Michigan State Football: What’s the problem with the offense?

Michigan State football’s offense had another bad showing on Saturday and it appears that the issues may run deeper than just play-calling.

The play-calling has been an issue that has frustrated fans ever since Mark Dantonio arrived in East Lansing. This year the excuse was the weather, however, last Saturday’s offensive debacle was a tough pill to swallow. These are the same issues from last year, but now Sparty has a quarterback who can make up for lack of execution.

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Yes, the play-calling has been poor. However, if a plays works then we would have a different narrative. It would be, “Wow look at this Spartan offense move the ball,” which was the case during the Connor Cook years.

The offense has not changed much since Dantonio became the head coach. First it was fire Don Treadwell, then get that bum Dan Roushar out of there and now Dave Warner must be fired. After a while the facts are the facts. This is what Dantonio wants in play-calling.

On a side note, there is a reason Roushar left to go to the NFL, he is a good coach. The NFL does not look for bad coaches to hire or search for the next down and out coach to fill out the staff.

Warner has been the person fans want to blame this year for the offenses sluggish play. There is much more than just calling different plays or switching offensive sets. I will concede that the offense has lacked imagination and has often been overly predictable.

I’m not criticizing Dantonio, but rather making an observation. Changing the coordinator will not fix the offense. However, changing offensive philosophies will, yet this offense is who Dantonio is. Therefore, this is an issue that will not be fixed or addressed this season.

Here’s what we know: MSU loves to run the football out of the pro set, especially on first downs, and it is apparent that the Spartans are not blowing anybody off of the line. Therefore, a young offense is getting into second and long then third and a mile. This is what we witnessed on Saturday and will probably continue to watch.

I’ve seen this all before only Andrew Maxwell was under center and a reason why the staff tried to get him to run more. A running quarterback can mask the problems of an offense. Michigan State had a young offense during that time as well.

This is a young, inexperienced team and they would most likely be better served in a different offense. This is why teams run the spread, option because it puts your athletes in the open space and helps your line protect, especially when the team is over-matched, or in MSU’s case, inexperienced.

Yes, they could use more creativity and the play-calling is atrocious, however, getting all the new faces on the same page will take time. They need the reps in order for them to not be thinking about the play and execute.

Being an offensive coordinator is a difficult job, if a play works it’s ‘praise this man’ and if not it’s ‘this guy is lousy.’ This issue starts and stops with the head coach because this offensive has his stamp of approval all over it.

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What I understand about Dantonio is that he will fix this, but in the meantime, at least the Spartans are going bowling.