Unlike a season ago, Mel Tucker had his Michigan State football troops ready to go to open the season against a Big Ten foe.
Last year, Rutgers took advantage of a handful of Michigan State turnovers to beat the Spartans on the road, handing them a tough loss. This season, Michigan State handled Northwestern on the road and looked prepared from the opening kickoff, scoring on the first play of the game and never looking back.
Getting a real offseason had to have helped matters and the fact that Northwestern is not the same team as it was a season ago was also a factor. But Michigan State deserves plenty of respect for winning 38-21 against the reigning Big Ten West champs on the road.
Let’s dive into some hot takes from the season-opening win.
3. Offense far ahead of defense for first time since 2014
For the first time in what feels like decades, Michigan State’s offense is ahead of the defense to start the season. Usually, it’s the other way around. The one time that it seemed like the offense caught up in the past seven years was the start of the 2018 season when Utah State scored 31 points and gave the Spartans all they could handle despite Michigan State’s 500-plus total yards.
But we all found out as the 2018 season progressed that the defense was really the side of the ball that would carry the torch and 2019 was much more of the same.
The 2017 season saw a strong offense led by a healthy Brian Lewerke, but the defense wasn’t bad at all. And in 2016, neither side of the ball was great, but the defense probably stole the show more often than not — outside of the Notre Dame win.
On Friday night, the offense was very clearly ahead of the defense with over 500 yards of total offense while giving up nearly 400 yards.
Could this change? Sure, but it feels like the offense turned the corner after a few nightmare seasons. No more allowed 5-yard passes to wear the defense down.
2. Payton Thorne feels like the answer
Payton Thorne had a really solid game throughout and some fans were surprised to see him come out of the huddle as QB1 to kick off the season.
There were some off-target throws down the field but other than that, he looked like a great choice to lead the way for the Spartans. He completed 60 percent of his throws and didn’t need to do too much, finishing with 185 yards and a touchdown. He put some fantastic touch on all of his throws and even made some eye-opening sideline tosses to Jayden Reed early and Tre Mosley (whose one-handed catch deserves more love) late.
Thorne showed his mobility as well, keeping some plays alive and finishing with 28 yards on five carries. He had a good feel for pressure in the pocket and showed really good awareness when evading it. He never looked uncomfortable and confidence was high all game.
Overall, it seems like he’s the answer to the offense’s problems from a year ago along with the next guy we’ll talk about on these hot takes. He seems like the right guy to lead this offense from irrelevance to the top half of the Big Ten.
I came away impressed by his performance and think he’s the perfect QB1.
1. Kenneth Walker III is MSU’s best running back since Le’Veon
Let me preface this by saying that this is no disrespect to Jeremy Langford because he’s one of my all-time favorite players at Michigan State and he’s one of the best in school history, but Kenneth Walker III is just that good.
The Wake Forest transfer had himself one heck of a debut at Michigan State, rushing for 264 yards and four touchdowns on 23 carries.
Normally, I’d temper my expectations and follow up a game like this with “well, it was just one game” but Walker III just has that it factor. The 264 yards was no fluke. He broke off big runs because of great offensive line play and excellent patience. He was willing to wait for holes to open up, showed speed, cuts on a dime, and strength. He finished as college football’s top Week 1 rusher and was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week.
Sometimes it takes a few games for a new player to get adjusted to his new team, but not Walker III. He had the game of his career and it was probably because he wasn’t splitting carries like he did at Wake Forest. All he needed was the bulk of the carries.
I don’t see this performance as a massive outlier. I think that he has all the tools to be the best running back Michigan State has seen in a decade.