad trend, starting before Narduzzi left:

Total defense rank:

2011 - 6

2012 - 4

2013 - 2

2014 - 8

Narduzzi leaves

2015 - 26

2016 - 54

 

[Landlord]

6-4-2-8 doesn't seem like the start of a bad trend to me.

 

[Mavric]

6-4-2-8 doesn't seem like the start of a bad trend to me.

#8 is nothing to sneeze at - and you can't go up very far from #2 - but 6-4-2 is headed up then it turned the other way to the "worst" in four years.

Plus, the rankings don't tell the entire story. In 2013, they gave up 252 yards per game for the #2 ranking. In 2014 they were still #8 but the yardage jumped to 316. That's a 25% increase.

 

[Landlord]

They also played Oregon and Baylor tho.

 

[Mavric]

So are you going to go through the entire schedule and see which teams had better or worse offenses or just point out the good teams?

They also played Eastern Michigan and Rutgers who were particularly bad on offense.

The yardage allowed against Oregon and Baylor would have increased the average by about 40 ypg which would be about 65% of the total increase. But that's only if you assume that other the other opponenets were exactly equivalent to the year before and that the prior year's defense would have also given up the same amount of yards to those two teams. That's a lot of assumptions.

 

[Landlord]

I'm just saying going from the 2nd to the 8th best defense can't really be defined as the start of a bad trend, imo. You offered a specific quibble lacking much context so I responded with the same.

 

[Mavric]

I'm just saying going from the 2nd to the 8th best defense can't really be defined as the start of a bad trend, imo. You offered a specific quibble lacking much context so I responded with the same.

Except that is absolutely the start of a bad trend. They moved down and have continued to move down the next two years. That doesn't mean that it would have done the same had Narduzzi not left but it was a down-turn none the less (albeit a relatively small one).

The context I provided was the defense's performance for the the entire season. It's imperfect because of a bunch of variables but is significantly more complete than just say "but they played Oregon".

 

[Landlord]

ok

 

[Mierin]

I know it's not too popular to say but the dude has annoyed me since that video came out. He was obviously a prima donna. And then he said he wanted to go to the SEC because it would help him get into the NFL, and the team he looked at was... Kentucky. What??

 

[Kiyoat Husker]

... Dantonio is a good coach and had a great 3-year run from 2013-2015. But, that's the best 3-year run in school's history. They won the Big Ten and got to the playoff last year by complete fluke. I think they will be hard-pressed to get back to that level.

1950, 1951,1952, and 1953 would like to have a word with you.

1955, 1956, and 1957 are holding on line 2.

1965 and 1966 left you a voicemail, also.

 

[teachercd]

... Dantonio is a good coach and had a great 3-year run from 2013-2015. But, that's the best 3-year run in school's history. They won the Big Ten and got to the playoff last year by complete fluke. I think they will be hard-pressed to get back to that level.

1950, 1951,1952, and 1953 would like to have a word with you.

1955, 1956, and 1957 are holding on line 2.

1965 and 1966 left you a voicemail, also.

1965-66? Did they have voice mail? And in the 50's there was no line 2, was there?

Maybe carrier pigeon?

But, I get what you are saying and MSU had a few really years. In the last 50 years they have been pretty average at best.

They might finish with 3-4 wins this year.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

... Dantonio is a good coach and had a great 3-year run from 2013-2015. But, that's the best 3-year run in school's history. They won the Big Ten and got to the playoff last year by complete fluke. I think they will be hard-pressed to get back to that level.

1950, 1951,1952, and 1953 would like to have a word with you.

1955, 1956, and 1957 are holding on line 2.

1965 and 1966 left you a voicemail, also.

1965-66? Did they have voice mail? And in the 50's there was no line 2, was there?

Maybe carrier pigeon?

But, I get what you are saying and MSU had a few really years. In the last 50 years they have been pretty average at best.

They might finish with 3-4 wins this year.

... Dantonio is a good coach and had a great 3-year run from 2013-2015. But, that's the best 3-year run in school's history. They won the Big Ten and got to the playoff last year by complete fluke. I think they will be hard-pressed to get back to that level.

1950, 1951,1952, and 1953 would like to have a word with you.

1955, 1956, and 1957 are holding on line 2.

1965 and 1966 left you a voicemail, also.

When you start referencing seasons over 50 years ago, you start losing me. That's like saying Minnesota has great tradition from all their amazing seasons from the 1930s and 40s.

 

[nic]

It depends how old you are and how good your memory is at that age.