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.