Michigan State Football: It’s time to move on from Tyler Higby experiment at center
The Tyler Higby experiment at center didn’t work out as well as Michigan State football had hoped, so it’s Matt Allen’s turn to prove himself.
Playing out of position can often yield unfortunate results. Michigan State coaches, and fans, witnessed that on Saturday evening as Tyler Higby continued to struggle at the center position after spending most of his career playing guard.
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Coming to Michigan State as a highly-touted offensive guard prospect, Higby had to wait his turn behind a loaded offensive line for a couple of years and now finally is getting his shot.
Unfortunately, with the injuries to the line, such as Cole Chewins, and departure of Brian Allen, Mark Dantonio wanted an experienced center and not a first-year starter in Matt Allen.
That move has yielded disastrous results thus far. It’s time to move on from the Higby experiment at center and give the youngest Allen a shot — Dantonio did admit Allen played much better than Higby on Saturday night in the desert.
Sounds like the experiment with Tyler Higby at center might be coming to an end. He’s one of MSU’s top five, Dantonio said, but playing out of position and you saw the results.
— Graham Couch (@Graham_Couch) September 11, 2018
It may not seem like much of an adjustment from guard to one spot over at center, but it’s all a timing issue. We saw multiple times against Arizona State, Higby was slow to react to the rush after snapping the ball and was blown back.
One time he was absolutely obliterated by an Arizona State defender, landing on his back as the play was blown up in the backfield and Connor Heyward lost yards. Other instances involved Higby accidentally stepping on Lewerke as he took his first step back. His timing just isn’t right for the position and he needs to go back to guard.
This isn’t a knock on Higby, but he just isn’t a versatile enough lineman to play center, or even tackle. He’s built to play guard and he did it well a year ago. He’ll be back to his natural position as soon as Chewins is healthy (the Indiana game, most likely).
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After the bye week, we should be able to rule the Higby experiment at center a failure and move on with him as a starting guard.