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Michigan State Football: 3 reasons Spartans will win 8 games, 3 reasons they’ll lose 8

By Scott Tolonen

Michigan State defensive back Caleb Coley runs a drill during football practice on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023, in East Lansing.
Michigan State defensive back Caleb Coley runs a drill during football practice on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023, in East Lansing. /
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EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN – OCTOBER 02: Noah Kim #14 of the Michigan State Spartans throws a pass while warming up before the first quarter of the game against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers at Spartan Stadium on October 02, 2021 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images)
EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN – OCTOBER 02: Noah Kim #14 of the Michigan State Spartans throws a pass while warming up before the first quarter of the game against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers at Spartan Stadium on October 02, 2021 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images) /

Reason 1 for losing 8: No clear QB1

The old cliché is “If you have 2 quarterbacks, you really have no quarterbacks.”

When it comes to the quarterback position right now, it’s impossible to know if the Spartans have gotten better or worse than last year. The team hasn’t even announced who is starting the first game. While everyone sees it as Noah Kim vs. Katin Houser, Mel Tucker insists that Sam Leavitt is competing for the QB1 spot as well.

Sure, Kim has actual game reps when Payton Thorne was pulled last year, but he’s a Mark Dantonio recruit and Houser is bigger and heavier with more raw talent.

MSU teams that had success in the past, which means winning Big Ten titles, have been led by NFL-caliber quarterbacks in Kirk Cousins and Connor Cook (yes, his NFL career wasn’t great but him and Cousins are two of the highest-drafted Spartan quarterbacks in history along with Drew Stanton). Even the most optimistic Spartan fans cannot say that any quarterback on the roster will one day get drafted.

While Thorne is rumored to be struggling at Auburn, his 2021 stat of 3,240 passing yards would rank as Michigan’s second-highest single season passing yards and his 27 touchdown passes would be Michigan’s all-time record. There have been a lot of circumstances that caused his success in 2021 and his struggles in 2022 but he was named the starter for a reason and while Tucker couldn’t guarantee him the starting job this year, we know more about him than Kim and Houser combined.

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