Michigan State Football: 5 questions Spartans must answer in 2018
2. Is Brian Lewerke capable of becoming an elite quarterback?
Brian Lewerke had a tremendous sophomore season. As a first-year full-time starter, he passed for 2,793 yards and 20 touchdowns and added 559 yards and five more touchdowns on the ground. He also took pretty good care of the ball, throwing just seven interceptions. He had a big touchdown run in the Spartans’ win at Michigan and posted back-to-back 400-plus yard passing games against Northwestern and Penn State. All of that without a steady complementary running game.
There is a next step Lewerke must take, however, if the Spartans are going to win the Big Ten: becoming more consistent. Michigan State beat Minnesota, Michigan and Maryland without much of a contribution from Lewerke through the air. You can even bunch the Indiana and Rutgers games into that group, as he was inefficient for most of those match-ups before turning it on late. Those were just the wins, too.
He was also a non-factor in MSU’s blowout loss to Ohio State and struggled early against Notre Dame, putting the Spartans in a hole. While the stat books says he threw just seven picks, let’s not forget that there were a handful of truly bad passes that should have been picked, but were dropped, too.
Clearly, weather was a major factor in the Maryland and Michigan games, but that’s beside the point. If the Spartans are going to be an elite program in 2018, they need a more reliable passing game. With another year of experience and familiarity with his emerging group of receivers, it’s very unlikely we will see similar performances from Lewerke against teams of the caliber of Minnesota, Indiana and Rutgers.
Michigan State will not beat Michigan again or even compete with Ohio State, however, if it does not get more from Lewerke’s arm in those matchups in 2018. More often than not, you need elite quarterback play to beat elite teams. Time will tell if Lewerke is truly made from the same mold of Kirk Cousins and Connor Cook.