Michigan State Football Mailbag: Can the offense be fixed?

Michigan State football opened the season with a win against Tulsa, but it’s safe to say fans were unhappy with the showing. Let’s answer some questions.

Tulsa is down and Michigan State is already focused on Week 2 with Western Michigan coming to town for the second time in three seasons.

Michigan State is hoping this game against Western leads to a strong season like it did in 2017 and the offense will need a breakout performance for that to happen.

Worried about the offense after Week 1? You’re not alone as Spartan Nation seemed to have nothing but offense-related questions for our mailbag.

So let’s dive into some questions from Spartan fans and try to answer them.

I think everything on offense can be fixed, the real question is will it be fixed? I think the easiest is effort. Mark Dantonio talked in his weekly press conference on Tuesday about his offense’s lack of effort when it came to penalties and receivers running lazy routes. That’s a mindset thing and can change as early as Saturday — and it should. Then comes execution. The play-calling, after going back and watching the game, was actually solid outside of a couple of halfback draws near the Spartans’ own end zone which resulted in two total yards. Michigan State was a few missed assignments and mistakes away from scoring 3-4 offensive touchdowns.

Easy answer to this one is yes, and he deserves them. He was the only back who truly impressed me throughout outside of Connor Heyward’s opening drive performance and a nice catch and run by La’Darius Jefferson. He showed good vision and elusiveness and that’s what the backfield needs. Dantonio alluded to Eli Collins getting more carries at his weekly presser and I think you’ll see an increased workload against Western Michigan.

This is a tough one but I’d go with one of Eli Collins, Antjuan Simmons and Jacub Panasiuk. I knew the last two were going to be good this season, but I didn’t expect them to break out right away and they lived up to all the offseason hype. Collins was talked up by the coaching staff all summer and he looked legit. If he can get an offensive line to open holes, watch out.

I say yes. He made a couple of mistakes and if you watch him for most of the game, he was hip-to-hip with his man. Even on his pass interference penalties, he was in the right spot, he just needs to turn around. If he turns around and locates the ball, those are two easy interceptions. It’s all about getting comfortable being targeted down the field and he just needs to locate the ball better and show awareness. He has the speed and the coverage skills, just needs to execute.

Unfortunately, that won’t happen unless there’s another performance like the one we saw against Tulsa. I do believe Dantonio is frustrated with the lack of push and just overall mediocre play from a group that claimed it was ready to turn the corner this offseason, so I’d expect the leashes to be shortened a bit. Jordan Reid has a lot to prove as do Luke Campbell and Tyler Higby, so those guys could see split time soon. If the line struggles again this week, he’ll feel pressure to make changes.

True freshmen starting on the offensive line, especially under Dantonio, is incredibly rare. But you would think Devontae Dobbs is a special case. I don’t think he’ll start this year, barring injuries, but I would assume that he plays extensively and has his redshirt burned. We may need to wait until next year to see Dobbs start, unfortunately.

This has been an issue with the defense for years, but it looks to have improved over the past season, or so. Northwestern used to do the same thing and it’s what led to that loss in Evanston a couple of years ago as Clayton Thorson tore MSU apart within 10 yards because he knew he wasn’t going to beat the Spartans deep. Mike Tressel has done a great job of adjusting on the fly and he’ll make sure the corners play tight coverage and don’t allow that cushion, especially if the opposing coach is already giving away his game plan. Not a smart move on Tim Lester’s part.

While I do believe Michigan State was playing conservative against Tulsa because, well, it’s Tulsa, I don’t think we will see expanded play-calling against Western Michigan unless it’s a tight game. If the Spartans go up big or at least the defense helps lead the offense to short drives, we will more than likely see more of the same. I don’t think we’ll see much of a expansion of the playbook until Arizona State. But I do believe the plays were much better against Tulsa than at any point last year, but the execution was horrible.

If there’s no improvement on offense, you’ll see him make changes. He’s done it in the past, but it’ll take some time before he truly believes something is a lost cause. That’s why you see the same skill position players starting against Western as well as the same offensive line. Give it 3-4 weeks of mediocrity and he’ll shuffle the offensive line and potentially start someone else in the backfield.

Surprisingly, every interview they have given after the game seems to be positive. Connor Heyward is still confident that the offense will turn things around and Brian Lewerke was positive while stating that the offense needs to execute better. I think the group knows it can be 10 times better, but it just didn’t clean things up against Tulsa. As I said before, the Spartans were a few mistakes away from scoring 3-4 offensive touchdowns.

Clearly the most important of the questions in the mailbag, but you have to go with the 25 duck-sized horses.

Check back in next week for the Week 2 mailbag after the Western Michigan game. Don’t forget to submit some questions on Twitter and I’ll answer them as the season wares on.