Michigan State Football: 3 biggest concerns heading into 2022
Michigan State football heads into the 2022 season with plenty of reasons for excitement, but here are some of the biggest concerns.
Optimism has been flooding the Michigan State football fanbase this offseason with Mel Tucker doing all the right things on the recruiting trail and releasing cool hype videos left and right.
It’s fun to see a head coach join the NIL era and excel. He has connected with top recruits and everyone has been ranting and raving about his recruiting efforts on official visits.
On top of that, Tucker has said that he believes Michigan State can be a premier program in college football in a “why not us?” hype video.
But not everything is going to be sunshine and roses heading into the 2022 season with some growing pains possible. What are the Spartans’ biggest concerns heading into the season which follows up a surprising 11-2 campaign?
3. Replacing Kenneth Walker III
If you watched the Peach Bowl, you would have realized just how scary life after Kenneth Walker III can be. Harold Joiner, Jordon Simmons, and Elijah Collins combined for just 46 yards on 24 carries as it felt like no one could find a hole. The longest run between that group was just 10 yards.
Replacing Walker isn’t going to be an easy task because, well, he was the best running back in the country last season and masked a lot of problems on the offensive line (which we’ll get to later).
No Michigan State fan should be incredibly worried about the backfield with Jarek Broussard and Jalen Berger coming in to try and replace Walker, but it’s still a slight concern, if anything. Trying to replace the top back in college football is not easy and if these two transfers can’t get the job done, that puts a lot of pressure on Payton Thorne.
It’s a concern, but I have a feeling this will all work out.