Michigan State Football: Should we be optimistic about 2019 offense?

The offense beat the defense in the first Michigan State football scrimmage of the summer, but should we be optimistic or cautious?

When you hear about preseason scrimmages, the words that come out of the coaches’ and players’ mouths have to be taken with a grain of salt, especially with how poor the Michigan State offense was a season ago.

The team will do anything to make it seem like things are on track offensively, and maybe they are, but when the offense beat the defense in the first live scrimmage of summer camp, there was just a different feel and the excitement coming from the players was obvious.

Michigan State has one of the top defenses in college football, so if the offense can come out on top during a scrimmage this early in summer camp, that must mean things are ahead of schedule, right?

Sure, but you have to realize that sometimes scrimmages are manipulated in certain situations. For example, if Mark Dantonio sees a drive fizzle out and wants to give the offense another chance, he’ll give them the ball back without awarding the defense points, if he sees fit. He can put the team in scenarios, like giving the offense the ball in the red zone, so obviously this scrimmage victory for the offense has to be taken with a grain of salt.

But there should still be plenty of room for optimism. From listening to Dantonio, Brian Lewerke and Cody White, it seemed like things went extremely well.

In fact, Lewerke stated that it was probably the best scrimmage since he’s been in East Lansing and White said that his quarterback got his swagger back. Dantonio stated that Lewerke looked sharp and that a number of running backs were looking good.

And the scrimmage was decided after Theo Day completed a pass on fourth-and-17 to set up the game-winning score.

Offenses beating defenses in scrimmages this early in summer camp is rare because the latter is usually further ahead, but maybe something is clicking under Brad Salem. It’s OK to be optimistic and cautious at the same time, and that’s where everyone should be right now.