Michigan State Football: 3 improvements to make before Youngstown State

Week 1 is in the books and Michigan State football is setting its sights toward Youngstown State. Well, actually, the program got a little break from football with the official press conference introducing Alan Haller as the next athletic director on Tuesday and signing a huge NIL deal with Mat Ishbia and UWM.

Now back to football.

Preparing for a team like Youngstown State can be tough because very little is known about the Penguins other than what was seen in the opener. They didn’t pass the ball much and ran for over 350 yards, winning a thriller against Incarnate Word in overtime.

That doesn’t mean Michigan State can’t still work on itself ahead of the Week 2 battle. The Spartans have a lot to clean up from the opening win over Northwestern, and here’s what should be fixed or improved.

3. Getting the tight ends more involved

This isn’t really a “fix” or an “improvement” in the literal sense, but this is something the offense must address against Youngstown State, especially since Jay Johnson preaches about this.

If Michigan State wants the offense to be even more balanced, it needs to get the tight ends involved more. There are a handful of capable guys like Tyler Hunt, Trenton Gillison, Kameron Allen, and Maliq Carr. Even Parks Gissinger and Adam Berghorst could afford to get into the fold a little bit, but we didn’t hear anything about them last Friday night.

Connor Heyward was more of an H-back type and excelled in that role, but I’m looking for the more traditional tight ends to step up.

For this offense to be at its best, the tight ends need to be threats in the passing game while also dominating in run-blocking scenarios.

Payton Thorne needs to depend on these guys more against Youngstown State and help them build some confidence heading into a matchup with Miami.